Leadership Lessons from Comprehensive School Reforms


Book Description

The process of understanding a text from the narrator s point of view is crucial for the tasks of interpreting and translating the Bible. If the translator s understanding of a narrative from the narrator s point of view is erroneous, then the whole process of translating the message into another language may also fall into error. This poses Bible translators a difficult challenge: How can we understand the narrator s point of view of the biblical stories which are culturally, geographically, and historically remote from our own? Understanding a text from the narrator s point of view must precede the translation process. In this work Hankore presents an argument for the intended utterance of Genesis 28:10 35:15 before proposing in brief how to translate it. By following this process, Hankore shows that a correct understanding of the concept of the ancient Israelite vow in the framework of a social institution is fundamental to reading and translating Genesis 28:10 35:15, and goes on to show how this same votive framework assist an explanation of the relevance of Genesis 34 to the Jacob story.




Lessons from New American Schools' Scale-up Phase


Book Description

In 1991, New American Schools (NAS) was established to help schools transform themselves into high-performing organizations. Findings drawn from an implementation analysis of the first 2 years (1995-1997) of a 5-year plan are reported in this book. The plan involved an NAS partnership with 10 jurisdictions, its goal being to increase the number of schools within jurisdictions that adopted NAS designs to improve student performance. The key questions were: "Did schools implement the designs and to what extent?" and "Why did some schools make more progress than others toward implementation goals?" For the study, 40 schools in 7 districts were evaluated using document reviews, interviews of school and district staff, and the observation of school activities. With these data, each school's implementation level was assessed against the particular design being adopted. Results show significant variation in implementation, which ranged from no implementation to advanced stages of planning, piloting, implementing, and fulfilling. Approximately 50 percent of the schools were at the implementing and fulfilling levels. Of the 33 schools that had been implementing for 2 years, 18 were at the 2 highest levels. Various influences on implementation, such as school climate, design and team factors, school structural and site factors, and jurisdictional and institutional factors, are detailed. (RJM)




Scale-up in Education: Ideas in principle


Book Description

Scale-Up in Education, Volume 1: Ideas in Principle examines the challenges of 'scaling up' from a multidisciplinary perspective. It brings together contributions from disciplines that routinely take promising innovations to scale, including medicine, business, engineering, computing, and education. Together the contributors explore appropriate methods for estimating the effects of innovations in larger, more diverse settings and provide theories and models to guide the design of innovations most likely to remain viable at large scales. Specially-commissioned commentaries also discuss the analytical requirements and theoretical possibilities of a program of educational research on scale-up built upon these foundations. This volume is ideally suited for researchers, policymakers, and graduate students charged with determining the effectiveness of educational interventions. With its insights into the conceptual and methodological prerequisites for obtaining rigorous, actionable evidence of intervention effects, the volume provides reading for program evaluation courses in schools of education and public policy.




Scale-Up in Education


Book Description

Scale-Up in Education, Volume 1: Ideas in Principle examines the challenges of 'scaling up' from a multidisciplinary perspective. It brings together contributions from disciplines that routinely take promising innovations to scale, including medicine, business, engineering, computing, and education. Together the contributors explore appropriate methods for estimating the effects of innovations in larger, more diverse settings and provide theories and models to guide the design of innovations most likely to remain viable at large scales. Specially-commissioned commentaries also discuss the analytical requirements and theoretical possibilities of a program of educational research on scale-up built upon these foundations. This volume is ideally suited for researchers, policymakers, and graduate students charged with determining the effectiveness of educational interventions. With its insights into the conceptual and methodological prerequisites for obtaining rigorous, actionable evidence of intervention effects, the volume provides reading for program evaluation courses in schools of education and public policy.




The Dimensions of Time and the Challenge of School Reform


Book Description

Annotation. As the education reform movement matures into its second decade, it is clear that many promising efforts have fallen short in their attempts to create real school change. One reason for this is that the process of school reform is much more complex than most reformers realized or were willing to acknowledge. The Dimensions of Time and the Challenge of School Reform points to another problem--the problem of time--and its role in both the success and failure of school reform efforts. The importance of understanding the role that time plays in both learning and instruction and finding ways to provide time for teachers grappling with change and students learning to accommodate a new language and culture are important themes in this book. This book is directed to policymakers and practitioners as well as to academics in that it combines theory with the "real world" experiences of many who have been active in the school reform movement and who have learned, through trial and error, how to think about time in innovative ways. Book jacket.




Challenges of Conflicting School Reforms


Book Description

A decade ago, New American Schools (NAS) launched an ambitious effort forwhole-school reform to address the perceived lagging achievement of Americanstudents and the lackluster school reform attempts that have produced so fewmeaningful changes. As a private nonprofit organization, NAS set out tohelp schools and districts significantly raise the achievement of largenumbers of students by offering whole-school designs and design-basedassistance during the implementation process. NAS is currently in thescale-up phase of its effort, and its designs are being widely diffused toschools across the nation. During the 1997_1998 and 1998_1999 school years,RAND assessed the effects of NAS designs on classroom practice and studentachievement in a sample of schools in a high-poverty district. RAND foundthat high-poverty schools often have fragmented and conflicting environmentswith difficult and changing political currents and entrenched unions.Teachers in high-poverty schools tend to face new accountability systems andfluctuating reform agendas. These teachers generally lack sufficient timefor implementing reform efforts, often becoming demoralized and losing theirenthusiasm for the difficult task of improving student performance underdifficult conditions. RAND concluded that high-stakes tests may motivateschools to increase performance and to seek out new curricula andinstructional strategies associated with comprehensive school reforms.However, those same tests may provide disincentives to adopt richer, morein-depth curricula that can succeed in improving the learning opportunitiesof all students, particularly those in high-poverty settings.




Changing for Good


Book Description

'This important work identifies the critical elements of sustainability--the necessary goal of systemic reform--which requires a long-term commitment to change for the benefit of students' - Lois Adams-Rogers, Deputy Executive Director, Council of Chief State School Officers The recent emphasis on educational reform has lead to many books on initiating school improvement, but relatively few on how to sustain reform efforts so that improvements have a lasting impact. Changing for Good offers a detailed examination of current schoolwide reform efforts and identifies strategies for introducing, managing, and sustaining successful school renewal programs. Based on a six-year study of 74 schools, the book provides a model for generating the necessary district support, schoolwide leadership, teacher commitment, and performance outcomes to cultivate improvement that lasts. Applicable at all levels, this model helps readers: - Align reform efforts with educational standards and accountability guidelines - Create a research-based improvement plan - Support change by developing a shared vision - Promote distributed leadership - Celebrate gains to encourage cooperation The most beneficial school improvements are the ones that endure. With this exceptional resource, educational administrators and leaders can create a school environment that embraces meaningful change, sustains positive reform, and ensures successful learning outcomes.




The Development of Early Childhood Mathematics Education


Book Description

The Development of Early Childhood Mathematics Education, Volume 53 in the Advances in Child Development and Behavior series, includes chapters that highlight some of the most recent research in the field of developmental psychology. Users will find updated chapters on a variety of topics, including sections on The DREME Network: Research and Interventions in Early Childhood Mathematics, The Use of Concrete Experiences in Early Childhood Mathematics Instruction, Interventions in Early Mathematics: Avoiding Pollution and Dilution, Coaching in Early Mathematics, and Designing Studies to Test Causal Questions About Early Math: The Development of Making Pre-K Count. Each chapter provides in-depth discussions, with this volume serving as an invaluable resource for developmental or educational psychology researchers, scholars and students. - Contains chapters that highlight some of the most recent research in the area of child development and behavior - Presents a wide array of topics that are discussed in detail




Translating Theory and Research Into Educational Practice


Book Description

This book shows, in detail and with concrete examples, how educational theory and research can be translated into practice. Well-known researchers who have worked to establish productive, sustainable connections between the knowledge produced by the research community and the practices employed in school settings provide descriptions of successful strategies that have been used to bridge the gap among theory, research, and practice. The volume addresses three main themes: *analysis of how educational theory and research may be used to improve student learning and achievement in mathematics, science, and reading; *examination of how educational theory and research has been used to conceptualize, implement, and evaluate the effects of challenges of large-scale reform; and *exploration of how different models of intelligence and creativity have informed educational practice. Viewed as a collective effort to translate theory and research into educational practice, the interventions and programs described by the contributors to this volume represent nearly 200 years of work. As a compendium of successful strategies, this book will help others identify ways to make their own research more useful to their practice communities. As an investigation of persistent, seemingly intractable problems encountered when attempting to connect theory and research to the everyday work of teachers and students in classrooms, the analyses presented in this volume demonstrate where additional work is needed. By examining critical, persistent challenges encountered when attempting to connect educational theory and research to the everyday work of teachers in classrooms and schools, this book will help improve the practical value of educational research and help chart the course for future research. Translating Theory and Research into Educational Practice is intended as a text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses across the discipline of education and should be particularly relevant for classes dealing with educational research, educational policy, and teaching and learning. The book is equally relevant for various communities interested in improving connections between research and practice, including educational researchers, educational psychologists, psychologists, teachers, other educational professionals such as state school officers, district officials, and policy makers. The authors' comprehensive descriptions and critical reflections will provide readers with valuable insights about the practical demands, theoretical complexities, and political realties associated with efforts to translate theory and research into effective educational practice.




System-wide Efforts to Improve Student Achievement


Book Description

Strong system-wide support is increasingly being identified as laying an important role in policy efforts aimed at increasing student achievement (Hightower, Knapp, March, and McLaughlin: 2002). Yet current research often views district and other system-wide support as largely governance changes without substantive linkage to school improvement outcomes (Cuban and Usdan: 2003). In this volume we seek to deepen our understanding of the role of school districts and system-wide initiatives through a series of case studies that focus on how school districts and system-wide actors facilitate policy innovation and reform initiatives that are designed to improve student achievement. Through both quantitative and qualitative studies from diverse settings across the country, chapters in this volume examine the role of instructional technology, alternative accountability practices, management and partnership reforms, and school improvement efforts through new incentive and support practices. While challenges remain, these case studies demonstrate how districts support and facilitate school change aimed at improving student achievement.