School Reform and Improvement

Research and Best Practices in School Reform and Improvement

Examples of questions for the developers of specific comprehensive school designs Dr. Richard McCann Director of Education Improvement Projects Research For Better Schools, Inc., a partner of the Region III Comprehensive Center

Relevance of the model to the specific school-community (evidence of replicability)

Has the model been implemented in schools like ours? (i.e., with similar demographics, similar types of student diversity, similar performance, similar size, similar facilities?)

Relevance of the model to Pennsylvania and local standards and assessments and to the results of the needs assessment (evidence of effectiveness)

Has the model demonstrated that it can help students learn the knowledge and skills described by Pennsylvania Academic Standards? Can it help students improve their performance on assessments like those used in the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment? Has the model enabled schools to address the weaknesses of performance identified through the school's needs assessment? Has the model enabled schools to achieve goals and benchmarks that the school-community would like to set for itself?

The learning environments constructed by the model, including strategies and methods for student learning and instruction (evidence of theoretical or research foundation)

What does the day-to-day work of students and teachers look like grade by grade and subject by subject? What kinds of tasks do students do, as part of their day-to-day work? What materials and technologies are required to support such day-to-day work? What instructional and management roles are teachers expected to play in support of student work? What time is required to support such day-to-day work, and how is it scheduled? How do students need to be organized and grouped to support such day-to-day work? How are these elements aligned into a comprehensive reform model? What is the theoretical or research foundation for the strategies and methods?

School management as a component of the reform (evidence of theoretical or research foundation)

Does the reform include a model of school governance that needs to be implemented? If so, what does the model entail? Does the reform include a model of school management that needs to be implemented? If so, what does the model entail? What is the theoretical or research foundation for the governance/management models?

Professional development required by the model

What knowledge and skills do teachers have to acquire to create the learning environments and provide the instructional support required by the model? How do teachers acquire such knowledge and skills? That is, how are professional development activities designed and delivered? who provides the professional development? how much time is required for professional development?

Meaningful involvement of parents

What roles are parents expected to play in the reform? How are parents involved in the planning of the comprehensive reform? How are parents involved in implementing the reform? Who plans and manages the involvement of parents in the planning and implementation of the reform?

Meaningful involvement of community

How is the community involved in the planning of the comprehensive reform? How is the community involved in implementing the reform? Who plans and manages the involvement of the community in the planning and implementation o the reform?

The implementation of the reform (evidence from implementation)

What is involved in implementing the reform: what are the tasks that need to be done? what resources will need to be allocated to each task: staff? external assistance? materials and equipment? time? CSRD and other funds? Who should be responsible for managing the implementation effort?

External support and assistance from developers and experts in school reform and improvement and the LEA

During planning What assistance can the resource person/group provide school staff who are developing a proposal for CSRD resources? and on what schedule? For example, will the resource person/group: offer workshops that school teams can attend, in order to get more in-depth understanding of the model and what it requires, as well as to obtain the information that the school will need to crafta proposal? provide actual text for certain sections of the proposal? provide on-site assistance to help school staff decide whether to commit itself to the implementation of the model, as well as to help them craft their proposal? provide a plan for evaluating the implementation and the effects of the reform? During implementation What assistance does the resource person/group provide to help the school staff implement the comprehensive reform? and on what schedule? For example, will the resource person/group: provide instructional materials and technologies for use by students? teachers? administrators? provide workshops that help school staff acquire the knowledge and skills required to implement certain components of the reform? (also, component 3 of the CSRD legislation) provide on-site assistance, both in the form of modeling and coaching, as staff are implementing the reform? help implement the evaluation plan for the reform? for example, provide instruments for collecting the evidence of implementation and effects? train district and /or school staff to administer the instruments? analyze the data collected and prepare report for school, district, andstate decision-makers, or train district and school staff to do so? What will the assistance cost the project? per activity? per school year?

Sustaining the reform of the CSRD legislation (evidence from implementation)

What resources are required to sustain the reform -- for example, resources for: staff positions? materials and equipment (including maintenance and updating)? ongoing professional development? parent and community involvement activities? management? How can resources from the district, state, federal government, and private sources be acquired and used to support and sustain the reform?