School District Reform in Newark: Within-and Between-school Changes in Achievement Growth

Turning Around Low-Performing Schools: A Guide for State and Local Leaders (May 1998)

Focus on Learning: Promising Strategies for Improving Student Achievement

A recent study of 26 high-achieving, high-poverty schools in Texas bolsters decades of effective schools research. Effective schools exhibited the following characteristics: a strong focus on ensuring academic success for each student; a refusal to accept excuses for poor performance; a willingness to experiment with a variety of strategies; intensive and sustained efforts to involve parents and the community; an environment of mutual respect and collaboration; and a passion for continuous improvement and professional growth.^[6]

There is no single program or new practice that can transform low-performing schools into effective schools. States and districts must help schools choose and sustain a coherent improvement strategy appropriate to each school by focusing all schools on the need to improve curriculum and classroom instruction and aligning all other school operations with that focus. To support these improvements, state and local leaders need to implement district-wide policies to create a safe environment for learning, help prepare young children to be ready for school, prepare teachers to carry out high-quality instruction, offer students challenging course work, extend learning time for students who do not meet challenging standards, and share current research on effective school improvement models.

Gaining Control of the School Environment: A Prerequisite

It was obvious the atmosphere was just a zoo. Kids all over the halls, getting high in the stairwells, drug deals going on left and right. It was just a circus. Attendance was atrocious, dropout rate was high, test scores low. Everything was negative. So just one step in the building and you knew that something was wrong.
--A Baltimore guidance counselor's
description of her school environment

Surveys of the American public reveal that citizens are concerned about teaching children values and discipline, and keeping drugs away from schools.^[7] Creating a safe learning environment is an essential prerequisite to learning; a school cannot implement instructional innovation if it does not first establish order. District and state policies must help school leaders create the safe, orderly learning environment that allows teachers and students to focus on teaching and learning. For example:

In 1994, all schools in Long Beach, California, adopted a school uniform requirement. Since then, school crime has dropped by 76 percent. Proponents say that school uniforms decrease fighting over clothes, are convenient for parents, and give students a sense of common identity.
Marshall Middle School in Houston, Texas, turned its undisciplined environment around using a program called Consistency Management and Cooperative Discipline, which seeks to improve instruction by building self-discipline among students. The idea is that as students become citizens of their schools, they begin to take responsibility for their actions and the actions of others. As the discipline referral and absenteeism rates at Marshall declined, student achievement and instructional time increased. By not having to respond to as many disciplinary problems, each teacher gained an average of 30 extra minutes a day--the equivalent of an extra 15 days of instruction per year. In 1995-96 Marshall Middle School was removed from district and state lists of low-performing schools.

Improving the school learning environment requires more than the implementation of get-tough disciplinary measures. It also means creating an atmosphere of respect for students and sharing with them the responsibilities of maintaining a high-quality learning environment. Staff and teachers need to work to get to know their students and form caring relationships of mutual respect. Only then can learning take place.

Improving Curriculum and Classroom Instruction

The bottom line for all schools--and the most important area of reform for low-performing schools--is providing curricula and instruction that help children reach challenging academic standards. Districts can support this effort by establishing curricular and instructional requirements, by demanding that schools offer challenging course work, and by helping students who fall behind or need extra academic assistance.

Focused Curriculum

Strategies for school improvement must focus on the particular academic needs of students. While it seems obvious, many schools pay inadequate attention to providing high-quality classroom instruction and using resources in ways that improve what happens between teachers and students in classrooms.

When Superintendent Diana Lam of San Antonio, Texas, decided to take on the reorganization of high schools in her district, she faced an unfocused system. San Antonio's high schools offered approximately 2,600 different courses. Lam cut back central office staff and reallocated resources to create an instructional guide for each high school to focus on curriculum and instruction, rather than administration. To focus the schools on instruction, she is working to create smaller learning communities -- academies -- driven by rigorous curriculum and high standards.
In 1993, the Houston Independent School District targeted Thomas J. Rusk Elementary School for reconstitution. The school's students, more than half with limited English proficiency and about 75 percent from low-income households, routinely scored below the 30th percentile on the Texas state assessment. Extensive research into the particular needs of the school's students led Rusk to implement a bilingual immersion program for students with limited proficiency in English. In subsequent years, scores among fourth graders on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills have risen dramatically, improving from 50 percent to 67 percent of students passing all portions of the test. Between 1995 and 1996 alone, the percentage of third grade students passing all portions rose from 47 to 66 percent. The implementation of the program improved not only achievement but also the whole school climate and the school's relationship with the community.

Boston Public Schools' Plan for School Change
What Do Schools Look Like When They Focus on Student Learning?

Using a schoolwide instructional focus to meet students' needs and end "projectitis"

Practices in all classrooms that support the instructional focus
Classroom setups that support the instructional focus
Consistent materials
Coherent schedule with few interruptions
Resources used strategically to support the instructional focus
All school personnel engaged in instruction
Cluster meetings focused on teaching and learning
Alignment of school vision with instructional focus

Looking at student work and data in relation to the Citywide Learning Standards to identify students' needs, improve assignments and instruction, assess student progress, and inform professional development

Teachers developing exemplars of good work
Displays of student work that meet standards and reflects the instructional focus
Professional development based on teachers' and students' needs
Peer coaching
Assessments aligned with teaching and standards
Administrators and teachers analyzing achievement data to reveal instructional needs
Public criteria for assessing student work
Student portfolios

Creating a targeted professional development plan that gives teachers and principals what they need to improve instruction in core subjects

Professional development plan that is developed with and by teachers; is driven by data; aligns all activities with the instructional focus; pools all resources; includes ongoing assessment of student learning as an integral part of school life; identifies responsibilities, strategies, and time lines; and evaluates effectiveness of activities
Cluster leaders that develop and support principal and teacher networks

--The Annenberg Foundation

A recent study of successful high-poverty schools in Maryland attributes improvements in reading to a number of factors, including a focus on reading across the entire school and small group teaching.^[8] While the study found that there was no single successful model, it did show that reading must be a central focus for curricular and instruction reforms, particularly in low-performing and high-poverty schools. Programs such as Success for All, Reading Roots, and Reading Recovery have been implemented in schools to help students learn to read:

After determining that half of its middle school students were reading below grade level, staff in Wilkes County Schools in Washington, Georgia, made intensive reading instruction a priority. The district has worked to upgrade professional development in reading instruction and reduce class size, helping teachers work with individual students.
Since the Chancellor's District took over P.S. 154 in Harlem and the staff redesigned it in 1996, student reading scores on a statewide assessment have improved significantly. The gain in student achievement in reading occurred after the school chose a concentrated reading program, organized an education plan around it, and trained all teachers to implement the plan. In the first year, the school experienced a 20 percent increase in the number of third-grade students meeting state standards in reading. The state has now removed P.S. 154 from its list of low-performing schools.
Some entire districts are using Success For All districtwide to ensure that every third-grader reads on grade level. For instance, Memphis Public Schools implemented the program in 17 schools in 1995. The program worked to improve the reading skills of at-risk children, particularly low achieving students, who benefitted from the program's tutoring and grouping of students into homogenous, cross-grade sections for smaller language arts classes.

More important than the particular program pursued by any of these schools and districts is a commitment to sticking with a carefully chosen program plan to improve classroom instruction. An important lesson these schools learned is that to achieve marked improvements in student performance, districts and schools must stay the course and sustain their school improvement efforts over the long-term.

Academic Challenge

Many schools have low expectations for achievement; consequently, students are less likely to master basic skills and knowledge or to take and complete demanding courses.

Districts that Promote Challenging Math Courses
Lay the Groundwork for Excellence and Opportunity

Students who study algebra in middle school and plan to take advanced mathematics and science courses in high school have an advantage: 83 percent of students who take algebra I and geometry go on to college within two years of their scheduled high school graduation. Yet, 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress data reveal that only 25 percent of U.S. eighth graders enrolled in algebra courses; low-income and minority students were even less likely to take algebra in eighth grade.

Some math programs in the United States are now integrating the fundamentals of algebra and geometry into the middle school curriculum. However, not all students have access to rigorous mathematics courses, either because their schools do not offer everyone a full selection of challenging courses or because not all students are prepared for and encouraged to take them. The results of the recent Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) confirm that students do well in math through fourth grade but then drop off in middle school, and many enter and leave high school without a solid grounding in mathematics, closing doors very early for further education and better careers.

To address this, many states and districts are trying to ensure that virtually all students take rigorous college preparatory mathematics and science classes. For example, the College Board's EQUITY 2000 project, launched in Nashville, Tennessee, Public Schools and other districts with a high percentage of disadvantaged and minority students, requires districts to phase out lower-level mathematics in favor of a college preparatory curriculum for all students. The results:

All sites dramatically increased the percentage of students enrolled in algebra I by the ninth grade, and in three pilot districts all ninth graders enrolled in algebra I.
The percentage of students passing algebra I did not decline significantly, and in some cases rose as more students from the discontinued lower tracks began enrolling in algebra classes.

Research shows that students from affluent backgrounds take algebra and geometry at much higher rates than do students from low-income families, and they take more difficult courses earlier in their academic careers. Thus, low-income students do not benefit as much as their peers from high-quality academic preparation, including more advanced mathematics and science courses in high school. This limits their rates of college enrollment and completion, their ability to enroll in the full array of college majors, and their capacity to obtain the necessary skills for high paying careers.

Districts can help schools by promoting policies that encourage all students to learn basic and advanced skills in the elementary schools, enroll in challenging prerequisite courses (such as algebra and geometry) early in secondary school, and build on their education throughout high school with rigorous coursework.

Extending Learning Time to Help All Children Meet High Standards

Holding students to higher standards and accountability for performance, and requiring students to take challenging courses means schools and districts must help students who need assistance to keep up and to prepare for the future. Research shows that students who repeat a year rarely catch up and are more likely to drop out. Thus, states and districts need to help create mechanisms so that schools do not face a choice, in the face of increasing standards and accountability policies, of promoting unprepared students or retaining them for another year.^[9]

Newark, New Jersey, helps children who have been retained to catch up and rejoin their peers. In 1995, Project ACCEL (Accelerating the Learning of At-Risk Students) helped students retained in grades six and seven in five schools by training teachers in specific instructional methods, using computers and scientific equipment, involving parents, and partnering with external organizations. ACCEL students consequently showed higher proficiency gains than non-ACCEL students did on an achievement test.

Many districts have implemented policies to extend learning time so that students do not fall behind and need to be retained. They use year-round, before- or after-school, and summer school programs for this purpose. For example:

The Long Beach school district in California required 1,600 third-graders who had not attained reading proficiency by the end of the year to attend a five-week tutorial session.
In Halifax County, North Carolina, the district pays high school honor students to tutor younger students in reading one-and-a-half-hours per day. The district also hires retired teachers to work with struggling students.
In Murfreesboro, Tennessee, a 5,300-student elementary school district, all nine schools stay open twelve hours a day, year-round. The program began a decade ago to keep children safe after school. It now includes tutoring and serves almost half the district's students.

State and local leaders are pursuing these and other policies to give additional academic assistance to struggling students and help schools focus on instruction to end social promotion, hold students accountable, and raise expectations for all students. This involves fundamental rethinking about how classroom time and district resources are focused. It also requires a willingness to make districtwide changes in teaching and student promotion policies that are necessary to help all students succeed.

Starting Early for School Readiness

A growing body of research recognizes the vital effects of the early childhood environment on development and school success. Studies show that high-quality preschool programs can accelerate the development of children, especially children who live in high-poverty communities. A home environment and pre-kindergarten experience that support learning, combined with continuity between pre-kindergarten and kindergarten experiences, are important to a child's transition into formal education. Many elementary schools and districts prepare children for high achievement by providing early childhood and pre-kindergarten services. Yet, children from low-income families are about half as likely as children from high-income families to attend preschool programs.^[10] Because there is such a strong relationship between poverty, student achievement, and low-performing schools, districts can further their focus on learning by intervening early to help children to be ready to learn.

Family literacy programs, such as Even Start, use strategies that emphasize multiple supports for school readiness: early childhood education, adult literacy, parenting education, and parent/child interaction time. Even Start projects help parents gain the literacy and parenting skills they need to become full partners in educating their young children. For example, the Even Start project in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, operates three early childhood classrooms and focuses on the emerging literacy of children in a bilingual setting. Parents as Teachers home visitors show families creative ways to use household items as educational toys. The program provides health and hearing screening for children, as well as field trips and cultural activities for families.

Other federally funded programs also can help prepare children for school. The Grants for Infants and Families program provides resources to identify infants and toddlers with disabilities from birth through age two, implement family-focused service systems, coordinate early intervention services, and provide vital services that otherwise would not be available. The Preschool Grants program funds services for children with disabilities aged three through five to aid their transition to school and to reduce the number who need special education services when they enter school. Early intervention for children with special needs can be critical to raising the capacity of students to thrive in the school environment.

Evidence from a Chicago Longitudinal Study documents the importance of early childhood intervention. Title I-funded Child-Parent Centers in Chicago offer up to six years of intervention services for children from ages three to nine. Similar to centers in the Even Start program, these centers provide early childhood education and require parents to be involved in learning activities. Classroom activities are designed to develop language and reading skills, as well as social growth. In Chicago, Child-Parent Center participants had significantly higher reading and math scores than the nonparticipant comparison group at the end of third grade. These differences persisted even to eighth grade.

Preparing for Classroom Change: Professional Development

Professional development is essential to helping educators improve their knowledge of the subjects they teach and the way they teach. To be effective, professional development must engage teachers collectively as active learners. It must give them skills to use the material in their classrooms and provide an ongoing opportunity to build knowledge. Most importantly, professional development activities must be aligned with a school's focus on learning and must provide training for teachers to improve instruction in the classroom.

The bottom line is that there is just no way to create good schools without good teachers. Those who have worked to improve education over the last decade have learned that school reform cannot be "teacher-proofed." Success in any aspect of reform -- whether creating standards, developing more challenging curriculum and assessments, implementing school-based management, or inventing new model schools and programs -- depends on highly skilled teachers.
--National Commission on Teaching &
America's Future

One of the best examples of a district's unwavering focus on improving curriculum and instruction is Community School District #2 in New York City, which serves a diverse population from the Upper East Side to Chinatown. This district focuses on improving instruction through intensive, on-going, and sustained staff development. The district allocates a large percentage of its total resources for professional development, which was made possible only through cutting district office overhead and non-instructional positions in the district's schools.

One of the district's key strategies is maintaining a Professional Development Laboratory where visiting teachers observe and practice with a resident teacher for three weeks while teachers who have already participated in the laboratory teach their students. Teachers and principals frequently visit other classrooms and schools. In addition, the district has a corps of consultants who are available to schools for one-on-one and small group assistance. The district works particularly closely with teachers it identifies as in need of assistance. In cases where a teacher refuses to work to develop their instructional skills or fails to improve, the district will transfer the teacher out of the district or help to counsel the teacher out of the profession.

Effective professional development often takes teachers outside their own schools or districts to "see" reform in action in successful schools. For example:

As part of the Marion Ewing Kauffman Foundation's Successful School Program, principals and teachers from three schools in Kansas City, Missouri, visited a school in Community School District #2. Because they had never known anything but the way things worked in their own schools, the experience was transforming. The teachers began to get a sense of possibility about what they could achieve in their own schools and in their own classrooms.

Other states and districts are involved in efforts to improve teaching through effective professional development. Many of these efforts involve teachers mentoring other teachers or providing peer assistance. Although most such programs are voluntary and are not specifically targeted toward low-performing schools, they do allow teachers in low-performing school to reach out for help:

San Antonio has created a districtwide cadre of instructional guides to facilitate the professional development of teachers in all of its 93 schools. As Superintendent Diana Lam explains, "Research points out two missing elements from most professional development efforts: coaching and collaboration." This program is designed to provide teachers with peer coaches, mentors, and collaborative colleagues.
States including North Carolina, Ohio, New Mexico, and Kentucky, and school districts such as Los Angeles, St. Paul, Cincinnati, and New York City provide incentives and salary increases to reward teachers who receive certification as master teachers from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). The St. Paul district is collaborating with the teachers' union and the University of Minnesota to support teachers through the NBPTS certification process. The district pays the application fees and the university and other partners develop and conduct professional support programs for the candidates.
Districts such as Toledo, Cincinnati, and Seattle and the state of Connecticut have implemented peer review and assistance programs to help teachers, particularly new teachers, improve their classroom techniques. These programs help beginning teachers learn to teach and assist veterans who are having difficulty improve their teaching or leave the classroom without union grievances or delays.
In Columbus, Ohio, exemplary teachers are assigned as "consulting teachers" to mentor new teachers and intervene when teachers experience difficulty in the classroom.
In Rochester, New York, a rigorous evaluation process selects expert teachers to be "lead teachers" and gives them significant salary stipends to become involved with peer counseling, or to take on other reform-related priorities such as consulting with new teachers, accepting positions in "intervention" schools, and developing curricula.

I think it's good to get the teachers, not just the administrators, out to other schools where things are working and actually have them visit that school. Really to see it hands on. It's one thing to read about it, but it's another thing to actually go and see it.
--Elementary school teacher
In New York City, low-performing teachers can be assigned to an intervention program where they receive assistance from colleagues and administrators, and if unable to improve, are counseled out of the profession or removed.

Schools and districts often neglect professional development. In many cases, they use professional development time to discuss district or school policies rather than to raise the capacity of teachers to be effective in their classrooms and knowledgeable about the subjects they teach. Districts that take professional development seriously find it helpful to reschedule the school day to accommodate time for training, discussion, and collaborative planning among teachers. Yet efforts to restructure the day or add professional development time into teacher schedules fall short if staff continue to teach in the same way. Those who understand the enterprise of teaching know it is an extremely complex and difficult profession that requires on-going and high-quality professional training opportunities.

Implementing Comprehensive Reform Programs

What Are the Components of a Comprehensive School Reform Program?

Effective, research-based methods and strategies: A comprehensive school reform program employs innovative strategies and proven methods for student learning, teaching, and school management that are based on reliable research and effective practices, and have been replicated successfully in schools with diverse characteristics.
Comprehensive design with aligned components: The program has a comprehensive design for effective school functioning, including instruction, assessment, classroom management, professional development, parental involvement, and school management, that aligns the school's curriculum, technology, and professional development into a schoolwide reform plan designed to enable all students -- including children from low-income families, children with limited English proficiency, and children with disabilities -- to meet challenging state content and performance standards and addresses needs identified through a school needs assessment.
Professional development: The program provides high-quality and continuous teacher and staff professional development and training.
Measurable goals and benchmarks: The program has measurable goals for student performance tied to the state's challenging content and student performance standards, and as those standards are implemented, benchmarks for meeting the goals.
Support within the school: School faculty, administrators, and staff support the comprehensive school reform program.
Parental and community involvement: The program meaningfully involves parents and the local community in planning and implementing school improvement activities.
External technical support and assistance: A comprehensive reform program uses high-quality external support and assistance from a comprehensive school reform entity (maybe a university) with experience or expertise in schoolwide reform and improvement.
Evaluation strategies: The program includes a plan to evaluate the implementation of school reforms and the student results achieved.
Coordination of resources: The program identifies how other resources (federal, state, local, and private) available to the school will be utilized to coordinate services to support and sustain the school reform.

-- Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Guidance,
U.S. Department of Education

Supporting Comprehensive School Reform:
The Role of States and Districts

States must:

Assure fit between reform models and the state's instructional strategies.
Assess district capacity to support comprehensive reform.
Play a continuing role in assessing success of models and comprehensive reform programs.

Districts must:

Help schools choose models that best meet the needs of their students.
Ensure that district strategies are aligned and work in tandem with comprehensive school reform efforts.
Create a new district operating environment -- change budgeting, use of categorical funds, personnel authority, accountability, professional development -- that will support comprehensive reform.
Find an approach to supporting comprehensive reform that fits the district -- not just an individual school.
Monitor and control the quality and performance of model design teams or other technical assistance providers.
Create a public engagement process that informs parents and the community about comprehensive school reform.

-- Consortium for Policy Research
in Education

Comprehensive school improvement strategies may offer particular promise for reforming chronically low-performing schools. Schoolwide strategies recognize that low performance has multiple causes and dimensions that cannot be solved by a single program or uncoordinated improvements. Comprehensive school reform works on the theory that school improvement must address all aspects of school effectiveness, including rigorous curriculum and high standards, efficient school governance, solid community-school partnerships, on-going staff development, up to date technology, and increased parent involvement. Beginning in 1998, the U.S. Department of Education will distribute $145 million to districts and schools implementing high-quality, research-based comprehensive school reform programs. This Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program will allow districts to target their lowest performing schools for improvement.

A number of research-based models serve as promising components of comprehensive school reform programs. For example, Success for All, an intensive reading program, includes 90 minutes of reading instruction per day, student assessment every eight weeks, tutoring in reading by certified teachers, cooperative learning, small homogeneous ability groups in reading, and often a family support and outreach team. Miami-Dade and Memphis are implementing the program to help raise student achievement in many of their lowest performing schools.

High Schools That Work is a model targeted to improving the achievement of career-bound high school students. The model strives to eliminate the "general education" track and upgrade the curriculum and instruction for all students by setting high expectations, increasing student access to technical studies, improving students' problem-solving skills, and providing work-based opportunities for student learning.

A key element of comprehensive reform programs is the use of outside facilitators to help schools implement models. New American Schools, for example, an organization that offers numerous schoolwide improvement models, has helped more than 700 schools implement its designs. Design assistance teams cooperate with school staff and the community in making changes that are required for comprehensive reform. The design teams provide schools with information and guidance, help build ownership of the transformation process, and build the school's capacity to reallocate resources and effectively improve student performance. For their part, schools must conduct a needs assessment and work to create the conditions within to support the design implementation. This includes reallocating funds, aligning professional development in a cohesive plan, redefining staff roles, building community support, and changing the school governance structure.

Models That Can Help Improve Low-Performing Schools The U.S. Department of Education's new Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program will support the implementation of high-quality, research-based comprehensive reform models in schools embarking on whole school change. School reform models that have been identified in the legislation include:
Accelerated Schools ATLAS Communities Audrey Cohen College Coalition of Essential Schools Community for Learning Co-NECT Direct Instruction Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound High Schools That Work	Modern Red Schoolhouse National Alliance for Restructuring Education Paideia Roots and Wings School Development Program Success for All Talent Development High School Urban Learning Center
This list is not exhaustive. Other sources for finding out about models and education reform networks include: Education Commission of the States' A Policymaker's Guide to Education Reform Networks (1997) Kentucky Department of Education's Results Practices Showcase (1997-98) Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory's Catalog of School Reform Models: First Edition (March 1998)

Although comprehensive programs are implemented on a school-by-school basis, districts must provide essential leadership, resources, and support strategies. On a practical level, many districts have hosted "model fairs" that bring together school staff and design assistance teams to explore options and exchange information. Some districts, including San Antonio, Cincinnati, and Memphis, are committing to adopting comprehensive school reforms in a large proportion of their schools. Cincinnati expects to implement comprehensive designs in a minimum of 24 schools during the 1998-99 school year. The cost of implementing the designs is the responsibility of the school. Districts can help schools reallocate their budgets, and show them how they can use their Title I and other resources to pay for the designs.

⁶ Charles A. Dana Center, 1997. [Return to text]

⁷ U.S. News and World Report, 1997. [Return to text]

⁸ Hawley, 1997. [Return to text]

⁹ American Federation of Teachers, 1997; Meisels, 1993. [Return to text]

¹⁰ National Education Goals Panel, 1997. [Return to text]

-###-

[ Raising the Stakes ] [ Building School Capacity ]