Figuring It Out: Standard-Based Reforms in Urban Middle Grades.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Anne C.

Six urban school districts (Chattanooga, Tennessee, Corpus Christi, Texas, Long Beach, California, Louisville, Kentucky, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and San Diego, California) have been pursuing standard-based reform at the middle school level accepting systemic reform as the norm. This report provides descriptions of their approaches, and commentary…

Promise and Peril: Charter Schools, Urban School Reform, and the Obama Administration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Payne, Charles; Knowles, Tim

2009-01-01

In this essay, Charles Payne and Tim Knowles argue that given President Obama's support of charter schools, it is time for educators and policymakers to closely consider both the possibilities and the limitations of these schools in the context of urban school reform. The authors discuss the unique flexibility of charter schools--namely in…

"Teachers Know You Can Do More": Understanding How School Cultures of Success Affect Urban High School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodriguez, Louie F.

2008-01-01

Urban high school reform is one of the most significant challenges facing education today. In response to this challenge, reformers have put significant energy toward restructuring the large high school primarily through creating smaller school settings. Although the research literature often draws connections between school size and student…

Urban schools' teachers enacting project-based science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tal, Tali; Krajcik, Joseph S.; Blumenfeld, Phyllis C.

2006-09-01

What teaching practices foster inquiry and promote students to learn challenging subject matter in urban schools? Inquiry-based instruction and successful inquiry learning and teaching in project-based science (PBS) were described in previous studies (Brown & Campione, [1990]; Crawford, [1999]; Krajcik, Blumenfeld, Marx, Bass, & Fredricks, [1998]; Krajcik, Blumenfeld, Marx, & Solloway, [1994]; Minstrell & van Zee, [2000]). In this article, we describe the characteristics of inquiry teaching practices that promote student learning in urban schools. Teaching is a major factor that affects both achievement of and attitude of students toward science (Tamir, [1998]). Our involvement in reform in a large urban district includes the development of suitable learning materials and providing continuous and practiced-based professional development (Fishman & Davis, in press; van Es, Reiser, Matese, & Gomez, [2002]). Urban schools face particular challenges when enacting inquiry-based teaching practices like those espoused in PBS. In this article, we describe two case studies of urban teachers whose students achieved high gains on pre- and posttests and who demonstrated a great deal of preparedness and commitment to their students. Teachers' attempts to help their students to perform well are described and analyzed. The teachers we discuss work in a school district that strives to bring about reform in mathematics and science through systemic reform. The Center for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools (LeTUS) collaborates with the Detroit Public Schools to bring about reform in middle-school science. Through this collaboration, diverse populations of urban-school students learn science through inquiry-oriented projects and the use of various educational learning technologies. For inquiry-based science to succeed in urban schools, teachers must play an important role in enacting the curriculum while addressing the unique needs of students. The aim of this article is to describe patterns of good science teaching in urban school.

You CAN Get There from Here: How Three Urban Schools Could Use Existing Resources To Afford Comprehensive School Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fermanich, Mark L.; Kimball, Steven M.

2002-01-01

Examines how three urban elementary schools could reallocate existing resources to adopt one or more New American Schools whole-school-reform designs. Concludes that all three schools possess the funds necessary to adopt two designs: Modern Red Schoolhouse and Success for All/Roots and Wings. (Contains 36 references.) (PKP)

Achieving Flourishing City Schools and Communities--Corporate Reform, Neoliberal Urbanism, and the Right to the City

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Means, Alexander

2014-01-01

This essay critiques the ideological assertions of corporate school reform and discusses how these logics perpetuate failure in urban education. Drawing on theories of neoliberal urbanism, the right to the city, and the commons, the essay argues that educational researchers and advocates need to reframe the values of urban education in line with a…

An Introduction to the Reform Strategy Which Stresses the Development of Urban School Capacities for Problem Solving.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Stephen

An urban school reform strategy which stresses the development of local capacities for problem solving is described in this paper. The context which gave rise to this conceptualization of reform is analyzed and some difficulties with the conceptualization are discussed. Difficulties include ambiguities about the boundaries of "local,"…

Using School Reform Models to Improve Reading Achievement: A Longitudinal Study of Direct Instruction and Success for All in an Urban District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ross, Steven M.; Nunnery, John A.; Goldfeder, Elizabeth; McDonald, Aaron; Rachor, Robert; Hornbeck, Matthew; Fleischman, Steve

2004-01-01

This research examined the effectiveness in an urban school district of 2 of the most widely used Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) programs-Direct Instruction (DI), implemented in 9 district elementary schools, and Success for All (SFA), implemented in 2 elementary schools. In examining impacts on student achievement and school change outcomes…

Bringing School Reform to Scale: Five Award-Winning Urban Districts. Educational Innovations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zavadsky, Heather

2009-01-01

"Bringing School Reform to Scale" looks in detail at five school districts that have been honored in recent years by The Broad Foundation, whose annual award is granted "each year to the urban school districts that demonstrate the greatest overall performance and improvement in student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among poor and…

School Leadership in Times of Urban Reform. Topics in Educational Leadership.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bizar, Marilyn, Ed.; Barr, Rebecca, Ed.

Many urban schools are undergoing restructuring due to the problems they face and their resistance to traditional solutions. This volume deals with the various ways in which eight case-study schools in Chicago implemented strategies that called for whole-school change and system reform. The book is comprised of 10 chapters: (1)…

Educational Management Organizations as High Reliability Organizations: A Study of Victory's Philadelphia High School Reform Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, David E.

2013-01-01

This executive position paper proposes recommendations for designing reform models between public and private sectors dedicated to improving school reform work in low performing urban high schools. It reviews scholarly research about for-profit educational management organizations, high reliability organizations, American high school reform, and…

Powerful Reforms with Shallow Roots: Improving America's Urban Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cuban, Larry, Ed.; Usdan, Michael, Ed.

This collection of papers, purposely written in jargon-free language, is designed to inform policymakers, business leaders, educators, and civic-minded parents about the abiding complexities of urban school reform and the linkages between the success of schools and the vitality of cities. After the "Introduction: Learning from the Past"…

Small Schools, Large Districts: Small-School Reform and New York City's Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iatarola, Patrice; Schwartz, Amy Ellen; Stiefel, Leanna; Chellman, Colin C.

2008-01-01

Background/Context: High school reform is currently at the top of the education policy making agenda after years of stagnant achievement and persistent racial and income test score gaps. Although a number of reforms offer some promise of improving U.S. high schools, small schools have emerged as the favored reform model, especially in urban areas,…

Voices of Reform: Infusion of Standards-Based Mathematics and Science Teaching in an Urban District.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huinker, DeAnn; Coan, Cheryl; Posnanski, Tracy

This study examined the impact of a systemic reform initiative to implement standards-based mathematics and science teaching and learning in one urban school district, noting its effect on teachers, principals, students, and classroom practice. Participants were a sample of elementary and secondary schools involved in the Milwaukee Urban Systemic…

The Effects of Comprehensive School Reform Models in Reading for Urban Middle School Students with Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shippen, Margaret E.; Houchins, David E.; Calhoon, Mary Beth; Furlow, Carolyn F.; Sartor, Donya L.

2006-01-01

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has mandated sweeping accountability in public education. Low-performing urban schools find themselves in the crossfire of political and educational divergence. Comprehensive school reform (CSR) models predate NCLB, but the impact of their implementation has been even more pronounced since the passage of NCLB.…

Learning From Rudolf Steiner: The Relevance of Waldorf Education for Urban Public School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oberman, Ida

2007-01-01

The author of this paper investigates the relevance of Waldorf education for public urban school reform. Based on analysis of survey data from over 500 graduates of private U.S. Waldorf schools, review of documents from the Gates Foundation, and staff-interview and student-achievement data from four public Waldorf-methods schools, she develops…

National Comprehensive School Reform: An Analysis of Six Reform Models 1980-2000

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feinzimer, Laurie Gault

2009-01-01

This study analyzes six different National Comprehensive Reform Models through multiple lenses. It seeks to discover how the models of ATLAS Communities, Accelerated Schools Plus, Co-nect Schools, Expeditionary Learning Schools Outward Bound, Modern Red SchoolHouse and Urban Learning Centers both restructure and reculture the schools in which they…

Minorities, the Poor and School Finance Reform. Vol. 8: A History of School Finance Reform Litigation and the Interests of Urban, Poor and Minority Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dimond, Paul R.

As part of a nine-volume, six-state study of the impact of school finance reform on minorities and the poor, this report describes the history of court litigation concerning finance reform. The report's first part traces school finance reform from roughly 1900 through 1971 and summarizes parallel reform efforts by racial and ethnic minorities and…

Small Schools Reform Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lehman, Beth M.; Berghoff, Beth

2013-01-01

This study explored complicated personal narratives of school reform generated by participants in response to a particular small schools reform initiative. Narrative data was dialogically generated in interviews with nine past participants of an urban high school conversion project planned and implemented over a span of five years toward the goal…

Gone before You Know It: Urban School Reform and the Short Life of the Education Action Zone Initiative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franklin, Barry M.

2005-01-01

This essay explores the fluctuations in and short-lived nature of urban school reform through a study of the Education Action Zone (EAZ) programme of Britain's New Labour government. Using the notion of civic capacity as a theoretical framework, the essay looks at this reform from the perspectives of its government proponents, critics outside of…

Neighborhoods Matter: The Role of Universities in the School Reform Neighborhood Development Movement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Henry Louis; McGlynn, Linda; Luter, D. Gavin

2013-01-01

Where you find distressed neighborhoods, you will also find poorly performing public schools. Yet many contemporary school reform efforts ignore neighborhood-level factors that undeniably impact school performance. The purpose of this study is to use a case study approach with social institutional and urban school reform regime frameworks to…

Restructuring Urban Schools. A Chicago Perspective. The Series on School Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hess, G. Alfred, Jr.

The Chicago (Illinois) School Reform Act of 1988 set in motion a chain of reform efforts that have been the subject of considerable study. The plan emphasizes returning control of the schools to parents and the community through school-based management and local school councils. This book reports on studies of the implementation of the reform…

Equitable science education in urban middle schools: Do reform efforts make a difference?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hewson, Peter W.; Butler Kahle, Jane; Scantlebury, Kathryn; Davies, Darleen

2001-12-01

A central commitment of current reforms in science education is that all students, regardless of culture, gender, race, and/ or socioeconomic status, are capable of understanding and doing science. The study Bridging the Gap: Equity in Systemic Reform assessed equity in systemic reform using a nested research design that drew on both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. As part of the study, case studies were conducted in two urban middle schools in large Ohio cities. The purpose of the case studies was to identify factors affecting equity in urban science education reform. Data were analyzed using Kahle's (1998) equity metric. That model allowed us to assess progress toward equity using a range of research-based indicators grouped into three categories critical for equitable education: access to, retention in, and achievement in quality science education. In addition, a fourth category was defined for systemic indicators of equity. Analyses indicated that the culture and climate of the case study schools differentially affected their progress toward equitable reform in science education.

Reform Stall: An Ecological Analysis of the Efficacy of an Urban School Reform Initiative to Improve Students' Reading and Mathematics Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

James, Marlon C.; Rupley, William H.; Hall, Kristin Kistner; Nichols, Janet Alys; Rasinski, Timothy V.; Harmon, Willie C.

2016-01-01

This article examines the efficacy of the implementation of a program titled Consensus Initiative [pseudonym] in an urban school district that served 20,000 linguistically, economically, and racially diverse students situated in the northeast region of the United States. Using a research derived ecological framework from the school reform…

From Corporation to Community: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in an Urban Laboratory for School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Celia Rousseau; Bullock, Erika C.; Cross, Beverly; Powell, Angiline

2017-01-01

Background/Context: Memphis has, in many ways, become "ground zero" for neoliberal--or corporate--reform efforts, including a statewide turnaround school district, proliferation of charter schools, and value-added teacher evaluation measures. Along with these reforms come models of schooling that undermine the concept of the…

Promise Neighborhoods: The Promise and Politics of Community Capacity Building as Urban School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horsford, Sonya Douglass; Sampson, Carrie

2014-01-01

The purpose of this inquiry is to consider how the U.S. Department of Education's Promise Neighborhoods (PNs) program can improve persistently low-achieving urban schools by making their "neighborhoods whole again" through community capacity building for education reform. As the "first federal initiative to put education at the…

Best Policies and Practices in Urban Educational Reform: A Summary of Empirical Analysis Focusing on Student Achievements and Equity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Jason J.; Crasco, Linda M.

Under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, 22 urban school districts have been involved in a long-term educational reform through the Urban Systemic Initiative (USI) program since 1994. This paper presents a brief summary of findings regarding best policies and practices in the educational reform effort focusing on student…

Intended Consequences: Challenging White Teachers' Habitus and Its Influence in Urban Schools Implementing an Arts-Based Educational Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woollen, Susan; Otto, Stacy

2014-01-01

Reform efforts like the urban, arts-based initiative Project ARTS are designed to provide intentional, equitable methods of improving students' learning, yet few urban educators have been sufficiently trained to recognize differences in habitus between themselves and their students. For equitable reform to occur teachers must understand their…

Co-Constructing Community, School, University Partnerships for Urban School Transformation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillenwaters, Jamila Najah

2009-01-01

University-school-community partnerships represent a collaborative model of urban educational reformation inclusive of all the organizations that impact urban education. Co-constructed relationships among communities, schools, and universities have the potential for redistributing hierarchical power, thereby enabling all partners to contribute to…

Theorizing Teacher Agency and Reform: How Institutionalized Instructional Practices Change and Persist

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bridwell-Mitchell, E. N.

2015-01-01

One reason reform does not dramatically change public schools is because instructional practices are highly institutionalized. This article advances a theory for how teacher agency can both change and maintain institutionalized instructional practices in schools. Based on findings from one U.S. urban public school undergoing state-mandated reform,…

Pulling Together: Civic Capacity and Urban School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shipps, Dorothy

2003-01-01

Educators often ignore the political requirements of urban reform in their focus on the research and models that guide it. Conversely, political scientists frequently miss the differences among reforms in their focus on coalitions and resources. Integrating Clarence N. Stone's concept of "civic capacity" with an educator's view of reform…

The Sustainability of Comprehensive School Reform Models in Changing District and State Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Datnow, Amanda

2005-01-01

This article addresses the sustainability of comprehensive school reform (CSR) models in the face of turbulent district and state contexts. It draws on qualitative data gathered in a longitudinal case study of six CSR models implemented in 13 schools in one urban district. Why do reforms sustain in some schools and not in others? How do changing…

Place-Based School Reform as Method of Creating Shared Urban Spaces: What Is It, and What Does It Mean for Universities?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luter, D. Gavin

2016-01-01

In this article, a layered conceptual framework for "place-based school reform" is presented as a way to link the concept of school reform and neighborhood development. Because many universities have been involved in community-school-university partnerships, the university community engagement literature will be connected to this…

The Meaning(s) of Teacher Leadership in an Urban High School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scribner, Samantha M. Paredes; Bradley-Levine, Jill

2010-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the meaning of teacher leadership from teachers' perspectives. The authors examine teachers' practice of and talk about legitimate sources of power and influence in the context of an urban high school reform. Design: This is an interpretive study of teacher leadership situated in one small high…

Reconsidering the Promise of Systemwide Innovation for Urban Districts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hess, Frederick

1998-01-01

Many of the problems school reform is expected to solve are aggravated by the ways schools use reform. Macro-level innovations are rarely designed to work. Meaningful change requires time and focus. Reforms may be more about politics than about change. A constant churn of policy change and reform has become the norm. (SK)

Creating a Comprehensive School Reform Model: The Talent Development High School with Career Academies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jordan, Will J.; McPartland, James M.; Legters, Nettie E.; Balfanz, Robert

2000-01-01

Discusses the need for comprehensive reforms in school organization, curriculum and instruction, and professional development to address the problems of large urban high schools. Describes the Talent Development High School with Career Academies model being developed to meet the needs of such schools. (SLD)

The New Urban High School: A Practitioner's Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Big Picture Co., Cambridge, MA.

In October 1996, the Big Picture Company set out to find six urban high schools that use school-to-work strategies as a lever for whole-school reform. In the schools finally selected for the New Urban High Schools Project, and in others examined for the study, "school-to-work" is a misnomer, because the majority of students are entering…

Improving Urban Student Achievement Through Early Childhood Reform: What State Policymakers Can Do. Issue Paper. Early Childhood Reform Issue Paper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kagan, Sharon Lynn

2004-01-01

For over four decades, American policymakers have focused their attention on readying young children for school. Despite noble policy efforts, durable investments and a persistent belief in the ability of early childhood education to offset social inequities, significant challenges exist for America's urban young children as they enter school.…

Evaluation Findings from High School Reform Efforts in Baltimore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smerdon, Becky; Cohen, Jennifer

2009-01-01

The Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS) is one of the first urban districts in the country to undertake large-scale high school reform, phasing in small learning communities by opening new high schools and transforming large, comprehensive high schools into small high schools. With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a…

University-Urban High School Partnership: Math and Science Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ndunda, mutindi; Van Sickle, Meta; Perry, Lindsay; Capelloni, Alison

2017-01-01

This study focused on science and math professional learning communities (PLCs) that were implemented through a university-urban high school partnership. These PLCs were part of mandated school-wide, content-based PLCs implemented as part of the reform efforts initiated in an urban school to address the school's failure to meet Adequate Yearly…

Moving toward equitable, systemic science education reform: The synergy among science education and school-level reforms in an urban middle school

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kelly, Mary Kathryn

The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of the relationships among school-level and science education reform efforts and how, collectively, they contribute to the progress of equitable, systemic science education reform. A case study research design was employed to gather both qualitative and quantitative data between 1995 and 1999. The site of this study is a non-selective, urban middle school in a large district that participated in several reform efforts. These reforms include both efforts focused on school-level change and efforts focused on change in science teaching and learning. Its program incorporates aspects of several school-level reforms---from the underlying Paideia philosophy, to structural characteristics of middle schools, to site-based decision-making, to its status as a magnet school, to its participation as a professional development school. Further, the participation of all science teachers in the intensive, standards-based professional development offered by Ohio's systemic reform of mathematics and science created a critical mass of reform-oriented teachers who supported one another as they incorporated reform-based practices into their teaching. The interplay of the reform efforts has manifested in a high level of science achievement in comparison to the school's district. Addressing the third component of O'Day and Smith's model for systemic reform, the need for school-level change to enable implementation of curriculum frameworks and aligned policies, this study illustrates two important points. First, the high-quality teacher professional development increased teachers' capacity to change their practices by enhancing their knowledge of and skills in implementing standards-based teaching practices. Second, because of the synchrony among the school-level reforms and between the school-level and science education reforms, the context of Webster provided a supportive environment in which lasting changes in science teaching and learning were implemented. Science education reform efforts were mediated by the school's context to create an environment in which the reform practices could be implemented and sustained. Using Kahle's (1998) Equity Metric, this study demonstrates that the synergy of the policies and practices of school-level and science education reforms can contribute to the progress of equitable, systemic science education reform.

Urban Middle-Grade Student Mathematics Achievement Growth under Comprehensive School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mac Iver, Martha Abele; Mac Iver, Douglas J.

2009-01-01

Recognizing the need to implement standards-based instructional materials with school-wide coherence led some Philadelphia schools to adopt whole-school reform (WSR) models during the late 1990s. The authors report on the relation between mathematics achievement growth for middle-grade students on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments and…

Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom, Volume 2: A Guide to Leadership, Teacher Education, and Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frierson-Campbell, Carol, Ed.

2006-01-01

This second volume, the follow-on to "Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom, Volume 1: A Guide to Survival, Success, and Reform," extends the conversation to include educational leadership, teacher education, partnerships, and school reform. As with Volume 1, classroom music teachers, inner city arts administrators, well-known academics,…

The Burden of Urban Education: Public Schools in Massachusetts, 1870-1915.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lazerson, Marvin

Confronted by a rapidly changing urban-industrial society, Massachusetts educators undertook reforms between 1870 and 1915 to make the public school a more relevant institution. Kindergarten, manual training, vocational education, evening schools, and citizenship education represented answers to problems arising from industrialism and urbanism.…

Challenges and Opportunities for School Improvement: Recommendations for Urban School Principals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dolph, David

2017-01-01

Insofar as urban school systems that are often identified as ineffective include such a large segment of U.S. P-12 students, it is vital to improve academic success. To provide context, the article first discusses key challenges facing urban schools. Second, the article identifies and briefly reviews a variety of approaches to reform models often…

Denver's Public Schools: Reforms, Challenges, and the Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bray, Judy; Medler, Alex

2009-01-01

Denver is currently in the national education spotlight, largely because of its willingness to try a unique combination of major education reforms not seen in other large urban school districts. While many observers hold these reforms in high regard, a steep road lies ahead. Current student results are unacceptable by all measures. The time is…

Negotiating Tensions: Grassroots Organizing, School Reform, and the Paradox of Neoliberal Democracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nygreen, Kysa

2017-01-01

Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork at a community-based organization (CBO) engaged in parent organizing for urban school reform, this paper examines how organizers engaged with the imperatives of neoliberal reform and the broader neoliberal policy context. It highlights organizers' agency but also shows how hegemonic discourse constrained their…

Pathways to Systemic Reform: Case Studies of Ohio Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kahle, Jane Butler, Ed.; Kelly, Mary Kay, Ed.

This document presents five case studies of Ohio schools in order to discuss ongoing systemic reform in Ohio. Papers include: (1) "Steele Middle School: 'The Best Education for the Best Is the Best Education for All'" (Jane Butler Kahle, Kathryn Scantlebury, Arta Damnjanovic, and Mary Kay Kelly); (2) "Urban Middle School: 'How Much…

The Political Economy of Market-Based Educational Policies: Race and Reform in Urban School Districts, 1915 to 2016

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Janelle; Holme, Jennifer Jellison

2016-01-01

The authors situate the emergence and effects of contemporary market-based reforms within a framework of urban political economy that centers on racial inequality. They discuss how and why market-based reforms have evolved alongside racialized political and economic trends that have transformed cities over the past century, and they critically…

Profiles of Schools in Change: Four Urban High Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wermuth, Thomas R.; And Others

1997-01-01

This report highlights four urban comprehensive secondary schools that are developing, implementing, and evaluating reform initiatives that include vocational and technical education as a key component of these efforts. Efforts of these four high schools are described: Bryan High School, Omaha, Nebraska; Humboldt Secondary Complex, St. Paul,…

A Nostrum of School Reform? Turning around Reconstituted Urban Texas High Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamilton, Madlene P.; Heilig, Julian Vasquez; Pazey, Barbara L.

2014-01-01

A mainstay in NCLB and the Obama administration education plan is turning around low-performing schools. This study utilized surveys and interviews with school leaders from four turnaround urban high schools in Texas to understand student outcomes before and after school restructuring and reconstitution. Although some organizational changes were…

Human Resource Support for School Principals in Two, Urban School Districts: An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lochmiller, Chad R.

2010-01-01

School districts are increasingly focused on instructional practice in classrooms. Many urban school districts have shifted decision-making responsibility to school principals in order to improve instruction. This reform strategy has been referred to as decentralization or school-based management. Decentralization has a significant influence on…

Systemic Constraints on Students' Appropriation of Reform Oriented Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ares, Nancy; Evans, Dawn M.; Harnischfeger, Alice M.

2018-01-01

We investigate 10th-grade Latinx and African American high school students' engagement in a reform-oriented curriculum designed to foster their critical social analysis of urban schooling. Students' designs of "ideal schools" based on their studies of their neighborhoods largely reproduced existing inequitable structures and practices of…

Physics teachers' perspectives on factors that affect urban physics participation and accessibility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kelly, Angela M.

2013-06-01

The accessibility of secondary physics in U.S. urban school districts is a complex issue. Many schools do not offer a physics option, and for those that do, access is often restricted by various school policies and priorities that do not promote physics participation for all. To analyze this problem in greater depth, I adopted a qualitative phenomenological methodology to explore urban physics teachers’ views on school- and district-based conditions that may marginalize traditionally underrepresented students. Teachers from three large urban districts shared concerns and suggestions regarding administrative commitment, student preparedness for physics, reform initiatives and testing mandates, promoting physics enrollments, and implementing high quality instruction. Data from interviews and focus groups provided contextual insights into ways in which physics study may be improved and encouraged for urban youth. Teachers believed expanding access could be facilitated with differentiated levels of physics, incorporating mathematical applications with multiple representations, educating students and counselors on the ramifications of choosing or not choosing elective sciences, well-designed grant-funded initiatives, and flexibility with prerequisites and science course sequencing. Teachers experienced frustration with standardized testing, lack of curricular autonomy, shifting administrative directives, and top-down reforms that did not incorporate their feedback in the decision-making processes. Data from this study revealed that physics teacher networks, often housed at local universities, have been a key resource for establishing supportive professional communities to share best practices that may influence school-based reforms that promote physics participation in urban schools.

Evaluating the Impact of an Urban Comprehensive School Reform: An Illustration of the Need for Mixed Methods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sondergeld, Toni A.; Koskey, Kristin L. K.

2011-01-01

An abundance of comprehensive school reform (CSR) literature exists illustrating CSRs are effective in improving student outcomes. However, much of this research reports on top-down reforms, focuses on academic outcomes, and uses quantitative methods alone. Many educational researchers have argued for the use of mixed methods for providing a…

Comprehensive School Reform in New Jersey: Waxing and Waning Support for Model Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erlichson, Bari Anhalt

2005-01-01

In 1998, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered schools in 30 urban school districts to adopt comprehensive school reform (CSR) models as a part of the long-running Abbott v. Burke school finance case. Five years later, the Court would relax that mandate, resulting in a major education policy shift as the New Jersey Department of Education formally…

How the Coalition Campus Schools Have Re-Imagined High School: Seven Years Later.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ancess, Jacqueline; Ort, Suzanna Wichterle

In 1992, a collaboration of educational reform organizations, the New York City Board of Education, a teachers' union, and private funders created a model of urban high school reform that was practitioner-driven. Two failing high schools, one in Manhattan and one in the Bronx, were phased out while 11 new, small autonomous high schools were…

"Eligiendo Escuelas": English Learners and Access to School Choice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mavrogordato, Madeline; Harris, Julie

2017-01-01

School choice has emerged as the linchpin of President Trump's urban education reform plan, but it remains unclear how school choice policies will shape the educational experiences of the most underserved student groups, particularly English learners (ELs). Using quantitative data from one large urban school district, we examine EL participation…

So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Payne, Charles M.

2008-01-01

This frank and courageous book explores the persistence of failure in today's urban schools. At its heart is the argument that most education policy discussions are disconnected from the daily realities of urban schools, especially those in poor and beleaguered neighborhoods. Charles M. Payne argues that we have failed to account fully for the…

Small Steps Make Meaningful Change in Transforming Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miranda, Antoinette Halsell; Radliff, Kisha M.; Della Flora, Olympia A.

2018-01-01

Urban schools in the United States are generally viewed as having greater challenges than their suburban and rural counterparts. Most notably, they often have lower academic achievement and much of the educational reform movement has been aimed at urban schools in an attempt to close the achievement gap. Although much of the focus in recent years…

Planning for Reform-Based Science: Case Studies of Two Urban Elementary Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mangiante, Elaine Silva

2018-02-01

The intent of national efforts to frame science education standards is to promote students' development of scientific practices and conceptual understanding for their future role as scientifically literate citizens (NRC 2012). A guiding principle of science education reform is that all students receive equitable opportunities to engage in rigorous science learning. Yet, implementation of science education reform depends on teachers' instructional decisions. In urban schools serving students primarily from poor, diverse communities, teachers typically face obstacles in providing reform-based science due to limited resources and accountability pressures, as well as a culture of teacher-directed pedagogy, and deficit views of students. The purpose of this qualitative research was to study two white, fourth grade teachers from high-poverty urban schools, who were identified as transforming their science teaching and to investigate how their beliefs, knowledge bases, and resources shaped their planning for reform-based science. Using the Shavelson and Stern's decision model for teacher planning to analyze evidence gathered from interviews, documents, planning meetings, and lesson observations, the findings indicated their planning for scientific practices was influenced by the type and extent of professional development each received, each teacher's beliefs about their students and their background, and the mission and learning environment each teacher envisioned for the reform to serve their students. The results provided specific insights into factors that impacted their planning in high-poverty urban schools and indicated considerations for those in similar contexts to promote teachers' planning for equitable science learning opportunities by all students.

Girl Talk: A Qualitative Study of Girls Talking about the Meaning of Their Lives in an Urban Single-Sex Elementary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ridenour, Carolyn S.; Hassell Hughes, Sheila

2016-01-01

The suburban-urban achievement gap (diminishing until the 1980s) has stopped its narrowing trend, and single-sex schools are proliferating as a reform model, especially in urban areas. In this study researchers interviewed eight elementary school girls (in an all-girls school) three times over 2 years, and the resulting 23 transcripts were…

High Pressure Reform: Examining Urban Schools' Response to Multiple School Choice Policies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holme, Jennifer Jellison; Carkhum, Rian; Rangel, Virginia Snodgrass

2013-01-01

Over the past several decades, policymakers have sought to address the problem of school failure by exposing traditional public schools to competitive market forces. In this analysis, we examine how two traditional public schools in a "high pressure/high choice" urban school cluster in Texas responded to a number of overlapping choice…

Success for All and Comprehensive School Reform: Evidence-Based Policies for Urban Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slavin, Robert E.; Madden, Nancy A.

This paper discusses comprehensive school reform (CSR), which accepts the importance of standards and accountability but adds to these strategies for introducing innovations in curriculum, instruction, school organization, governance, parent interactions, and other core features of practice. The paper reviews research on the nature and quality of…

The Students in Front of Us: Reform for the Current Generation of Urban High School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burks, Joe; Hochbein, Craig

2015-01-01

The implementation of education policies requiring the turnaround of persistently low-achieving schools has demanded reforms that will not only improve achievement, but also deliver results in a short period of time. To meet such demands, Jefferson County Public Schools educators implemented Project Proficiency (PP). Results from…

Making Educational Reform Work: Stories of School Improvement in Urban China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamilton, Doug

2014-01-01

The latest national educational policy in the People's Republic of China calls for comprehensive educational reforms aimed at building the foundation for a modern learning society throughout China over the next 10 years. This research examines school leaders' efforts to implement school improvement initiatives that directly respond to the policy's…

Examining Comprehensive School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aladjem, Daniel K., Ed.; Borman, Kathryn M., Ed.

2006-01-01

Urban school reformers for decades have tried to improve educational outcomes for underserved and disadvantaged students, with the assistance of constantly evolving federal and state policies. In recent years, education policies have shifted from targeting individual students to developing universal standards for teaching and learning, and…

Marketing Small Schools in New York City: A Critique of Neoliberal School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shiller, Jessica

2011-01-01

The objective of this article is to critically examine a school reform effort that has taken hold in New York City over the past seven years. A largely privately funded venture, the New Century Schools Initiative (NCSI), opened hundreds of new small high schools in poor urban communities in New York City starting in 2002. The theory behind opening…

Journalism and Urban School Reform: Versions of Democratic Decision Making in Two American Cities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shipps, Dorothy; Fowlkes, Elizabeth; Peltzman, Alissa

2006-01-01

School reform involves the public: its expectation of participation and its support for a reform agenda. In theory, the press influences both. To explore this link, we compare education coverage in four press outlets, two each in Chicago and Cleveland. Articles and editors are interrogated for (1) style of journalism and (2) assumptions about the…

THE IRONY OF URBAN SCHOOL REFORM, IDEOLOGY AND STYLE IN MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY MASSACHUSETTS. FINAL REPORT.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

KATZ, MICHAEL B.

THE ORIGINS OF MASS POPULAR EDUCATION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY MASSACHUSETTS ARE STUDIED IN TERMS OF THE RELATION BETWEEN REFORMER IDEOLOGY AND STYLE OF REFORM WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF FUNDAMENTAL ALTERATIONS IN THE LIFE CONDITIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS. THREE SIGNIFICANT EVENTS ARE ANALYZED IN DETAIL--(1) ABOLITION OF BEVERLY HIGH SCHOOL IN 1860, (2) ATTACK…

Strife and Progress: Portfolio Strategies for Managing Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Christine; Gross, Betheny; Hill, Paul T.

2012-01-01

Deficient urban schooling remains one of America's most pressing--and stubborn--public policy problems. This important new book details and evaluates a radical and promising new approach to K-12 education reform. "Strife and Progress" explains for a broad audience the "portfolio strategy" for providing urban education--its…

Transforming an Urban School System: Progress of New Haven School Change and New Haven Promise Education Reforms (2010-2013). Technical Appendixes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scherer, Ethan; Ryan, Sarah; Daugherty, Lindsay; Schweig, Jonathan David; Bozick, Robert; Gonzalez, Gabriella C.

2014-01-01

In 2009, the City of New Haven and New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) announced a sweeping K-12 educational reform, New Haven School Change. The district had three primary goals for School Change: (1) close the gap between the performance of NHPS students' and Connecticut students' averages on state tests, (2) cut the high school dropout rate in…

Transforming an Urban School System: Progress of New Haven School Change and New Haven Promise Education Reforms (2010-2013). Research Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonzalez, Gabriella C.; Bozick, Robert; Daugherty, Lindsay; Scherer, Ethan; Singh, Reema; Suárez, Mónica Jacobo; Ryan, Sarah

2014-01-01

In 2009, the City of New Haven and New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) announced a sweeping K-12 educational reform, New Haven School Change. The district had three primary goals for School Change: (1) close the gap between the performance of NHPS students' and Connecticut students' averages on state tests, (2) cut the high school dropout rate in…

In the Guise of STEM Education Reform: Opportunity Structures and Outcomes in Inclusive STEM-Focused High Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weis, Lois; Eisenhart, Margaret; Cipollone, Kristin; Stich, Amy E.; Nikischer, Andrea B.; Hanson, Jarrod; Ohle Leibrandt, Sarah; Allen, Carrie D.; Dominguez, Rachel

2015-01-01

In this article, we present findings from a three-year comparative longitudinal and ethnographic study of how schools in two cities, Buffalo and Denver, have taken up STEM education reform, including the idea of "inclusive STEM-focused schools," to address weaknesses in urban high schools with majority low-income and minority students.…

Toward the "School as Sanctuary" Concept in Multicultural Urban Education: Implications for Small High School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Antrop-Gonzalez, Rene

2006-01-01

This article describes the "school as sanctuary" concept through the voices of students enrolled in a small urban high school that curricularly privileges the linguistic, cultural, and sociopolitical realities of its communities. Moreover, this particular school was founded by students and teachers over 30 years ago as a direct response to…

Improving Climate and Achievement in a Troubled Urban High School through the Talent Development Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McPartland, James; Balfanz, Robert; Jordan, Will; Legters, Nettie

1998-01-01

A case study of a large nonselective urban high school in Baltimore (Maryland) describes the design and implementation of a comprehensive package of school reforms, the Talent Development Model with Career Academies. Qualitative and quantitative evidence is provided on significant improvements in school climate, student attendance, promotion…

Improving the English Urban Primary School: Questions of Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maguire, Meg; Pratt-Adams, Simon

2009-01-01

This article argues that the focus within much normative education policy is with in-school effects which has sidelined the impact of structural and material factors in respect of the urban primary school. Educational reforms intended to improve schools are less likely to make much impact unless these contextualizing matters are directly…

"Locking the Door before We Got the Keys": Racial Realities of the Charter School Authorization Process in Post-Katrina New Orleans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henry, Kevin Lawrence, Jr.; Dixson, Adrienne D.

2016-01-01

Charter schools have become the hegemonic "solution" for urban educational reform initiatives aimed at curtailing longstanding race-based educational inequities. The "common sense" of neoliberal charter schools as the cure to persistent inequality is best illustrated in the post-Katrina New Orleans educational reforms. This…

"Living on the Edge": A Case of School Reform Working for Disadvantaged Young Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smyth, John; McInerney, Peter

2007-01-01

This paper describes an instance of a disadvantaged (urban) Australian government school that realized it had little alternative but to try new approaches; "old ways" were not working. The paper describes an ensemble of school reform practices, philosophies and strategies that give young adolescents genuine ownership of their learning.…

The Significance for Education Reform of the New York City Mayoral Election

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noguera, Pedro

2014-01-01

In this first 2014 issue of "Voices in Urban Education," Oona Chatterjee, the Annenberg Institute's associate director for New York City organizing, interviews Pedro Noguera, the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University, a noted researcher and national commentator on topics such as urban school reform, conditions that…

Revisiting the Agenda on Reforming American Urban Schools: A Distant Odd Reality of Lake Wobegon School District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Takona, James P.

2012-01-01

An ever growing thirst for a framework that supports a flexible environment in which the schools and school districts are protected within a zone that recognizes school reform is everyone's business. Moreover, the teacher's role as a leader in her classroom and among her peers must become a part of the search for a culture of success. This article…

A Post-Modern Teacher Educator: A Phenomenological Study of Teacher Educators with Significant Experience in High-Needs, High-Minority Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Derrick Eugene

2016-01-01

Four decades of university-based teacher education reform has failed to yield favorable outcomes in teacher effectiveness in P-12 schools. A rising tide of reform and criticism from governmental agencies and neo-liberal reformers has resulted in one-dimensional, structural approaches to impacting teacher effectiveness, based on the assumption that…

Elementary Principal Leadership Practices, Attitudes, and Self-Efficacy about Teacher Evaluation in Title I Urban Schools Making Gains in Student Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ames, Karen Cohen

2013-01-01

Current school reform efforts aim to improve teaching and learning with emphasis on accountability for student achievement. The success of school reform depends on the motivation and capacities of school leaders. It is important to know what effective leadership practices look like to understand the direct impact to student achievement,…

Principals as Leaders of School and Community Revitalization: A Phenomenological Study of Three Urban Schools in Morocco

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elmeski, Mohammed

2015-01-01

This article explores leadership of place in the context of three urban middle schools in Morocco. School reform means that principals are changing from agents of authority to leaders with school improvement responsibilities. This shift in mission can be stressful for principals who are called to lead, but are often constrained by bureaucratic and…

Redesigning Urban Districts in the USA: Mayoral Accountability and the Diverse Provider Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Kenneth K.

2011-01-01

In response to public pressure, urban districts in the USA have initiated reforms that aim at redrawing the boundaries between the school system and other major local institutions. More specifically, this article focuses on two emerging reform strategies. We will examine an emerging model of governance that enables big-city mayors to establish…

Civic Capacity in Educational Reform Efforts: Emerging and Established Regimes in Rust Belt Cities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitra, Dana L.; Frick, William C.

2011-01-01

Using urban regime theory, the article examines two Rust Belt cities that tried to break the cycle of social reproduction in their communities by reforming their schools. The article contributes to the development of urban regime theory by comparing an "emerging" regime to an "established" regime. The comparison highlights the interdependent…

Project Proficiency: Assessing the Independent Effects of High School Reform in an Urban District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baete, Glenn S.; Hochbein, Craig

2014-01-01

The authors sought to determine if an urban school district's effort to fundamentally change teaching, assessment, and intervention practices increased student achievement and decreased achievement variation among classrooms in 11 high schools. They examined Grade 11 mathematics achievement data from the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 Kentucky Core…

Between Public and Private: Politics, Governance, and the New Portfolio Models for Urban School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bulkley, Katrina E., Ed.; Henig, Jeffrey R., Ed.; Levin, Henry M., Ed.

2010-01-01

"Between Public and Private" examines an innovative approach to school district management that has been adopted by a number of urban districts in recent years: a portfolio management model, in which "a central office oversees a portfolio of schools offering diverse organizational and curricular themes, including traditional public…

From Heroes to Organizers: Principals and Education Organizing in Urban School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ishimaru, Ann

2013-01-01

Purpose: Educational leadership is key to addressing the persistent inequities in low-income urban schools, but most principals struggle to work with parents and communities around those schools to create socially just learning environments. This article describes the conditions and experiences that enabled principals to share leadership with…

Urban School Superintendents: Characteristics, Tenure, and Salary. Seventh Survey and Report. Urban Indicator, Fall 2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Council of the Great City Schools, 2010

2010-01-01

Urban school superintendents hold one of the most important and challenging jobs in America's education system. In this era of accountability and standards, superintendents are charged with making visible and rapid improvements in the academic achievement of the nation's most vulnerable children. They must break down barriers to reform and build…

Middle-Class School Choice in Urban Spaces: The Economics of Public Schooling and Globalized Education Reform. Routledge Research in Education Policy and Politics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rowe, Emma E.

2016-01-01

"Middle-class School Choice in Urban Spaces" examines government funded public schools from a range of perspectives and scholarship in order to examine the historical, political and economic conditions of public schooling within a globalized, post-welfare context. In this book, Rowe argues that post-welfare policy conditions are…

The University Charter School Partnership: A Case Study on the Perspectives of Key Constituencies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeMinico, Dana

2011-01-01

The following study sought to add to the body of literature on effective charter school models and the role universities play in urban school reform by closely examining one urban elementary university charter school partnership through the eyes of its key participants and in relation to the unique political and social contexts in which it was…

Constraints and Negotiations: TFA, Accountability, and Scripted Programs in Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kavanagh, Kara M.; Fisher-Ari, Teresa R.

2017-01-01

As the educational community continues to consider the impact of the proliferation of accountability-aimed reform on students, schools, and communities, the consequences of said reforms on teachers must be included. Results of this study indicate that even distant, broad educational policies manifest in specific and profound ways in teachers'…

Place Matters: Mathematics Education Reform in Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rousseau Anderson, Celia

2014-01-01

While mathematics education research has often focused at the level of the classroom (Rousseau Anderson & Tate, 2008), there are emerging calls for attention to shift from individual classrooms to consider the process of reform at the school or district level. Investigating the role of the institution and conditions of the organization becomes…

School Finance Reform: Do Equalized Expenditures Imply Equalized Teacher Salaries?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Streams, Meg; Butler, J. S.; Cowen, Joshua; Fowles, Jacob; Toma, Eugenia F.

2011-01-01

Kentucky is a poor, relatively rural state that contrasts greatly with the relatively urban and wealthy states typically the subject of education studies employing large-scale administrative data. For this reason, Kentucky's experience of major school finance and curricular reform is highly salient for understanding teacher labor market dynamics.…

How Does a Community of Principals Develop Leadership for Technology-Enhanced Science?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerard, Libby F.; Bowyer, Jane B.; Linn, Marcia C.

2010-01-01

Active principal leadership can help sustain and scale science curriculum reform. This study illustrates how principal leadership developed in a professional learning community to support a technology-enhanced science curriculum reform funded by the National Science Foundation. Seven middle school and high school principals in one urban-fringe…

Transforming an Urban Public School District: Tracking the Progress of New Haven Public Schools' Educational Reforms and the New Haven Promise Scholarship Program. Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonzalez, Gabriella C.; Bozick, Robert; Daugherty, Lindsay; Scherer, Ethan; Singh, Reema; Suarez, Monica; Ryan, Sarah; Schweig, Jonathan

2014-01-01

New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) is an urban school district in Connecticut serving approximately 21,000 students in 46 schools, with nine high schools. Concerned that only about one-half of its students were meeting state proficiency standards in reading and math tests or graduating within four years of starting high school, NHPS and the City of…

New Orleans's Unique School Reform Effort and Its Potential Implications for Special Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morse, Timothy E.

2010-01-01

Four years following the decimation of the New Orleans Public Schools by Hurricane Katrina the city has been described as the center of a unique urban public school reform effort. This effort is a combination of events that transpired just before the storm and those that have occurred as a result of it. In particular some claim that the emerging…

Transforming the School Reform Agenda: A Framework for Including Student Voice in Urban School Renewal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friend, Jennifer; Caruthers, Loyce

2015-01-01

This article advances a framework for educators to create pathways to elicit students' diverse perspectives as qualitative data sources in the process of urban school renewal. Elements of the framework are discussed in conjunction with relevant research and findings from videotaped interviews with elementary (n = 144) and secondary (n = 28)…

Promoting Student Achievement: A Case Study of Change Actions Employed by an Urban School Superintendent

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bealer, David E.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the change strategies and actions taken by an urban district superintendent to improve student achievement. In a qualitative case study of a large urban school district, one research question and three subquestions focused on: 10 specific reform strategies to improve student achievement, how the quality and…

Charting a Path to Graduation. The Effect of Project GRAD on Elementary School Student Outcomes in Four Urban School Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snipes, Jason C.; Holton, Glee Ivory; Doolittle, Fred

2006-01-01

In the past decade, school districts around the country have sought to improve struggling urban high schools, where high dropout rates, poor student achievement, and low rates of graduation and college-going remain all too prevalent. In a field crowded with reform initiatives, Project Graduation Really Achieves Dreams (GRAD) stands out as…

"That School Had Become All about Show": Image Making and the Ironies of Constructing a Good Urban School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Niesz, Tricia

2010-01-01

The last two decades have seen dramatic change in U.S. schooling as a response to high-stakes accountability and market-based reform movements. Critics cite a number of unfortunate consequences of these movements, especially for students in urban schools. This article explores the troubling ironies related to one strategy for survival in this…

Organizing Schools in Pluralist America, 1870-1940. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, Paul E.; And Others

This three-part study of the history of urban education considers the contemporary relationship between school and society, the politics of education, and urban educational reform in Atlanta, Georgia, and Chicago, Illinois. Part I suggests that the contemporary educational system contributes more to social mobility and social change than…

Minorities, the Poor and School Finance Reform. Vol. 1: An Impact Study of Six States.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brischetto, Robert; Vaughan, David

To study the impact of school finance reform on minorities and the poor, researchers gathered data on educational revenues and spending, tax effort, district wealth and income, ethnicity, and urban location in California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New Mexico, and Texas. Their data analysis used various measures of educational equity and fiscal…

Television and Educational Reform in El Salvador. Summary Report of the First Year of Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schramm, Wilbur; And Others

The impact of instructional television and educational reform in El Salvador was apparent in the 1969 school year. Large gains in learning were recorded for each of the three televised seventh-grade courses--science, mathematics and social studies. Baseline tests administered in four grades of school revealed that urban students developed…

Superintendent Leadership: A Phenomenological Study of Texas Superintendents from Broad Prize Eligible School Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moreno, Jose H.

2014-01-01

The identification of leadership qualities and reform strategies implemented to increase student achievement in urban school districts is vital to closing the achievement gap. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify a leadership profile of the Broad Prize superintendent and reform strategies used to leverage systemic change that…

Educational Turbulence: The Influence of Macro and Micro-Policy on Science Education Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Carla C.

2013-01-01

Enactment of federal educational policy has direct implications for states and local school districts across the nation, particularly in the areas of accountability and funding. This study utilized constructivist grounded theory to examine the impact of policy on science education reform in a large, urban school district over a 5-year period. The…

A Review of the Major Current Reports on Secondary Education. Urban Diversity Series Number 88.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Passow, A. Harry

This volume summarizes the reports of the following commissions and study groups on secondary school reform: (1) National Commission on Excellence in Education ("A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform"); (2) Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching ("High School: A Report on Secondary Education in America," by Ernest…

Cleaning Up and Maintenance in the Wake of an Urban School Administration Tempest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murtadha-Watts, Khuala

2000-01-01

Describes the context of a city corporation's attempt to initiate educational reform, focusing on two city school administrators, a newly hired Latina superintendent and an African American female assistant superintendent. Uses the metaphor of a tempest to describe the tension between the urge for rapid reform of the new superintendent and the…

Organizational Politics of Parental Engagement: The Intersections of School Reform, Anti-Immigration Policies, and Latinx Parent Organizing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scribner, Samantha M. Paredes; Fernández, Erica

2017-01-01

This article presents results from community-engaged research conducted with Latinx immigrant parents advocating for their students and themselves in and around an urban school engaged in multiple reforms, in a context affected by anti-immigrant policies and sentiments. The authors analyzed the intersection of organizing narratives related to…

Mandatory Community-Based Learning in U.S. Urban High Schools: Fair Equality of Opportunity?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Jeffrey V.; Alsbury, Thomas L.; Fan, Jingjing

2016-01-01

This study explores participant experiences at two contrasting high schools in a large, urban school district in crisis who implemented mandatory community-based learning (CBL) (e.g. community service, work-based internships) as a policy of reform. Rawls' theory of justice as fairness is used to examine capacity of the district formal policy to…

Including Families and Communities in Urban Education. Issues in the Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice of Urban Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hands, Catherine, Ed.; Hubbard, Lea, Ed.

2011-01-01

The work of school, family and community partnerships is complex and messy and demands a thoughtful and deep investigation. Currently, parent and community involvement does not draw on school reform and educational change literature and conversely the school change literature often ignores the crucial role that communities play in educational…

Urban, Suburban, and Rural Contexts of School Districts and Neighborhood Revitalization Strategies: Rediscovering Equity in Education Policy and Urban Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silverman, Robert Mark

2014-01-01

This article revisits the debate about school reform and homeownership-based strategies for neighborhood revitalization. It is based on an analysis of school districts in New York State using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and the New York State Education Department (NYSED). Findings indicate that the relationship between schools…

The Conference of the University/Urban Schools National Task Force: What Works in Urban Schools. Proceedings. (2nd, Bermuda, March 26-27, 1982).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bossone, Richard M., Ed.

This report summarizes the proceedings and presents the papers discussed at a national conference on effective aspects of urban education. The first paper discusses the development of the San Francisco (California) Redesign Program, a five year master plan for educational reform which aimed to improve the physical educational environment,…

Analysis of Academic and Non-Academic Outcomes from a Bottom-up Comprehensive School Reform in the Absence of Student Level Data through Simulation Methods: A Mixed Methods Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sondergeld, Toni A.

2009-01-01

This dissertation examines the efficacy of a bottom-up comprehensive school reform (CSR) program by evaluating its impact on student achievement, attendance, and behavior outcomes through an explanatory mixed methods design. The CSR program (Gear Up) was implemented in an urban junior high school over the course of seven years allowing for…

Teacher Efficacy of English Teachers in Urban and Suburban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liaw, En-Chong

2017-01-01

To investigate the context-related teacher efficacy (TE) of experienced teachers in Taiwan, this study examined elementary English teachers more than a decade after a major educational reform to determine whether their TE levels were affected by school location (e.g. urban vs. suburban). The 438 responses to the adapted Teacher Efficacy Scale…

School Choice and Government Reform: Pillars of an Urban Renaissance. Civic Bulletin.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Booker, Cory A.

This paper describes one vision of how to improve urban education, highlighting the Newark, New Jersey, public schools. It discusses the importance of encouraging all students to "reach for the stars" in education and describes the government's role in perpetuating inequitable circumstances. It highlights the importance of emphasizing…

Laying the Groundwork: The Journey of an Urban High School District Implementing a College Readiness Initiative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franco, Antonia O.

2012-01-01

National and state education reforms are centered on developing higher academic expectations and standards to ensure students transitions into postsecondary options, college and career ready. What does this national emphasis signify for urban school districts that are educating a significant proportion of first-generation students and that…

"You Can't Control Me!" Cultivating Authority in a Struggling Urban High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kitzmiller, Erika M.

2013-01-01

Background/Context: Current research on urban school reform has stressed the importance of strong student-teacher relationships in creating engaging learning environments for students. This article contributes to this growing literature by showing the challenges and possibilities as teachers tried to reclaim authority and cultivate strong…

Venture Philanthropy's Market Strategies Fail Urban Kids

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shiller, Jessica

2012-01-01

The latest wave of reform in urban schools, led by the venture philanthropists, has made a great deal of change, without much progress. Foundations with a venture philanthropy bent, like the Walton Family Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the Broad Foundation, say market principles, such as choice and competition, will improve schools. If…

Improving of Reading in High Schools: Outcomes of Ramp Up to Advanced Literacy in a Large Urban District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Munoz, Marco A.

2007-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of Ramp Up to Advanced Literacy, an unbundled Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) model, on the reading achievement of ninth grade students in a large urban school district in Kentucky. Using a pre- and posttest impact evaluation design, data from participating and non-participating…

The Impact of Standards-Based Reform on Special Education and the Creation of the 'Dividual

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bacon, Jessica

2015-01-01

An urban Pre-K through 5th grade school referred to as Westvale Elementary School was the focal point for this research study. Westvale was located within an urban district in New York State that was host to approximately 20,000 students. Both the school and the district were labeled as failing under the No Child Left Behind Act. Foucauldian…

Small Learning Communities Meet School-to-Work: Whole-School Restructuring for Urban Comprehensive High Schools. Report No. 31.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Legters, Nettie E.

This report describes specific reform practices schools are implementing to realize the vision set forth in the National Association of Secondary School Principals document, "Breaking Ranks," which calls for changes in curriculum, instruction, assessment, school organization, professional development, community partnerships, and…

Patterns of School Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Marvin

An examination was done of school reform efforts supported by Bank Street College of Education's Center for Minority Achievement in two urban junior high schools in New York City. One school was a traditional junior high school with majority minority enrollment with most teachers using traditional techniques. The other school, the Media Arts…

Examining Behavioral, Relational, and Cognitive Engagement in Smaller Learning Communities: A Case Study of Reform in One Suburban District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Heather A.; Chang, Mei-Lin; Andrzejewski, Carey E.; Poirier, Ryan R.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this project was to examine the impact of Smaller Learning Community reform on students' behavioral, relational, and cognitive engagement in a suburban school district experiencing urbanization. We describe a project in which we evaluated the engagement of a cohort of 8th grade students as they transitioned to high school (n = 605).…

Tailoring New Urban Teachers for Character and Activism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boggess, Laurence B.

2010-01-01

This two-site, qualitative case study examined how the Chicago and Boston Public School Districts alternatively prepared new teachers through partnerships with private, nonprofit urban teacher residencies. Drawing on urban regime analysis and resource dependence theory, the study asked how the reform partners defined "teacher quality"…

Reform with Reinvestment: Values and Tensions in Gentrifying Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siegel-Hawley, Genevieve; Thachik, Stefani; Bridges, Kimberly

2017-01-01

As cities across the country experience an influx of White and middle- to upper-class residents, new opportunities for the integration of urban schools emerge. Yet crucial challenges persist even when equity and inclusion are a focus for new stakeholders. This article explores the story of a largely White group of parents committed to investing in…

Looking for Leadership: Assessing the Case for Mayoral Control of Urban School Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hess, Frederick M.

2008-01-01

Replacing boards of education conceived during the Progressive Era with mayoral control has been a popular reform strategy in urban districts such as Boston, Chicago, and New York City. A thorough review of the extant research, however, shows little evidence regarding its impact on governance, management, school organization, or teaching and…

System Learning in an Urban School District: A Case Study of Intra-District Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Redding, Christopher; Cannata, Marisa; Miller, Jason

2017-01-01

This paper presents evidence from a unique reform model that allowed teachers and other educators in a large urban district to collaborate with one another in the development of an innovation meant to improve student ownership and responsibility. In this longitudinal case study, we describe school stakeholders' learning about the design, the…

"What the Real World in Schools Is Like": Urban Youth in Dialogue about Educational Inequality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taines, Cynthia

2011-01-01

This article examines the emergence of a dialogue among urban youth about their educational condition, and the opportunities for learning and collaboration that ensue. The study is based on observations and interviews with eight students in a community-based program that supports the engagement of young people in school reform. Notably, the…

Cognitive and Affection Reform in Urban Elementary Schools: Listening to the Voices of Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friend, Jennifer; Caruthers, Loyce

2009-01-01

This heuristic narratological inquiry used video-taped interviews and observations to explore the experiences of 145 urban students in grades one through six who also represented diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The goal of the study was to identify curricular and pedagogical strategies that enhance what students love about school,…

Only STEM Can Save Us? Examining Race, Place, and STEM Education as Property

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bullock, Erika C.

2017-01-01

The rhetoric about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in urban schools reflects a desire to imagine a new city that is poised to compete in a STEM-centered future. Therefore, STEM has been positioned as a critical part of urban education reform efforts. In various US cities, schools labeled as "failing"…

System Learning in an Urban School District: A Case Study of Intra-District Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Redding, Christopher; Cannata, Marisa; Miller, Jason M.

2018-01-01

This paper presents evidence from a unique reform model that allowed teachers and other educators in a large urban district to collaborate with one another in the development of an innovation meant to improve student ownership and responsibility. In this longitudinal case study, we describe school stakeholders' learning about the design, the…

Making the Grade in America's Cities: Assessing Student Achievement in Urban Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blagg, Kristin

2016-01-01

Many US education reform efforts focus on student performance in large, urban school districts. The National Assessment of Educational Progress's Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) program provides data on student achievement in these districts, but differences in student characteristics complicate comparisons of district performance. I use…

The Structure and Climate of Size: Small Scale Schooling in an Urban District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LeChasseur, Kimberly

2009-01-01

This study explores mechanisms involved in small scale schooling and student engagement. Specifically, this study questions the validity of arguments for small scale schooling reforms that confound the promised effects of small scale schooling "structures" (such as smaller enrollments, schools-within-schools, and smaller class sizes)…

"I'm Not Teaching English, I'm Teaching Something Else!": How New Teachers Create Curriculum under Mandates of Educational Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Costigan, Arthur

2018-01-01

This study presents how beginning teachers create and teach an English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum in urban schools in the context of an educational reform movement driven by mandates such as Common Core State Standards (CCSS), high stakes tests, and prescribed curricula. They serve in schools with each using unique and individual curricula due…

Educating Tomorrow's Workforce. Proceedings of the Conference of the University/Urban Schools National Task Force (11th, Charleston, South Carolina, November 3-4, 1989).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bossone, Richard M., Ed.; Polishook, Irwin H., Ed.

The conference reported in this document focused on the issues surrounding the progress of urban public schools in bringing about reforms aimed at providing the nation's future workforce with marketable skills, obtainable only through education. Section 1, "Perspectives on Educating Tomorrow's Workforce," contains the following articles:…

Philanthropic Due Diligence: Exploratory Case Studies To Improve Investments in Urban Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Christine; Harvey, James; DeArmond, Michael

This paper is designed to help funders avoid some of the pitfalls of embarking on major reform efforts in troubled urban districts, proposing exploratory case studies as a tool to improve philanthropic giving. The paper explains what is behind the two major flaws of philanthropic investment (not knowing how one thinks schools will improve and not…

Maggie and Me: A Black Professor and a White Urban School Teacher Connect Autoethnography to Critical Race Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Sherick A.

2008-01-01

The author's former College of Education encouraged faculty to implement pedagogy that responded fully to the needs of citizens in diverse situations, including the urban, metropolitan community they served. Such a vision requires, by default, a sincere effort to change or "reform" schools. Research endeavors involving the social and historical…

Exploring Issues of Support and Leadership in the Experiences of Prospective Teachers of Color: Retaining Minority Students and Producing Change Agents for Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill-Brisbane, Djanna; Easley-Mosby, Kenya

2006-01-01

One of the greatest challenges for the Unites States as a nation, and for Paterson, NJ in particular, is how to attract and retain academically and pedagogically talented teachers for urban schools--teachers who are committed to remain in those schools to do the difficult, long-term work of reform and renewal. This work is critical if urban…

Dismantling Rural Stereotypes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bryant, James A., Jr.

2010-01-01

The natural beauty that surrounds many rural schools hides the troubling realities that students in these schools frequently live in poverty and the schools struggle to give these students the education they need. James A. Bryant believes that one source of the problem is the fact that so many school reforms are designed with urban schools in…

Chicago's Private Elementary and Secondary Schools: Enrollment Trends.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Institute of Urban Life, Chicago, IL.

Nearly one out of every four students enrolled in Chicago's elementary and secondary schools during the 1987-88 school year attended one of the city's 450 private schools. Although frequently overlooked by city-wide educational reform programs, the private schools contribute to the urbanization of newcomers to the city, to the stability of…

Transforming City Schools through Art: Approaches to Meaningful K-12 Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hutzel, Karen; Bastos, Flavia M. C.; Cozier, Kimberly J.

2012-01-01

This anthology places art at the center of meaningful urban education reform. Providing a fresh perspective on urban education, the contributors describe a positive, asset-based community development model designed to tap into the teaching/learning potential already available in urban cities. Rather than focusing on a lack of resources, this…

Vocationalism and Its Promoters in British Columbia, 1900-1929.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunn, Timothy A.

1980-01-01

In British Columbia, the educational system was dramatically overhauled between 1900 and 1929, often in accordance with social reformers' suggestions. This paper examines one strand of that school reform as education's societal relationships changed and adapted with the transition to a maturing urban industrial province. (Author/SJL)

Elementary ELA/Social Studies Integration: Challenges and Limitations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heafner, Tina L.

2018-01-01

Adding instructional time and holding teachers accountable for teaching social studies are touted as practical, logical steps toward reforming the age-old tradition of marginalization. This qualitative case study of an urban elementary school, examines how nine teachers and one administrator enacted district reforms that added 45 minutes to the…

Future Imaginaries of Urban School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nespor, Jan

2016-01-01

Drawing on analytic heuristics from critical discourse analysis and cultural political economy (Jessop, 2010; Wodak, 2002), this article examines the temporal premises and "futures" embedded in a report and reform proposal created in a mid-sized, American city, Columbus, Ohio, in 2013. The product of a city-wide commission appointed in…

Thinking Big about Getting Small: An Ideological Genealogy of Small-School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kafka, Judith

2008-01-01

Background: Support for small schools, and specifically for the creation of small, autonomous schools of choice, has grown considerably in the past decade--particularly in the context of urban schooling. Funded by private and public monies, small-school initiatives have been implemented in most of the nation's city school districts and have become…

Single-Sex Schools, the Law, and School Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Frank; Russo, Charles J.

1999-01-01

Discusses the history of single-sex schools and analyzes the legal status of these schools, reviewing constitutional dimensions of gender-based discrimination and the leading cases that have been litigated on these issues. Offers reflections on why single-sex schools are not likely to hold a major place in the future of urban U.S. public schools.…

New York City's Small Public Schools: Opportunities for Achievement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brownell, Carol, Ed.; Libby, Joan

In 1994, four New York City school reform organizations joined to form the New York Networks for School Renewal (NYNSR) and received the first Annenberg Challenge urban grant. NYNSR goals are to expand the number of small, excellent public schools in New York City neighborhoods, particularly those with few educational options; encourage the spread…

Boarding Schools and Capital Benefits: Implications for Urban School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bass, Lisa R.

2014-01-01

The author discusses the boarding school model as a schooling alternative to improve life chances for disadvantaged youth, particularly African American youth, by positively meeting their social and educational needs. Bourdieu, Coleman, and other social scientists purported that these needs can be better met by exposing students to social and…

Building Relationships, Yielding Results: How Superintendents Can Work with School Boards to Create Productive Teams

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hackett, Julie L.

2015-01-01

In "Building Relationships, Yielding Results," the seasoned superintendent of an urban school district provides a clear road map for effective collaboration with school boards and the type of relationship-building required to achieve long-term, sustainable reforms. Instead of keeping school board members at arm's length or inundating…

Small-School Reform through the Lens of Complexity Theory: It's "Good to Think with"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McQuillan, Patrick J.

2008-01-01

Background/Context: In light of the consistent underperformance of the comprehensive high school, districts across the country, mostly urban, have begun creating small schools, believing that they may offer a more personalized, supportive, and demanding learning environment. To explore this assumption, this article examines small-school reform…

Conclusion to Higher Education's Role in Public School Reform and Community Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kronick, Robert F.; Lester, Jessica Nina; Luter, D. Gavin

2013-01-01

When this issue of "Peabody Journal of Education" was originally conceived, the authors of this article had several questions: What are universities doing to assist urban schools to meet their potential? How are universities leveraging human resources in service to schools, particularly as many such schools undergo restructuring? Do…

Education, Development, and the Rebuilding of Urban Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keith, Novella Z.; Keith, Nelson W.

The paper asks what are appropriate policies for urban school reform in the context of global transformations affecting cities in both developed and "Third World" countries. Features of this transformation include growing population diversity, a semi-permanent underclass, and the informal economy. Comprehensive community development…

Do Small Schools Improve Performance in Large, Urban Districts? Causal Evidence from New York City. Working Paper #01-12

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Amy Ellen; Stiefel, Leanna; Wiswall, Matthew

2012-01-01

We evaluate the effectiveness of small high school reform in the country's largest school district, New York City. Using a rich administrative dataset for multiple cohorts of students and distance between student residence and school to instrument for endogenous school selection, we find substantial heterogeneity in school effects: newly created…

Getting Districtwide Results

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McBeath, Angus

2006-01-01

This monograph is based on a keynote presentation by Angus McBeath at the "Getting Districtwide Results" Conference in Long Beach, California, which was co-sponsored by the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform and Focus on Results. The author, a former superintendent of the Edmonton Public Schools, how his school district was…

Motivations for Parent Involvement within a Community School Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mercanti-Anthony, Michael-Joseph

2012-01-01

Increasingly, education reform advocates have pointed to the growing community school movement as a partial answer to the myriad challenges facing urban public education. Rooted in the ideas of John Dewey, community schools are generally defined as localized community hubs of partnerships--often serving as sources of service distribution and…

School Turnaround Fever: The Paradoxes of a Historical Practice Promoted as a New Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peck, Craig; Reitzug, Ulrich C.

2014-01-01

School "turnaround" has received significant attention recently in education literature and policy action, especially as a means to dramatically improve urban education. In current common education usage, "turnaround" refers to the rapid, significant improvement in the academic achievement of persistently low-achieving schools.…

Is Desegregation Dead? Parsing the Relationship between Achievement and Demographics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eaton, Susan; Rivkin, Steven

2010-01-01

The Supreme Court declared in 1954 that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." Into the 1970s, urban education reform focused predominantly on making sure that African American students had the opportunity to attend school with their white peers. Now, however, most reformers take as a given that the typical low-income minority…

Value Organization Linkages, Educational Restructuring, and Historical Reforms.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wirt, Frederick M.

A century or more of reform in urban services, including schooling, has seen a competition over four core values: quality, equity, efficiency, and choice. These four are not always mutually compatible. Quality opposes equity and choice but is reinforced by efficiency, which is supported by equity. The choice value is incompatible with all the…

The Role of Teacher Leaders in Scaling Up Standards-Based Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, Judy; Snell, Jean; Koency, Gina; Berns, Barbara

This study examined 10 urban middle school teacher leaders who played significant roles in their districts' and states' large-scale standards reform efforts. Interviews, observations, and shadowing were conducted during the first year to examine the teachers' scope of work. Observations focused on teachers working with a range of students and with…

Urban Teachers Struggling within and against Neoliberal, Accountability-Era Policies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher-Ari, Teresa R.; Kavanagh, Kara M.; Martin, Anne

2017-01-01

As the educational community continues to consider the impact of the proliferation of accountability-aimed reform on students, schools, and communities, the consequences of said reforms on teachers must be included. Results of this study indicate that even distant, broad educational policies manifest in specific and profound ways in teachers'…

The Impact of High School Science Teachers' Beliefs, Curricular Enactments and Experience on Student Learning during an Inquiry-Based Urban Ecology Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNeill, Katherine L.; Pimentel, Diane Silva; Strauss, Eric G.

2013-01-01

Inquiry-based curricula are an essential tool for reforming science education yet the role of the teacher is often overlooked in terms of the impact of the curriculum on student achievement. Our research focuses on 22 teachers' use of a year-long high school urban ecology curriculum and how teachers' self-efficacy, instructional practices,…

Connecting Schools to Neighborhood Revitalization: The Case of the Maple Heights Neighborhood Association

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pesch, Lawrence P.

2014-01-01

This case study focuses on the way a neighborhood association connects schools to broad change in an urban neighborhood of a large Midwestern city. The first section provides a review of the literature on community involvement in school and neighborhood reform. It reviews the historical origins of the current school-community relationship, the…

New Pathways for Partnerships: An Exploration of How Partnering with Students Affects Teachers and Schooling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chopra, Cristine H.

2014-01-01

This "basic" qualitative study (Merriam, 2009) was designed to examine the ways school policy and leadership in the context of an intermediary partnership at one urban high school facilitated the creation of adult-student collaborations. Building on a growing literature on student "voice" in school reform, the study explored…

The Talent Development Middle School Model: Context, Components, and Initial Impacts on Students' Performance and Attendance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herlihy, Corinne M.; Kemple, James J.

2004-01-01

The Talent Development Middle School model was created to make a difference in struggling urban middle schools. The model is part of a trend in school improvement strategies whereby whole-school reform projects aim to improve performance and attendance outcomes for students through the use of major changes in both the organizational structure and…

Pendulum Swings in Educational Policymaking: The Effects of Organizational, School, Financial and Social Characteristics on Student Performance Outcomes in Michigan School Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dyson, Dana D.

2009-01-01

Reforms in American public education have not resolved the wide academic performance gap between students attending schools in poor, large, urban centers versus schools in wealthier areas. Aggregate performance outcomes on state achievement tests reveal that some school districts consistently outperform others, a few fluctuate over time but are…

Sustaining Leadership.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hargreaves, Andy; Fink, Dean

2003-01-01

Drawing on case studies of six urban and suburban secondary schools in Ontario, Canada, examines characteristics and role of school leaders in supporting and sustaining educational reform. Discusses three implications for developing sustainable leadership. For example, education systems should see leadership as a vertical system that extends for…

Making Sense of an Urban District's Adolescent Literacy Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patterson, Jean A.; Eubank, Heather; Rathbun, Shelia E.; Noble, Steve

2010-01-01

Weick's theory of sensemaking is used to analyze findings from a qualitative study of the implementation of a district-initiated adolescent intervention literacy course in two urban secondary schools. The authors concluded that implementation of the literacy course was hampered because district administrators, building leaders, teachers, and…

Exploring the Impacts of School Reforms on Underrepresented Urban Students' College Persistence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yavuz, Olcay

2016-01-01

This longitudinal quantitative study investigates how participation in the Comprehensive College Readiness Access and Success Program (CCRASP) affects underrepresented urban students' college persistence. Results revealed that CCRASP participation was associated with higher percentages of students enrolling in both 2- and 4-year colleges as…

Learning to Succeed at Scale. NACSA Monograph

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Higgins, Monica; Hess, Frederick M.

2008-01-01

Given the desperate plight of urban schooling and the disheartening track record of conventional reform, dynamic new ventures like the KIPP Academies, Edison, or Green Dot Public Schools are increasingly being asked to stand in for failing district schools. While promising, these ventures have thus far typically been characterized by "one-off"…

A Time for Priorities: Financing the Schools for the 70's.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Education Association, Washington, DC.

This document contains papers on: (1) proposals for national foundation programs; (2) state support of education; (3) tax reform at Federal, state, and local levels; and (4) contemporary problems in school finance, including equal educational opportunity, urban school finance, grants-in-aid, Federal income tax rebates to the States, voter behavior…

Local Politics and Portfolio Management Models: National Reform Ideas and Local Control

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bulkley, Katrina E.; Henig, Jeffrey R.

2015-01-01

Amid the growth of charter schools, autonomous schools, and private management organizations, an increasing number of urban districts are moving toward a portfolio management model (PMM). In a PMM, the district central office oversees schools that operate under a variety of governance models. The expansion of PMMs raises questions about local…

Perceptions of Care: Self Reflections of Women Teachers of African Descent Who Teach in Urban Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abioro, Elizabeth

2010-01-01

Discussions and debates about the educational system in the United States continue to center on curriculum and school reform. However, many children in America's public schools suffer from existing "life hazards" including social isolation, poverty, neglect, drug abuse, violence, school failure, and the breakdown of traditional family…

Community Schools as Urban District Reform: Analyzing Oakland's Policy Landscape through Oral Histories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trujillo, Tina M.; Hernández, Laura E.; Jarrell, Tonja; Kissell, René

2014-01-01

The purpose of this article is to investigate the multiple political histories that have coalesced to produce support for or resistance to the Oakland Unified School District's full-service community schools policy. It analyzes oral history interview data from eight stakeholders who represent the district's major constituencies to explore the…

The Proving Grounds: School "Rheeform" in Washington, D.C.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dingerson, Leigh

2010-01-01

Washington, D.C., is leading the transformation of urban public education across the country--at least according to "Time" magazine, which featured D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee on its cover, wearing black and holding a broom. But there is nothing remarkably visionary going on in Washington. The model of school reform that is…

City Schools as Mirrors of Modern Urban Life.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, Gregory S.; Markowitz, Ruth Jacknow; Taylor, Clarence; Rousmaniere, Kate

2001-01-01

Reviews four books that examine educational topics that are closely linked to the history of cities. Three are rooted in the contentious, complex story of education in New York City, focusing on: Jewish women as the dominant group of public school teachers, progressive reform agendas, and school desegregation movements. The fourth examines school…

Sectorial Relations & Chicago School Reform: A Preliminary View from the Foundation Sector. A Working Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKersie, William S.

Are sectorial relations among nonprofit organizations, business, and government truly dependent, or are they instead a complex mix of dependent and independent actions? This working paper is based on a dissertation in progress, which is a comparative analysis of how private foundations influence the reform of urban public education. It compares…

Highway to Reform: The Coupling of District Reading Policy and Instructional Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woulfin, Sarah L.

2015-01-01

This article presents findings on teachers' implementation of a reading reform in an urban school district. Findings are based in observation, interview, and document data related to 12 elementary teachers' responses to a new reading program, the Teachers College Reading and Writing Workshop. Utilizing coupling theory and the concept of routines,…

Institutional Pressures and Isomorphic Change: The Case of New York City's Department of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carolan, Brian V.

2008-01-01

Many urban school districts have recently implemented sweeping reforms that alter the ways in which educational services are administered. The environment in which these reforms are embedded is increasingly and more directly tied to core political institutions and business elites. Hence, as this dependence has grown, districts have become more…

When Adopting a School Is Not Enough: Business Leadership in Reforming Public Education. Cresap Insight.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smoley, Eugene, Jr.

This document discusses the desirability of creating a synergistic business/education relationship. The most pressing problems of urban education and education reform are not conceptual or analytic, but managerial. Dysfunctional public education will affect business in the future because the products of the education system will enter the work…

Civic Sport: Using High School Athletics to Teach Civic Values in the Progressive Era

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stacy, Michelle

2015-01-01

The development of basketball and athletics during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries reflected a greater movement of education reform, civic development, and gender in the United States. In the twentieth century, Progressive Era reformers sought to remedy the ills of society such as urbanization, industrialization, and the lack of…

Brain Drain in the Rust Belt: Can Educational Reform Help to Build Civic Capacity in Struggling Communities?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitra, Dana L.; Movit, Marcela; Frick, William

2008-01-01

City leaders increasingly have hoped that school reform can spark a renaissance in struggling communities. Using the lens of building civic capacity, this article examines efforts to revitalize "Milltown"--a small urban community that has been devastated by the loss of manufacturing jobs. Analysis of interview and written documents identifies…

Public Housing Reform and Neighborhood Schools: How Local Contexts "Must" Matter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smrekar, Claire

2009-01-01

In 1992, Congress enacted the HOPE VI program to overhaul the nation's public housing policy. The reform legislation was prompted by a report commissioned by Congress that deemed two-thirds of all public housing "severely distressed." Since the landmark public housing policy was enacted in 1992, the Department of Housing and Urban Development…

The High Cost of Failing to Reform Public Education in Texas. School Choice Issues in the State

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gottlob, Brian J.

2008-01-01

Research has documented a crisis in Texas high school graduation rates. Only 67 percent of Texas students graduate from high school, and some large urban districts have graduation rates of 50 percent or lower. This study documents the public costs of high school dropouts in Texas and examines how school choice could provide large public benefits…

"I've Never Seen People Work So Hard!" Teachers' Working Conditions in the Early Stages of School Turnaround

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cucchiara, Maia Bloomfield; Rooney, Erin; Robertson-Kraft, Claire

2015-01-01

School turnaround--a reform strategy that strives for quick and dramatic transformation of low-performing schools--has gained prominence in recent years. This study uses interviews and focus groups conducted with 86 teachers in 13 schools during the early stages of school turnaround in a large urban district to examine teachers' perceptions of the…

High School 2.0: Can Philadephia's School of the Future Live up to Its Name?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mezzacappa, Dale

2010-01-01

In 2003, leaders at the School District of Philadelphia, district CEO Paul Vallas and chairman of the School Reform Commission James Nevels, enlisted the help of the Microsoft Corporation in a bold effort: reshape the archaic 19th-century high school model to better prepare students, especially urban students, to live and work in the 21st century.…

The Role of Teacher Quality in Retention and Hiring: Using Applications to Transfer to Uncover Preferences of Teachers and Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boyd, Don; Lankford, Hamp; Loeb, Susanna; Ronfeldt, Matthew; Wyckoff, Jim

2011-01-01

Many large urban school districts are rethinking their personnel management strategies, often giving increased control to schools in the hiring of teachers, reducing, for example, the importance of seniority. If school hiring authorities are able to make good decisions about whom to hire, these reforms have the potential to benefit schools and…

Privatization and Its Impact on Urban School Reform: Table Top Theory as a Guiding Conceptual Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Bruce Anthony

2008-01-01

This article focuses on the growing role of the private sector in public education and the implications of this role on issues of social justice and leadership in public schooling. In the USA, until the early 1980s, teachers, school administrators, and professional school staff provided leadership in areas of curriculum and instructional…

Linked Learning as a High School Transformation Strategy: Organizational Structures and Leadership Behaviors That Support Lasting Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weiss, Elizabeth Rocio

2016-01-01

Linked Learning is an approach that has proven effective in transforming the learning experiences for high school students. An instrumental case study was conducted in a large urban district in Southern California where district and school leaders implemented Linked Learning as a systemic high school reform initiative. Analysis of the data…

Improving Low-Achieving Schools: Building State Capacity to Support School Improvement through Race to the Top

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Childs, Joshua; Russell, Jennifer Lin

2017-01-01

Improving low-achieving schools is a critical challenge facing urban education. Recent national policy shifts have pressed states to take an expanded role in school improvement efforts. In 2009, a federal grant competition called Race to the Top (RttT) compelled states to improve their capacity to implement ambitious education reform agendas.…

The High School "Space Race": Implications of a School-Choice Market Environment for a Michigan Metropolitan Region

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Militello, Matthew; Metzger, Scott Alan; Bowers, Alex J.

2008-01-01

This article examines the implications of competition between school districts in a mid-Michigan metropolitan area. Over the 10-year period after Michigan's major school-funding reform in 1994, many urban and suburban districts found themselves competing for per-pupil state funding. Suburban districts need extra students to make up budgetary…

Peeling Back the Layers of Policy and School Reform: Revealing the Structural and Social Complexities within

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodside-Jiron, Haley; Gehsmann, Kristin M.

2009-01-01

This article explores the complex process of school change over a six-year period in one high-poverty, urban elementary school in a northeastern city of the United States. The school included in this instrumental case study was identified by its State Department of Education as "being in need of improvement" in March 2000. Findings…

Navigating Public-Private Partnerships: Introducing the Continuum of Control

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DiMartino, Catherine

2014-01-01

In many urban districts, the public education landscape is being transformed as private-sector providers such as educational management organizations, charter management organizations, and partner support organizations partner with or run district schools. While some private-sector providers' visions for school reform have remained static…

The Things they Carry: Ideology in an Urban Teacher Professional Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abbate-Vaughn, Jorgelina

2004-01-01

This article provides an opportunity to extend the discussion about teacher communities as part of complex school reform models, specifically centered on those communities whose membership is drawn on a semi-voluntary basis. Through a sixteen-month long ethnography, I document the activities of an urban teacher professional community (TPC) at a…

Planning Science Instruction for Critical Thinking: Two Urban Elementary Teachers' Responses to a State Science Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mangiante, Elaine Silva

2013-01-01

Science education reform standards have shifted focus from exploration and experimentation to evidence-based explanation and argumentation to prepare students with knowledge for a changing workforce and critical thinking skills to evaluate issues requiring increasing scientific literacy. However, in urban schools serving poor, diverse populations,…

Organizational "Failure" and Institutional Pluralism: A Case Study of an Urban School Closure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deeds, Vontrese; Pattillo, Mary

2015-01-01

We use the framework of institutional pluralism to provide new insights into a controversial process of market-based reform-school closures. School closure is a shock that highlights the dynamics and definitions of failure and surfaces values and meanings that might otherwise be hidden from consideration. Using qualitative data from a closing…

School Improvements and Student Achievement: Teachers' Conceptions and Practices in an Urban School Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Jendayi Johari

2012-01-01

This mixed-methods study is represented by three articles that examine student achievement. The articles were developed based on the following purposes: (1) to examine teachers' conceptions about student achievement; (2) to examine teacher practices for school improvement that reflects elements of a reform model; and (3) to examine teachers'…

Healthier Students Are Better Learners: A Missing Link in School Reforms to Close the Achievement Gap

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Basch, Charles E.

2011-01-01

Objectives: This article provides an introduction to the October 2011 special issue of the "Journal of School Health" on "Healthier Students Are Better Learners." Methods: Literature was reviewed and synthesized to identify health problems affecting school-aged youth that are highly prevalent, disproportionately affect urban minority youth,…

Teacher Migration: Extension and Application of the Population Ecology Model to Explore Teacher Transfers in a Reform Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hochbein, Craig; Carpenter, Bradley

2017-01-01

This article assesses the association between the Title I School Improvement Grant (SIG) program's personnel replacement policy and teacher employment patterns within an urban school district. Hannan and Freeman's population ecology model allowed the authors to consider schools within districts as individual organizations nested within a larger…

Segregation, Desegregation, Segregation: Charter School Options as a Return to Separate and Unequal Schools for Urban Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chapman, Thandeka K.

2018-01-01

The controversial glory of the "Brown" decisions and the retraction of court-ordered reforms represent the limited gains of racial justice in education and the protection of white privilege through law and policy. The return to segregation, as propagated through the rise of racially and economically segregated charter schools, exhibits…

The Impact of Career Academy Programs on Student Achievement in a New Jersey Urban High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmad, Abdul-Azeem

2009-01-01

The Talent Development High School (TDHS) reform model, with career academy programs, was introduced at Randolph High School. Three academies were implemented, one called the Arts and Humanities Academy (A&H) focused on careers in creative arts, law, and public service; another titled the Business and Industrial Technology Academy (BAIT) was…

Improving School Leadership through Support, Evaluation, and Incentives: The Pittsburgh Principal Incentive Program. Monograph

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamilton, Laura S.; Engberg, John; Steiner, Elizabeth D.; Nelson, Catherine Awsumb; Yuan, Kun

2012-01-01

In 2007, the Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) received funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) program to implement the Pittsburgh Urban Leadership System for Excellence (PULSE), a set of reforms designed to improve the quality of school leadership throughout the district. A major component of PULSE is the…

School Algebra Reform: Meeting the Grade?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Telese, James A.

This paper reports on a case study that was conducted at five high schools from a large, urban school district located in South Texas. The purpose of the study was to gain an understanding of Algebra 1 teaching strategies. The research questions were: (1) What is the predominant mode of instruction for Algebra 1? and (2) What is the level of…

Forces for Failure and Genocide: The Plantation Model of Urban Educational Policy Making in St. Louis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Bruce Anthony

2005-01-01

This article is about policy decision making and racial politics in the St. Louis, Missouri, school district. From a research standpoint, traditional policymaking models are inadequate for explaining the evolution of school reform events in St. Louis over the past year. Teachers, principals, school staff, and parents perceive themselves to be…

Can Instructional Reform in Urban Middle Schools Help Students Narrow the Mathematics Performance Gap? Some Evidence from the QUASAR Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silver, Edward A.; Lane, Suzanne

1995-01-01

Compared mathematical performance of middle school students in low-income communities involved in the QUASAR project to those of a demographically similar school and of a nationally representative sample. QUASAR mathematics instruction emphasizes reasoning, problem-solving, and understanding. Quasar students outperformed NAEP's disadvantaged urban…

Parental Involvement: What Counts, Who Counts It, and Does It Help?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flessa, Joseph

2008-01-01

When asked to explain why so many urban schools show unsatisfactory results on academic or social measures, principals routinely and quickly turn to descriptions of parents. In other words, when seeking to explain why work within a school is so difficult or why reform initiatives have been unsuccessful, many principals point outside the school.…

Mayoral Governance and Student Achievement: How Mayor-Led Districts Are Improving School and Student Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Kenneth K.; Shen, Francis X.

2013-01-01

Mayoral control and accountability is one of very few major education reforms that aim at governance coherence in this nation's highly fragmented urban school systems. A primary feature of mayoral governance is that it holds the office of the mayor accountable for school performance. As an institutional redesign, mayoral governance integrates…

The Logistics of Implementing a Field-Based Comprehensive School Reform Initiative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reeves, Dawn E.

2014-01-01

This research is a qualitative, reflective case study regarding a cohort in the form of a district-university partnership between the Oak Park Schools in Oak Park, Michigan and the College of Education at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The initiators of the program envisioned a more successful urban school district by offering…

The Study of Bureaucracy in Urban Education: Bill Boyd on the Organizational Dynamics of Large-City School Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crowson, Robert L.

2011-01-01

William Lowe Boyd's extraordinarily wide scope of intellectual interests is well represented in a rich mix of publications and presentations during his career. His work ranges from analyses of choice in education to matters of productivity, children's services, comparative school reform, educational leadership, school-community relations,…

A Professional Learning Community to Improve Literacy at a Minority Urban High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCallum, Salimah A.

2012-01-01

Despite No Child Left Behind legislation, there has been little significant progress in literacy for African American and Hispanic high school students. This issue reflects a failing school system and an urgent need for educational reform in the United States. Using social cognitive theory as the conceptual framework, this qualitative study…

The Case of Rivera Elementary School: The Politics of Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maxcy, Brendan D.; Nguyen, Thu Suong T.

2013-01-01

This case involves a struggle for control among differently situated leaders--district- and building-level administrators, teachers, parents and community members, and university partners--seeking to influence the reform agenda of a high-poverty urban elementary school serving Latina/Latino students. The various stakeholders encounter a variety of…

The Role of Teacher Quality in Retention and Hiring: Using Applications-to-Transfer to Uncover Preferences of Teachers and Schools. NBER Working Paper No. 15966

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boyd, Donald; Lankford, Hamilton; Loeb, Susanna; Ronfeldt, Matthew; Wyckoff, James

2010-01-01

Many large urban school districts are rethinking their personnel management strategies, often giving increased control to schools in the hiring of teachers, reducing, for example, the importance of seniority. If school hiring authorities are able to make good decisions about whom to hire, these reforms have the potential to benefit schools and…

Charters in Our Midst: The Impact of Charter Schools on School Districts. A National Discussion with Views from Rural and Urban School Districts. [Booklets with Audiotapes].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

North Central Regional Educational Lab., Oak Brook, IL.

Along with national standards, charter schools are one of the most significant forces in education reform today. To their proponents, charter schools are revolutionary forces that help bring public education to world-class standards of quality. To skeptics, however, these forces threaten to undermine, or even destroy, this country's 150-year old…

The Paradox of Success at a No-Excuses School

PubMed Central

Golann, Joanne W.

2016-01-01

No recent reform has had so profound an effect as no-excuses schools in increasing the achievement of low-income, black and Hispanic students. In the past decade, no-excuses schools—whose practices include extended instructional time, data-driven instruction, ongoing professional development, and a highly structured disciplinary system—have emerged as one of the most influential urban school-reform models. Yet almost no research has been conducted on the everyday experiences of students and teachers inside these schools. Drawing from 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork inside one no-excuses school and interviews with 92 school administrators, teachers, and students, I argue that even in a school promoting social mobility, teachers still reinforce class-based skills and behaviors. Because of these schools’ emphasis on order as a prerequisite to raising test scores, teachers stress behaviors that undermine success for middle-class children. As a consequence, these schools develop worker-learners—children who monitor themselves, hold back their opinions, and defer to authority—rather than lifelong learners.i I discuss the implications of these findings for market-based educational reform, inequality, and research on noncognitive skills. PMID:27226655

Child, family, and community characteristics associated with school readiness in Jordan

PubMed Central

Al-Hassan, Suha M.; Lansford, Jennifer E.

2010-01-01

The present study investigated demographic differences in school readiness within Jordan, a particularly interesting context because of wide-spread national reform currently sweeping the education system in Jordan. Teacher reports and researcher direct assessments of the school readiness of a national sample of 4,681 Jordanian first grade children were used to describe the levels of school readiness of children with respect to seven demographic characteristics. Higher levels of school readiness were associated with male gender, higher family income, higher paternal education, higher maternal education, smaller family size, fewer siblings, and urban residence. Taken together, the findings highlight the importance of Jordanian education reform, one aim of which is to improve the school readiness of all children by implementing public kindergartens, especially in poor, rural areas. PMID:21132066

Urban District Central Office Transformation for Teaching and Learning Improvement: Beyond a Zero-Sum Game

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Honig, Meredith I.; Lorton, Juli Swinnerton; Copland, Michael A.

2009-01-01

Over the past 15 years, a growing number of mid-sized to large school district central offices have engaged in radical reforms to strengthen teaching and learning for all students districtwide. Such efforts mark a significant change in urban educational governance. The authors call these efforts "district central office transformation for teaching…

Antecedents of Teachers' Educational Beliefs about Mathematics and Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching among In-Service Teachers in High Poverty Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corkin, Danya M.; Ekmekci, Adem; Papakonstantinou, Anne

2015-01-01

This paper examines the antecedents of three types of educational beliefs about mathematics among 151 teachers predominantly working in high poverty schools. Studies across various countries have found that teachers in high poverty schools are less likely to enact instructional approaches that align with mathematics reform standards set by…

The Art of Collaboration: Promising Practices for Integrating the Arts and School Reform. AEP Research and Policy Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, Andrew L.

2008-01-01

In June 2007, the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) convened the directors of eight collaborative entities to discuss promising practices for integrating the arts into the lives and curricula of urban public schools as a means of fostering system-wide educational improvement. The seven school-community collaboratives and one higher education…

Developing a Psychology of Learning in the Field: Pre-service Mentoring of At-Risk Middle School Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Navarro, Virginia

This narrative recounts the process of developing and implementing a field component in a preservice course on the psychology of teaching and learning at a large urban school of education. The professional development model of integrated school reform was used as a theoretical base. The field component of the course had two strands: reflective…

In the Midst of Transformation: Reflections from the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Route-Chatmon, LaShawn

2007-01-01

The Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BayCES) has been working to build the capacity of people to transform the educational experiences and outcomes of underserved students in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area for more than 15 years. BayCES supports people in urban districts and schools undergoing reform efforts to improve their…

Instructional Partnerships to Extend Learning in Urban High Schools: Lessons from New York City and Boston

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foley, Eileen M.; Allender, Sara; Cooc, North; Edwards, Sara; Riley, Derek R.; Reisner, Elizabeth R.

2009-01-01

Late in 2007 New Visions for Public Schools, a New York City reform organization, received a grant from the C.S. Mott Foundation to organize select high schools and community partners into delivery systems that could improve student achievement. New Visions asked Policy Studies Associates, Inc. to provide research support for this effort in the…

Leadership Matters: Supporting Administrators through First Year Implementation of a Standards-Based Evaluation System in a Small Urban School District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Esmont, Leah W.

2014-01-01

Education policymakers at the national level have initiated reforms in K-12 education for that past several years that have focused on teacher quality and teacher evaluation. More recently, reforms have included legislation that focuses on administrator quality as well. Included in far-reaching recent legislation in Arizona is a requirement that…

Using Postschool Outcome Data To Improve Practices and Policies in Restructured Inclusive High Schools. Research Institute on Secondary Education Reform (RISER) for Youth with Disabilities Brief.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mooney, Marianne; Phelps, L. Allen; Anctil, Tina M.

This paper reports on an ongoing 5-year study on practices and policies that improve postschool outcomes for students with disabilities in significantly restructured high schools. Four high schools with strong internal accountability measures are subjects of an intensive longitudinal study. The schools are in both urban and smaller communities in…

Successful Leadership in Urban Schools: Principals and Critical Spirituality, a New Approach to Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dantley, Michael E.

2010-01-01

This article offers an alternative perspective on educational leadership based on the tenets of critical spirituality. It offers an educational leadership grounded in critical theory and African American spirituality. The two coalesce to provide school leaders with a conceptual frame that not only centers on academic achievement but academic…

The Political Dynamics of Mayoral Engagement in Public Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Kenneth K.

2006-01-01

Like many urban reform strategies, mayoral leadership in education has both proponents and skeptics. On the one hand, proponents argue that mayor-led initiatives have the potential to transform low-performing schools and to hold schools and students accountable to systemwide standards. On the other hand, skeptics see mayoral involvement as…

Teacher Labor Markets in Developing Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vegas, Emiliana

2007-01-01

Emiliana Vegas surveys strategies used by the world's developing countries to fill their classrooms with qualified teachers. With their low quality of education and wide gaps in student outcomes, schools in developing countries strongly resemble hard-to-staff urban U.S. schools. Their experience with reform may thus provide insights for U.S.…

A Large Urban District's Implementation of Turnaround Policy and Practice at the High School Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freshwater, Ross

2012-01-01

The 2001 reauthorization of the Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), otherwise known as No Child Left Behind, requires those schools which fail to make "adequate yearly progress" for five consecutive years to enter into "restructuring." Further clarified by the Obama administration's Blueprint for Reform,…

Typologizing School-Community Partnerships: A Framework for Analysis and Action

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valli, Linda; Stefanski, Amanda; Jacobson, Reuben

2016-01-01

School-community partnerships are currently in the forefront of place-based urban reform efforts. But the literature on these partnerships indicates a variety of models that require different commitments and resources. Through a close review of the literature, we developed a typology of four partnership categories organized from the least to the…

Urban School Leadership for Elementary Science Education: Meeting the Needs of English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alarcon, Maricela H.

2012-01-01

Science education reform and state testing accountability call upon principals to become instructional leaders in science. Specifically, elementary school principals must take an active role in science instruction to effectively improve science education for all students including English Language Learners. As such, the research questioned posed…

Successes and Challenges in Triangulating Methodologies in Evaluations of Exemplary Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Towns, Donna Penn; Serpell, Zewelanji

2004-01-01

The Exemplary Schools study at Howard University's Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk (CRESPAR) was designed to aid the program in its goal toward developing and implementing a reform model that "overdetermines" success for all students. The Talent Development (TD) principle of "overdetermination of success" argues…

Investing in Urban School Leadership: Creating a Profile of Career Principals to Inform Identification, Recruitment, and Retention in the School District of Philadelphia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nixon, Penny Sparks

2013-01-01

The principalship has evolved dramatically and become far more complex. Everyday, school leaders are reshaping their roles because of the internal and external pressures associated with the job. Currently, the reform agenda across the country focuses almost entirely on the states and federal government's demand to improve student performance.…

Wave of the Future: Why Charter Schools Should Replace Failing Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smarick, Andy

2008-01-01

In a decade and a half, the charter school movement has gone from a glimmer in the eyes of a few Minnesota reformers to a maturing sector of America's public education system. Now, like all 15-year-olds, chartering must find its own place in the world. First, advocates must answer a fundamental question: What type of relationship should the…

Behind the Photos and the Tears: Media Images, Neoliberal Discourses, Racialized Constructions of Space and School Closings in Chicago

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allweiss, Alexandra; Grant, Carl A.; Manning, Karla

2015-01-01

This critical article provides insights into how media frames influence our understandings of school reform in urban spaces by examining images of students during the 2013 school closings in Chicago. Using visual framing analysis and informed by framing theory and critiques of neoliberalism we seek to explore two questions: (1) What role do media…

Restructuring the Schools. Proceedings: Conference of the University/Urban Schools National Task Force (9th, Nashville, Tennessee, November 6-7, 1987).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bossone, Richard M., Ed.; Polishook, Irwin H., Ed.

These proceedings from a conference on restructuring the schools present a variety of perspectives for instituting educational change. Consideration of the theme allowed a review of the failures of educational reform, and a survey of current trends. There was a call for less rhetoric and more attention to comprehensive insights and plans that will…

Educational Equity in Poor Urban Contexts--Exploring Issues of Place/Space and Young People's Identity and Agency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raffo, Carlo

2011-01-01

An enduring concern for educational policy in many affluent countries is the endemic nature of educational inequalities that are predominately located in poor urban contexts. Given the inabilities of school reform "per se" to deal with these inequalities, the paper focuses on issues of scarcity and spatial processes that are implicated…

The New Curriculum and the Urban-Rural Literacy Gap: The Case of One County in Western China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Dan

2011-01-01

This article aims to explore the impact of the new curriculum reform launched in 2001 urban-rural achievement disparities. It documents a pilot study on teachers' experiences in teaching literacy to children in primary one in a poverty-stricken county in western China. Interviews with teachers in various types of schools indicate that the…

When Good Intentions and Reality Meet: Large-Scale Reform of Science Teaching in Urban Schools with Predominantly Latino ELL Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Carla C.; Bolshakova, Virginia L. J.; Waldron, Tammy

2016-01-01

This study examined the ability of Transformative Professional Development (TPD) to transform science teacher quality and associated impact on science achievement, including particular focus on English Language Learners (ELL). TPD was implemented in a large, low-performing, urban district in the southwest with predominantly Latino ELL populations.…

Muffled by the Din: The Competitive Noneffects of the Cleveland Voucher Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hess, Frederick M.; McGuinn, Patrick J.

2002-01-01

Examines how the introduction of the Cleveland voucher experiment in 1995 affected the administration and leadership of Cleveland's public schools. As of summer 2001, the program has produced virtually no visible effects. Results suggest that choice-based reform may not spur improvement in urban school systems, at least in the short term or when…

Appendix: Case Studies. Strong Neighborhoods, Strong Schools. The Indicators Project on Education Organizing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gold, Eva; Simon, Elaine; Brown, Chris; Blanc, Suzanne; Pickron-Davis, Marcine; Brown, Joanna; Navarez-La Torre, Aida

This report presents summaries of five case studies from the Indicators Project on Education Organizing, which was designed to examine the role of community organizing in school reform. For over 2 years, this action research project documented the education organizing of five urban groups. The research developed an Education Organizing Indicators…

Implementation of Response to Intervention in Urban Elementary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morning, Karen Vanessa

2012-01-01

Education has been under major reform since the passing of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Under the NCLB Act states have set benchmark goals to measure whether districts and schools are making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) toward ensuring that all children are proficient in reading and math by 2014. Lack of progress in reading has…

Understanding Teacher Identity from a Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: Two Ethnographic Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smit, Brigitte; Fritz, Elzette

2008-01-01

In this ethnographic inquiry we portray two teacher narratives reflecting educational change in the context of two South African schools. The study was conducted as part of a larger inquiry into ten schools in urban South Africa. A decade of democracy begs some attention to educational progress and reform, from the viewpoint of teachers and with…

Accessing Choice: A Mixed-Methods Examination of How Latino Parents Engage in the Educational Marketplace

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mavrogordato, Madeline; Stein, Marc

2016-01-01

School choice has become a cornerstone of education reform plans across the nation especially in urban settings where immigrant populations often settle. Latino enrollment in charter schools has increased accordingly. Yet, little is known about how Latino parents, who arguably face significant linguistic, cultural, and economic barriers, engage in…

No Stone Left Unturned: Exploring the Convergence of New Capitalism in Inclusive Education in the U.S.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waitoller, Federico R.; Kozleski, Elizabeth B.

2015-01-01

This paper examines how inclusive education reform is appropriated when New Capitalism work practices dominate the discourse of school improvement in an urban school. We asked how New Capitalism mediates the formation of a professional vision for inclusive education. Using analytical tools from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), we analyzed…

New Roles for Teachers Unions? Reform Unionism in School Decentralization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donaldson, Morgaen L.; Mayer, Anysia P.; Cobb, Casey D.; LeChasseur, Kimberly; Welton, Anjale

2013-01-01

Of late, teachers unions have worked together with district management in new and notable ways. This paper examines the role of teachers unions in shaping the Together Initiative (TI), which seeks to increase autonomy and broaden decision making in urban schools in one northeastern state. In general, state-level union leaders have taken more…

Desirable Places: Spatial Representations and Educational Strategies in the Inner City

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larsson, Eric; Hultqvist, Elisabeth

2018-01-01

This article examines how the outcome of neoliberal educational reforms has affected urban schooling in the inner city of Stockholm--making it into a centralized nexus or a 'hot-spot' for students and schools. The aim is to analyse how geographical place and space have become major distinctive criteria in inner-city students' educational…

Misinterpreting School Reform: The Dissolution of a Dual-Immersion Bilingual Program in an Urban New England Elementary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warhol, Larisa; Mayer, Anysia

2012-01-01

This article explores local state bilingual-education policy vis-a-vis pervasive dominant-language ideologies about language-education policy and practice. State-level language-education policy, especially for English Language Learners (ELs), spans a wide range, from states that through policy legally require some form of bilingual education to…

Make Something Happen. Hispanics and Urban High School Reform. Volume I. Report of the National Commission on Secondary Education for Hispanics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hispanic Policy Development Project, Inc., New York, NY.

This document provides an account of the status of Hispanics in inner-city public high schools, and recommendations for improving that status. The report has two main parts. The first gives background data which reveal, among other things, that although the majority of Hispanic students enter high school with aspirations as high as any social…

Community Engagement through Collective Efficacy: Building Partnerships in an Urban Community to Encourage Collective Action to Increase Student Achievement in a Neighborhood School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mc Mullen, Vickie

2012-01-01

The challenge of ensuring educational equity, closing the achievement gap between African American students and White students attending public schools has gone on for half a century. As we enter the twenty-first century, neither educational reforms enacted by the public school system nor legislative actions, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of…

Teaching with Speeches: A Black Teacher Who Uses the Mathematics Classroom to Prepare Students for Life

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Whitney; Nyamekye, Farhaana; Chazan, Daniel; Rosenthal, Bill

2013-01-01

Background/Context: Teachers in urban schools are sometimes seen as a large part of the problem with such schools. They are often spoken of as not knowing the content they need to know to teach, and they are not seen as committed to excellence or to reform-minded teaching; therefore, they are not seen as a resource for school improvement.…

The University of Indianapolis Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowship Program: Reviewing the Policy Implications of University-Based Urban Clinical Residency Programs in STEM Teacher Preparation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drake, Jennifer; Moran, Kathryn; Sachs, Deb; Angelov, Azure Dee Smiley; Wheeler, Lynn

2011-01-01

Recent research suggests the need for more intensive clinically-based teacher preparation programs. Many institutions of higher education, in partnership with school districts and education reform organizations, are responding to these findings. This article focuses on the experience of administrators and faculty in one urban teacher residency…

Learning to See with a Third Eye: Working to Address Inequity Effectively

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bambino, Debbie

2005-01-01

A few years ago the National School Reform Faculty (NSRF) revised its mission statement to include language about working to "foster educational and social equity." The revision makes sense to the author as a graduate student in urban education and a former Philadelphia middle school teacher, as well as in her role as a facilitator of Critical…

Equity for Cities in School Finance Reform: A Case for an "Equal Educational Offering" Standard in Public Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silard, John; And Others

In this study, focus is upon the question of the standard for educational expenditure rather than on the alternative taxing methods for securing school district funding equalization. Chapter I begins by examining the major issues vital to urban education which the "Serrano" principle leaves unresolved. Then in Chapter II, particular elements of…

Getting Schooled on Resistance: Dominant and Counter Narratives of Writing and the Circulation of Power in Urban School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Urbanski, Cynthia Diane

2012-01-01

Michel Foucault argues that power is everywhere, all of the time. He describes it as concrete, "capillary," acting in, on and through the actual body. All "knowledge" and "truth" is an effect of that power which is why power and knowledge are integrally related. Power/knowledge produces social positioning. In this…

From Forty-to-One to One-to-One: Eliminating the Digital Divide and Making Equity Actionable

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mucetti, Rosanna

2017-01-01

This article shows how the adoption of technology may serve as a catalyst for deeper, systemic reforms. This article shares a local case of organizational learning in which a midsize California urban school district faithfully acted on a technology goal nested in its strategic plan. Through this experience, the school district demonstrated various…

Learning to teach science in urban schools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tobin, Kenneth; Roth, Wolff-Michael; Zimmermann, Andrea

2001-10-01

Teaching in urban schools, with their problems of violence, lack of resources, and inadequate funding, is difficult. It is even more difficult to learn to teach in urban schools. Yet learning in those locations where one will subsequently be working has been shown to be the best preparation for teaching. In this article we propose coteaching as a viable model for teacher preparation and the professional development of urban science teachers. Coteaching - working at the elbow of someone else - allows new teachers to experience appropriate and timely action by providing them with shared experiences that become the topic of their professional conversations with other coteachers (including peers, the cooperating teacher, university supervisors, and high school students). This article also includes an ethnography describing the experiences of a new teacher who had been assigned to an urban high school as field experience, during which she enacted a curriculum that was culturally relevant to her African American students, acknowledged their minority status with respect to science, and enabled them to pursue the school district standards. Even though coteaching enables learning to teach and curricula reform, we raise doubts about whether our approaches to teacher education and enacting science curricula are hegemonic and oppressive to the students we seek to emancipate through education.

Predicting Urban Elementary Student Success and Passage on Ohio's High-Stakes Achievement Measures Using DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency and Informal Math Concepts and Applications: An Exploratory Study Employing Hierarchical Linear Modeling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merkle, Erich Robert

2011-01-01

Contemporary education is experiencing substantial reform across legislative, pedagogical, and assessment dimensions. The increase in school-based accountability systems has brought forth a culture where states, school districts, teachers, and individual students are required to demonstrate their efficacy towards improvement of the educational…

Senge's Learning Organization: Leadership in an Urban High School in Northeast Alabama

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gary, Cedella Ceci

2010-01-01

The integration of art and instruction at the secondary level has not been promoted as a school reform as much as it might be. One reason for the lack of attention paid to the integration of arts and academics may be that the relationship between leadership traits and this interdisciplinary approach has not been defined. The purpose of this study…

Urban adolescent mothers exposed to community, family, and partner violence: is cumulative violence exposure a barrier to school performance and participation?

PubMed

Kennedy, Angie C; Bennett, Larry

2006-06-01

Using a risk and resilience perspective, the authors assessed urban adolescent mothers' exposure to community, family, and partner violence and analyzed the relationships between cumulative violence exposure and multiple school outcomes, within the context of welfare reforms. Positive attitude toward school and social support were examined as moderators of violence exposure on school outcomes. The authors pilot tested the questionnaire with 10 participants, then surveyed 120 adolescent mothers regarding their violence exposure, school performance and participation, positive attitude toward school, and social support. Results indicate very high rates of lifetime exposure to violence; intercorrelations and regression analyses indicate that as violence exposure increases, school outcomes tend to worsen, with positive attitude toward school found to be a significant moderator of the effects of exposure to community violence on behavior problems in school. Implications for researchers, practitioners, school policies and programs, and welfare policies and programs conclude the article.

Resilience among urban adolescent mothers living with violence: listening to their stories.

PubMed

Kennedy, Angie C

2005-12-01

Using a risk and resilience approach grounded in a multicultural feminist perspective, this qualitative study explores 10 urban adolescent mothers' experiences with multiple forms of violence, the relationships between violence and school, and their resilience, all within the context of welfare reforms. The findings suggest lives rife with simultaneous, often severe violence, the impacts of witnessing parental violence, linkages between family and partner violence, and cumulative violence exposure as a barrier to positive school outcomes. Several young women emerge as resilient, with five distinct factors conceptualized as contributing to resilience. In conclusion, the implications for welfare policies and programs are discussed.

Paul Vallas for Sale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dessoff, Alan

2012-01-01

Veteran Superintendent Paul Vallas, who has led turnaround efforts in major urban districts in Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans, has started a new venture that he expects will broaden his reach and extend the reform movement. The Vallas Group, headed by Vallas, now interim superintendent of the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Public Schools, is…

The Juggling Act: Navigating Parent Involvement in the Welfare Reform Era

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shiffman, Catherine Dunn

2013-01-01

This article examines how parents supported their children's education while transitioning from welfare to work. Interviews with parents, elementary school educators, and staff at a community-based organization were conducted in an urban Tennessee community. Navigating work and parenting responsibilities was particularly challenging when children…

Talent Development Middle Grades Program. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2013

2013-01-01

The "Talent Development Middle Grades Program" is a comprehensive reform model that transforms the structure and curriculum of large urban middle schools with the aim of improving student achievement and raising teacher and student expectations. Key features of the "Talent Development Middle Grades Program" include small…

Educational Leadership and Comprehensive Reform for Improving Equity and Access for All

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yavuz, Olcay

2016-01-01

Disparities in college access for underrepresented urban students are one of the most urgent educational problems of America's education system. In response to growing national concern, this longitudinal study investigated how school leaders worked collaboratively with key stakeholders to implement research-supported student services in order to…

Urban Teacher Curriculum Networks and Systemic Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Useem, Elizabeth; And Others

Among the best examples of the professional development of teachers that has become a key component of systemic educational reform are the curriculum-based teacher networks that have been created and nurtured in public schools by external private and public funders. This study examined the impact of four such networks on teacher renewal and…

Home-School Literacy Connections: The Perceptions of African American and Immigrant ESL Parents in Two Urban Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dudley-Marling, Curt

2009-01-01

Background/Context: Educational reform has emphasized the importance of parent involvement. Perhaps the most common instantiations of parent involvement are various efforts to encourage particular reading practices in the home. Although there is some research supporting the efficacy of "family literacy" initiatives, these efforts have been…

The Assault on Public Education: Confronting the Politics of Corporate School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watkins, William H., Ed.

2011-01-01

In this timely interdisciplinary volume, William Watkins has brought together leading scholars and activists to address some of the most urgent issues facing public education. What is underneath and behind the language of choice, efficiency, and improvement in current neoliberal discourse? How will urban and poor populations be affected? Will…

Homogeneous Grouping in the Context of High-Stakes Testing: Does It Improve Reading Achievement?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salcedo-Gonzalez, Trena

2012-01-01

As accountability reform intensifies, urban school districts strive to meet No Child Left Behind mandates to avoid severe penalties. This study investigated the resurgence of homogeneous grouping methods as a means to increase reading achievement and meet English Language Arts Adequate Yearly Progress requirements. Specifically, this study…

Peer Review and Teacher Leadership: Linking Professionalism and Accountability. Series on School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldstein, Jennifer

2010-01-01

This book examines a policy that is one of the most powerful levers to improve teaching quality and advance teaching as a profession. Jennifer Goldstein presents the story of Rosemont, an urban district in California that created "professional accountability" with peer assistance and review (PAR), an alternative approach to teacher…

The QUASAR Project: The "Revolution of the Possible" in Mathematics Instructional Reform in Urban Middle Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silver, Edward A.; Stein, Mary Kay

1996-01-01

Examines critical features of the QUASAR Project, a mathematics instruction program oriented toward helping students develop a meaningful understanding of mathematical ideas through challenging mathematical tasks, and discusses findings regarding the positive impact it has had on students. Challenges and obstacles in implementing the project are…

Implementing Reform Curriculum: Voicing the Experiences of an ESL/Mathematics Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Celedon-Pattichis, Sylvia

2010-01-01

The purpose of this 18-month case study is to highlight the successes and challenges that an ESL/mathematics teacher encountered as she made a shift from traditional mathematics curriculum to a standards-based curriculum as part of a statewide systemic initiative. The study was conducted in an urban, public middle school in Central Texas that…

Competing Paradigms of Educational Justice: Parent Organizing for Educational Equity in a Neoliberal Reform Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nygreen, Kysa

2016-01-01

This article examines a grassroots parent organizing effort in a large, high-poverty, urban school district. Drawing from ethnographic field research at a community-based popular education organization, the study describes how parent organizers worked to educate and mobilize Latina/o immigrant parents on issues of educational justice and equity.…

Market-Driven Education Reform and the Racial Politics of Advocacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Janelle T.

2011-01-01

What is the landscape of the racial politics of public education in the age of Obama? To what factors can we attribute the seeming educational policy consensus from Washington, DC, to the states and from philanthropies and policy entrepreneurs in urban school districts? How should we understand opposition to the policy menu? This article examines…

Urban Principal's Perception of Instructional Coaching as Job-Embedded Professional Development: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marcks, Melissa A.

2017-01-01

Instructional coaching is one method of job-embedded professional development approach that provides teachers an opportunity to build teacher expertise, raise student achievement, and advance school reform. The problem that was addressed in this qualitative case study was that few principals' understand the process of instructional coaching as…

Preparing Teachers To Meet the Needs of Diverse Learners in Urban Schools: The Learner-Centered Framework.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCombs, Barbara L.

This paper suggests the need for a research-validated framework to help preservice and inservice teachers and higher education faculty understand fundamental learner needs that must be met in any setting and any reform effort. It describes a learner-centered framework based on the research-validated "Learner-Centered Psychological…

Assessing Eli Broad's Assault on Public School System Leadership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

English, Fenwick W.; Crowder, Zan

2012-01-01

Eli Broad's approach to reforming urban public education does not recognize his own self-interest in promoting changes within such educational systems, a classic problem of misrecognition. The Broad agenda is an assault on the notion of the mission of public education as a service instead of a for-profit enterprise concerned with making money for…

Entropic Management: Restructuring District Office Culture in the New York City Department of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howell, Fanon John

2014-01-01

Although a growing body of literature is produced on reform of urban school districts, few studies examine shifts in the culture of managers resulting from reorganization in these bureaucracies. This article engages an analysis of central office managerial culture in the New York City Department of Education during a culminating moment of district…

Prospective Principals' Openness to Organizational Change and the Education of African American Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Robert; Peebles, Lucretia D.

2008-01-01

The purpose of this article is to report the findings of a research study that sought to examine and describe prospective principals? attitudes and perceptions regarding current efforts to transform urban education for the betterment of African American Students. Given the current wave of reforms targeted at schools serving large numbers of…

Vestiges of Desegregation: Superintendent Perspectives on Educational Inequality and (Dis)Integration in the Post-Civil Rights Era

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horsford, Sonya Douglass

2011-01-01

The purpose of this article is to extend the growing counternarrative in education research concerning the negative consequences of school desegregation and its implications for urban education, educational leadership, and policy reform in the post-Civil Rights Era. Guided by qualitative and historical research methods, this article presents the…

Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom, Volume 1: A Guide to Survival, Success, and Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frierson-Campbell, Carol, Ed.

2006-01-01

The change needed in urban music education not only relates to the idea that music should be at the center of the curriculum; rather, it is that culturally relevant music should be a creative force at the center of reform in urban education. Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom: A Guide to Survival, Success, and Reform is the start of a…

Learning to Write in the Digital Age: ELLs' Literacy Practices in and out of Their Western Urban High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pu, Jiang

2013-01-01

The definition of literacy is constantly changing and expanding. A sociocultural view of Literacy considers literacy to be multiple, multimodal, and multilingual as situated in and across the social and cultural contexts. As technology, new media and social network has reformed many aspects of writing, they provide ELLs (English language learners)…

Accountability, Fiscal Management, and Student Achievement in East St. Louis, Illinois 1994-2006: Implications for Urban Educational Reform Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Malley, Michael P.; Roseboro, Donyell L.; Hunt, John

2012-01-01

This instrumental case study reviews the 1994-2004 period of state financial oversight in East St. Louis, Illinois School District 189, with a secondary review of the initial years of NCLB implementation. Although the oversight panel's fiscal management did generate financial stability, case findings indicate that its accountability processes did…

School Vouchers and Student Achievement: What We Know So Far. Policy Briefs: Education Reform. Volume 3, Number 1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ladd, Helen F.

2003-01-01

Although small, carefully managed voucher programs might provide a helpful safety valve for some disadvantaged children, policy makers should be under no illusion that such programs will address the fundamental challenge of providing an adequate education to the large numbers of such students in many urban centers. Contrary to the claims of many…

Excerpts from inside the Black Box School District Spending on Professional Development in Education: Lessons from Five Urban Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miles, Karen Hawley; Odden, Allan; Fermanich, Mark; Archibald, Sarah

2005-01-01

As districts struggle to meet the demands of standards-based reform and requirements for "highly qualified" teachers in the face of increasing fiscal constraints, professional development has the potential to be a significant part of a district's improvement strategy. To use dollars effectively, districts need to think about how to best integrate…

Leading in a Time of Ambitious Reform: Principals in High-Poverty Urban Elementary Schools Frame the Challenge of the Common Core State Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stosich, Elizabeth Leisy

2017-01-01

Standards are intended to foster excellence and equity in student learning by institutionalizing high expectations for all students while allowing educators to have professional discretion in determining how to meet these goals. Recent studies suggest that principals play an essential role in interpreting and communicating the implications of…

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Montessori Reading and Math Instruction for Third Grade African American Students in Urban Elementary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Katherine Elizabeth

2016-01-01

Improving academic achievement for students of color has long been the subject of debate among advocates of education reform (Anyon, 2013; Breitborde & Swiniarski, 2006; Payne, 2008). Some scholars have advocated for the Montessori method as an alternative educational approach to address some chronic problems in public education (Lillard,…

Personal Consequences of Compliance and Resistance to Mandated Reforms for Teachers in Low-Performing Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burke, Christopher J. F.; Adler, Martha

2013-01-01

This case study examines the experiences of two fifth grade teachers as they dealt with district mandates while trying to address their high-poverty urban children's learning needs. It reveals their personal struggles that led to both compliance and resistance. In this case, the act of finding the space to engage in the intellectual and creative…

Between a rock and a hard place: Learning to teach science-for-all in an urban district

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galosy, Jodie A.

2005-07-01

Science-for-all, a contemporary science education reform initiative, envisions science classrooms where all students have opportunities to deepen their understanding of scientific concepts and practices. However, national science achievement tests indicate the reality of science-for-all is still very much a work-in-progress. Science-for-all demands much of teachers, especially those working with student populations typically underserved by science education---students of color, students with limited English proficiency, and those from families with limited economic means. A large proportion of those students attend urban districts where they are likely to encounter novice science teachers. This qualitative study investigated learning to teach science-for-all in an urban school district. Seven early career middle and high school science teachers participated in the study. Data collection took place over a period of fourteen months, through interviews and observations with teacher participants, their schools, and in their professional development activities (including new teacher support induction programs). The study examines how new teachers' use of their personal, social, and conventional resources influenced their beliefs and practices relative to science-for-all. Three reform ideals serve as the study's focal points: content goals that emphasize understanding scientific concepts and practices, hands-on activities that support students' intellectual engagement, and literacy strategies that provide access for all students to scientific content. Few novices developed beliefs and practices that supported science-for-all. Those who did brought several key personal resources to their teaching. While these personal resources were important for teacher development, they were not sufficient; novices needed additional resources. Some teachers had access to reform-based conventional resources others did not have. However, personal and social resources shaped how novices used those resources and, in turn, their beliefs about students and teaching practices. Context-specific assistance was a particularly important social resource that was in short supply for most novices. The study provides evidence that progress towards science-for-all will require substantial attention to, and investment in, teacher learning across all dimensions of the professional continuum---pre-service, induction, and in-service. The study also provides insights in two critical areas: strengthening the resources available to early career urban science teachers and shaping resource use towards the goals envisioned in science-for all.

Teacher labor markets in developing countries.

PubMed

Vegas, Emiliana

2007-01-01

Emiliana Vegas surveys strategies used by the world's developing countries to fill their classrooms with qualified teachers. With their low quality of education and wide gaps in student outcomes, schools in developing countries strongly resemble hard-to-staff urban U.S. schools. Their experience with reform may thus provide insights for U.S. policymakers. Severe budget constraints and a lack of teacher training capacity have pushed developing nations to try a wide variety of reforms, including using part-time or assistant teachers, experimenting with pay incentives, and using school-based management. The strategy of hiring teachers with less than full credentials has had mixed results. One successful program in India hired young women who lacked teaching certificates to teach basic literacy and numeracy skills to children whose skills were seriously lagging. After two years, student learning increased, with the highest gains among the least able students. As in the United States, says Vegas, teaching quality and student achievement in the developing world are sensitive to teacher compensation. As average teacher salaries in Chile more than doubled over the past decade, higher-quality students entered teacher education programs. And when Brazil increased educational funding and distributed resources more equitably, school enrollment increased and the gap in student test scores narrowed. Experiments with performance-based pay have had mixed results. In Bolivia a bonus for teaching in rural areas failed to produce higher-quality teachers. And in Mexico a system to reward teachers for improved student outcomes failed to change teacher performance. But Vegas explains that the design of teacher incentives is critical. Effective incentive schemes must be tightly coupled with desired behaviors and generous enough to give teachers a reason to make the extra effort. School-based management reforms give decisionmaking authority to the schools. Such reforms in Central America have reduced teacher absenteeism, increased teacher work hours, increased homework assignments, and improved parent-teacher relationships. These changes, says Vegas, are especially promising in schools where educational quality is low.

Urbanization and Income Inequality in Post-Reform China: A Causal Analysis Based on Time Series Data

PubMed Central

Chen, Guo; Glasmeier, Amy K.; Zhang, Min; Shao, Yang

2016-01-01

This paper investigates the potential causal relationship(s) between China’s urbanization and income inequality since the start of the economic reform. Based on the economic theory of urbanization and income distribution, we analyze the annual time series of China’s urbanization rate and Gini index from 1978 to 2014. The results show that urbanization has an immediate alleviating effect on income inequality, as indicated by the negative relationship between the two time series at the same year (lag = 0). However, urbanization also seems to have a lagged aggravating effect on income inequality, as indicated by positive relationship between urbanization and the Gini index series at lag 1. Although the link between urbanization and income inequality is not surprising, the lagged aggravating effect of urbanization on the Gini index challenges the popular belief that urbanization in post-reform China generally helps reduce income inequality. At deeper levels, our results suggest an urgent need to focus on the social dimension of urbanization as China transitions to the next stage of modernization. Comprehensive social reforms must be prioritized to avoid a long-term economic dichotomy and permanent social segregation. PMID:27433966

Urbanization and Income Inequality in Post-Reform China: A Causal Analysis Based on Time Series Data.

PubMed

Chen, Guo; Glasmeier, Amy K; Zhang, Min; Shao, Yang

2016-01-01

This paper investigates the potential causal relationship(s) between China's urbanization and income inequality since the start of the economic reform. Based on the economic theory of urbanization and income distribution, we analyze the annual time series of China's urbanization rate and Gini index from 1978 to 2014. The results show that urbanization has an immediate alleviating effect on income inequality, as indicated by the negative relationship between the two time series at the same year (lag = 0). However, urbanization also seems to have a lagged aggravating effect on income inequality, as indicated by positive relationship between urbanization and the Gini index series at lag 1. Although the link between urbanization and income inequality is not surprising, the lagged aggravating effect of urbanization on the Gini index challenges the popular belief that urbanization in post-reform China generally helps reduce income inequality. At deeper levels, our results suggest an urgent need to focus on the social dimension of urbanization as China transitions to the next stage of modernization. Comprehensive social reforms must be prioritized to avoid a long-term economic dichotomy and permanent social segregation.

Teaching Youth Media: A Critical Guide to Literacy, Video Production, & Social Change. The Series on School Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodman, Steven

This book explores the power of using media education to help urban teenagers develop their critical thinking and literacy skills. Drawing on 20 years of experience working with inner-city youth at the Educational Video Center (EVC) in New York City, the author looks at both the problems and possibilities of this model of media education.…

Grouping Within Algebra I: A Structural Sieve With Powerful Effects for Low-Income, Minority, and Immigrant Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paul, Faith G.

2005-01-01

A key element in educational reform has been to increase mathematical proficiency. We look at how five urban high schools with virtually all low-income, minority, and immigrant students have arranged for students to take algebra I, and we examine the course enrollments and grades of these student in the core college prep courses. Both preparation…

Evaluating the Influence of an Urban High School Reform Effort on College Readiness and Access Outcomes: A Quasiexperimental Cohort Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sondergeld, Toni A.; Fischer, John M.; Samel, Arthur N.; Knaggs, Christine M.

2013-01-01

It is widely accepted that postsecondary education has become a necessity for US youth. College access, however, has been found not to be equal for all. As a result, federally funded college-readiness programs, such as Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), have been established to increase the numbers of…

Opportunities to Learn in School and at Home: How Can They Predict Students' Understanding of Basic Science Concepts and Principles?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Su; Liu, Xiufeng; Zhao, Yandong

2012-01-01

As the breadth and depth of economic reforms increase in China, growing attention is being paid to equalities in opportunities to learn science by students of various backgrounds. In early 2009, the Chinese Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science and Technology jointly sponsored a national survey of urban eighth-grade students' science…

Trends in the Distribution of Teacher Effectiveness in the Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching: Progress Report. Working Paper WR-1036-BMGF

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steele, Jennifer L.; Baird, Matthew; Engberg, John; Hunter, Gerald Paul

2014-01-01

As part of its effective teaching initiative, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation partnered with three urban school districts across the U.S. and a group of four charter management organizations to undertake a strategic set of human capital reforms. A key objective of the "Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching" program was to…

A Dichotomy Examined: Beginning Teach For America Educators Navigate Culturally Relevant Teaching and a Scripted Literacy Program in Their Urban Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kavanagh, Kara Maura

2010-01-01

In contrast to the increasing diversity of students, the implementation and consequences of federal and state policies such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Comprehensive School Reform Act, have created a push for standardization in pedagogy and curriculum that serve culturally and linguistically diverse students. Effects of NCLB policies…

The Limits of Role Modeling as a Basis for Critical Multicultural Education: The Case of Black Male Teachers in Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martino, Wayne J.

2015-01-01

This article provides a critical analysis of the political significance of role modelling as it relates to envisaging a critical multicultural approach to educational reform. While not rejecting role modelling outright, it calls for a commitment to questioning the limits of common sense understandings that underpin the logic of gender and racial…

Personal Consequences of Compliance and Resistance to Mandated Reforms for Teachers in Low-Performing Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burke, Christopher J. F.; Adler, Martha

2013-01-01

This case study examines the experiences of two fifth grade teachers as they dealt with district mandates while trying to address their high-poverty urban children's learning needs. It reveals their personal struggles that led to both compliance and resistance. In this case, the act of finding the space to engage in the intellectual and…

Highly qualified does not equal high quality: A study of urban stakeholders' perceptions of quality in science teaching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miranda, Rommel Joseph

By employing qualitative methods, this study sought to determine the perceptions that urban stakeholders hold about what characteristics should distinguish a high school science teacher whom they would consider to demonstrate high quality in science teaching. A maximum variation sample of six science teachers, three school administrators, six parents and six students from a large urban public school district were interviewed using semi-structured, in-depth interview techniques. From these data, a list of observable characteristics which urban stakeholders hold as evidence of high quality in science teaching was generated. Observational techniques were utilized to determine the extent to which six urban high school science teachers, who meet the NCLB Act criteria for being "highly qualified", actually possessed the characteristics which these stakeholders hold as evidence of high quality in science teaching. Constant comparative analysis was used to analyze the data set. The findings suggest that urban stakeholders perceive that a high school science teacher who demonstrates high quality in science teaching should be knowledgeable about their subject matter, their student population, and should be resourceful; should possess an academic background in science and professional experience in science teaching; should exhibit professionalism, a passion for science and teaching, and a dedication to teaching and student learning; should be skillful in planning and preparing science lessons and in organizing the classroom, in presenting the subject matter to students, in conducting a variety of hands-on activities, and in managing a classroom; and should assess whether students complete class goals and objectives, and provide feedback about grades for students promptly. The findings further reveal that some of the urban high school science teachers who were deemed to be "highly qualified", as defined by the NCLB Act, engaged in practices that threatened quality in science teaching and often failed to display the characteristics which urban stakeholders hold as evidence of high quality in science teaching. Thus, the criteria for "highly qualified" prescribed by policy makers and politicians do not necessarily translate into effective science teaching in urban settings. These findings emphasize the importance of stakeholder involvement in the design of educational reform initiatives.

Secondary School Reform and Technology Planning: Lessons Learned from a Ten Year School Reform Initiative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bain, Alan

2004-01-01

The lessons learned from a decade long, site based school reform project are used to examine the relationship between technology integration and school reform. The nature of the reforms will be described along with implications and conclusions for technology planning. Six key school reform takeaways will be shared that are necessary to build a…

The Common Core State Standards: School Reform at Three Suburban Middle Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morante-Brock, Sandra

2014-01-01

A growing body of research supports the idea that large scale school reform efforts often fail to create sustained change within the public school sector. Proponents of school reform argue that implementing school reform, effectively and with fidelity, can work to ensure the success of reform initiatives in public education. When implementing deep…

CSRQ Center Report on Elementary School Comprehensive School Reform Models: Educator's Summary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education (NJ3), 2008

2008-01-01

Which comprehensive school reform programs have evidence of positive effects on elementary school achievement? To find out, this review summarizes evidence on comprehensive school reform (CSR) models in elementary schools, grades K-6. Comprehensive school reform models are programs used schoolwide to improve student achievement. They typically…

Inquiry-based science in the middle grades: Assessment of learning in urban systemic reform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marx, Ronald W.; Blumenfeld, Phyllis C.; Krajcik, Joseph S.; Fishman, Barry; Soloway, Elliot; Geier, Robert; Tali Tal, Revital

2004-12-01

Science education standards established by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the National Research Council (NRC) urge less emphasis on memorizing scientific facts and more emphasis on students investigating the everyday world and developing deep understanding from their inquiries. These approaches to instruction challenge teachers and students, particularly urban students who often have additional challenges related to poverty. We report data on student learning spanning 3 years from a science education reform collaboration with the Detroit Public Schools. Data were collected from nearly 8,000 students who participated in inquiry-based and technology-infused curriculum units that were collaboratively developed by district personnel and staff from the University of Michigan as part of a larger, district-wide systemic reform effort in science education. The results show statistically significant increases on curriculum-based test scores for each year of participation. Moreover, the strength of the effects grew over the years, as evidenced by increasing effect size estimates across the years. The findings indicate that students who historically are low achievers in science can succeed in standards-based, inquiry science when curriculum is carefully developed and aligned with professional development and district policies. Additional longitudinal research on the development of student understanding over multiple inquiry projects, the progress of teacher enactment over time, and the effect of changes in the policy and administrative environment would further contribute to the intellectual and practical tools necessary to implement meaningful standards-based systemic reform in science.

School Reform--Does It Really Matter?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bunting, Carolyn

1999-01-01

Looks at different waves of school reform beginning with Sputnik in the 1950s. Examines influences in today's reform, including industrial influences and school choice. Argues that the origins and outcomes of school reform have more to do with what is happening outside the school than within it, and that schools must think beyond objective indices…

Curriculum reform at Chinese medical schools: what have we learned?

PubMed

Huang, Lei; Cheng, Liming; Cai, Qiaoling; Kosik, Russell Olive; Huang, Yun; Zhao, Xudong; Xu, Guo-Tong; Su, Tung-Ping; Chiu, Allen Wen-Hsiang; Fan, Angela Pei-Chen

2014-12-01

Curriculum reform at Chinese medical schools has attracted a lot of attention recently. Several leading medical schools in China have undergone exploratory reforms and in so doing, have accumulated significant experience and have made considerable progress. An analysis of the reforms conducted by 38 Chinese medical colleges that were targeted by the government for upgrade was performed. Drawing from both domestic and international literature, we designed a questionnaire to determine what types of curricular reforms have occurred at these institutions and how they were implemented. Major questions touched upon the purpose of the reforms, curricular patterns, improvements in teaching methods post-reform, changes made to evaluation systems post-reform, intra-university reform assessment, and what difficulties the schools faced when instituting the reforms. Besides the questionnaire, relevant administrators from each medical school were also interviewed to obtain more qualitative data. Out of the 38 included universities, twenty-five have undergone major curricular reforms. Among them, 60.0% adopted an organ system-based curriculum model, 32.0% adopted a problem-based curriculum model, and 8.0% adopted a hybrid curriculum model. About 60.0% of the schools' reforms involved both the "pre-clinical" and the "clinical" curricula, 32.0% of the schools' reforms were limited to the "pre-clinical" curricula, and 8.0% of the schools' reforms only involved the "clinical" curricula. Following curricular reform, 60.0% of medical schools experienced an overall reduction in teaching hours, 76.0% reported an increase in their students' clinical skills, and 60.0% reported an increase in their students' research skills. Medical curricular reform is still in its infancy in China. The republic's leading medical schools have engaged in various approaches to bring innovative teaching methods to their respective institutions. However, due to limited resources and the shackle of traditional pedagogical beliefs among many faculty and administrators, progress has been significantly hindered. Despite these and other challenges, many medical schools report positive initial results from the reforms that they have enacted. Although the long term effects of such reforms remain unclear, curricular reform appears to be the inevitable solution to China's growing need for high-quality medical doctors.

Comprehensive School Reform and Achievement: A Meta-Analysis. Educator's Summary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education (NJ3), 2008

2008-01-01

Which comprehensive school reform programs have been proven to help elementary and secondary students achieve? To find out, this review summarizes evidence on comprehensive school reform (CSR) models in elementary and secondary schools. Comprehensive school reform models are programs used schoolwide to improve student achievement. They typically…

Have Chinese water pricing reforms reduced urban residential water demand?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, B.; Fang, K. H.; Baerenklau, K. A.

2017-06-01

China continues to deal with severe levels of water scarcity and water pollution. To help address this situation, the Chinese central government initiated urban water pricing reforms in 2002 that emphasized the adoption of increasing block rate (IBR) price structures in place of existing uniform rate structures. By combining urban water use records with microlevel data from the Chinese Urban Household Survey, this research investigates the effectiveness of this national policy reform. Specifically, we compare household water consumption in 28 cities that adopted IBR pricing structures during 2002-2009, with that of 110 cities that had not yet done so. Based on difference-in-differences models, our results show that the policy reform reduced annual residential water demand by 3-4% in the short run and 5% in the longer run. These relatively modest reductions are consistent with the generous nature of the IBR pricing structures that Chinese cities have typically chosen to implement. Our results imply that more efforts are needed to address China's persistent urban water scarcity challenges.

Reforming Districts: How Districts Support School Reform. A Research Report. Document R-03-6

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLaughlin, Milbrey; Talbert, Joan

2003-01-01

School districts have participated in multiple rounds of education reform activity in the past few decades, yet few have made headway on system-wide school improvement. This paper addresses the questions of whether districts matter for school reform progress and what successful "reforming" districts do to achieve system change and to…

Creating contextually authentic science in a low-performing urban elementary school

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buxton, Cory A.

2006-09-01

This article reports on a 2-year collaborate project to reform the teaching and learning of science in the context of Mae Jemison Elementary, the lowest performing elementary school in the state of Louisiana. I outline a taxonomy of authentic science inquiry experiences and then use the resulting framework to focus on how project participants interpreted and enacted ideas about collaboration and authenticity. The resulting contextually authentic science inquiry model links the strengths of a canonically authentic model of science inquiry (grounded in the Western scientific canon) with the strengths of a youth-centered model of authenticity (grounded in student-generated inquiry), thus bringing together relevant content standards and topics with critical social relevance. I address the question of how such enactments may or may not promote doing science together and consider the implications of this model for urban science education.

Career and Technical Education Reforms and Comprehensive School Reforms in High Schools: Their Impact on Education Outcomes for At-Risk Youth. The Highlight Zone: Research @ Work.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Castellano, Marisa; Stringfield, Samuel; Stone, James R., III

The impact of career and technical education (CTE) reforms and comprehensive school reforms in high schools on education outcomes for at-risk youth was examined in a review of research on current reforms. The review identified a series of individual, family and home, school, and community factors that can place students at risk of failing to…

Beyond Changing Culture in Small High Schools: Reform Models and Changing Instruction with Project-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ravitz, Jason

2010-01-01

This study describes the status of small school reforms in U.S. high schools and contemplates their future. It asks how cultural and instructional reforms differ across school reform types. Analyses focus on indicators of teacher and student culture as well as instructional reforms including project-based learning (PBL) and other inquiry-related…

[Issue of population quality under economic reform].

PubMed

Zhu, G

1991-02-01

Under the current economic reform program, various problems about the quality of the population have emerged; dropping out of school is one such problem. In recent years, dropping out of school, has become a prevalent phenomenon. It was estimated that between 1980 and 1987, 40 million primary and middle school students dropped out of school. Drop-outs occurred mostly in primary and middle schools and in rural areas. The reasons for dropping out can be summarized as follows: 1) families could not afford to pay for tuition, 2) students were not able to keep up with school work, and 3) families or students were influenced by other students who had dropped out. In weighing the cost and benefit of attending school, parents would decide whether or not and for how many years to send their children to school. The costs included both direct costs and opportunity costs. Children in urban areas have practically no opportunity costs, while those in rural areas do. Dropping out has been more prevalent among girls than boys. Since girls marry into other families, parents were less willing to invest in their education. On the other hand, the school curriculum gave more emphasis to preparing students for advanced studies than to relaying practical knowledge. Parents did not feel there was any advantage for their children to spend more time in school. Rural economic reform had strengthened the decision-making function of the family in the area of investment. It has also widened the gap between the rich and the poor. For less affluent families, it has become more and more difficult to bear the increasing cost of education. To deal with this problem, the author made several suggestions: 1) persuade parents to continue sending children to school 2) set regulations forbidding the employment of school age children 3) forbid schools to collect unauthorized feeds and establish scholarships to help economically disadvantaged students, 4) develop more vocational schools and change the current curriculum, and 5) develop non-formal education or adult education classes to meet the needs of the rural population.

Whole-School Reform. ERIC Digest, Number 124.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McChesney, Jim

This Digest describes several programs designed to foster successful school reform, and examines the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) Program, recently approved by Congress. Whole-school (or comprehensive) reform includes a cross-disciplinary set of nationwide and local programs, dedicated to the intellectual and personal nurturing…

School Finance Reform: Past, Present and Future. Issuegram 26.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Odden, Allan

This paper examines past school finance reforms of the 1970's, current reforms in the 1980's, and future reforms in the 1990's. Fiscal inequities targeted in the reforms of the seventies resulted in major structural changes in the school finance systems of over 30 states. The reforms not only improved fiscal equity but helped increase…

Root Shock Revisited: Perspectives of Early Head Start Mothers on Community and Policy Environments and Their Effects on Child Health, Development, and School Readiness

PubMed Central

McAllister, Carol L.; Thomas, Tammy L.; Green, Beth L.

2009-01-01

Racial differences in school readiness are a form of health disparity. By examining, from the perspective of low-income minority families participating in an Early Head Start study, community and policy environments as they shape and inform lived experiences, we identified several types of social and economic dislocation that undermine the efforts of parents to ready their children for school. The multiple dislocations of community triggered by housing and welfare reform and “urban renewal” are sources of stress for parents and children and affect the health and development of young children. Our findings suggest that racial differences in school readiness result not from race but from poverty and structural racism in American society. PMID:19059871

Reforming Schools: A Case Study of New Basics in a Primary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jorgensen, Robyn; Walsh, Lynne; Niesche, Richard

2009-01-01

Reforming schools is a challenging aspect of contemporary education. The role of leadership within reform agendas is critical. This article presents a case study of one school that has been highly successful in the implementation of this reform. The processes employed by the school at various levels demonstrate the ways in which effective…

Becoming urban science teachers by transforming middle-school classrooms: A study of the Urban Science Education Fellows Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furman, Melina Gabriela

The current scenario in American education shows a large achievement and opportunity gap in science between urban children in poverty and more privileged youth. Research has shown that one essential factor that accounts for this gap is the shortage of qualified science teachers in urban schools. Teaching science in a high poverty school presents unique challenges to beginner teachers. Limited resources and support and a significant cultural divide with their students are some of the common problems that cause many novice teachers to quit their jobs or to start enacting what has been described as "the pedagogy of poverty." In this study I looked at the case of the Urban Science Education Fellows Program. This program aimed to prepare preservice teachers (i.e. "fellows") to enact socially just science pedagogies in urban classrooms. I conducted qualitative case studies of three fellows. Fellows worked over one year with science teachers in middle-school classrooms in order to develop transformative action research studies. My analysis focused on how fellows coauthored hybrid spaces within these studies that challenged the typical ways science was taught and learned in their classrooms towards a vision of socially just teaching. By coauthoring these hybrid spaces, fellows developed grounded generativity, i.e. a capacity to create new teaching scenarios rooted in the pragmatic realities of an authentic classroom setting. Grounded generativity included building upon their pedagogical beliefs in order to improvise pedagogies with others, repositioning themselves and their students differently in the classroom and constructing symbols of possibility to guide their practice. I proposed authentic play as the mechanism that enabled fellows to coauthor hybrid spaces. Authentic play involved contexts of moderate risk and of distributed expertise and required fellows to be positioned at the intersection of the margins and the center of the classroom community of practice. In all, this study demonstrates that engaging in classroom reform can support preservice teachers in developing specialized tools to teach science in urban classrooms.

Healthier students are better learners: a missing link in school reforms to close the achievement gap.

PubMed

Basch, Charles E

2011-10-01

This article provides an introduction to the October 2011 special issue of the Journal of School Health on "Healthier Students Are Better Learners." Literature was reviewed and synthesized to identify health problems affecting school-aged youth that are highly prevalent, disproportionately affect urban minority youth, directly and indirectly causally affect academic achievement, and can be feasibly and effectively addressed through school health programs and services. Based on these criteria, 7 educationally relevant health disparities were selected as strategic priorities to help close the achievement gap: (1) vision, (2) asthma, (3) teen pregnancy, (4) aggression and violence, (5) physical activity, (6) breakfast, and (7) inattention and hyperactivity. Research clearly shows that these health problems influence students' motivation and ability to learn. Disparities among urban minority youth are outlined, along with the causal pathways through which each adversely affects academic achievement, including sensory perceptions, cognition, school connectedness, absenteeism, and dropping out. Evidence-based approaches that schools can implement to address these problems are presented. These health problems and the causal pathways they influence have interactive and a synergistic effect, which is why they must be addressed collectively using a coordinated approach. No matter how well teachers are prepared to teach, no matter what accountability measures are put in place, no matter what governing structures are established for schools, educational progress will be profoundly limited if students are not motivated and able to learn. Particular health problems play a major role in limiting the motivation and ability to learn of urban minority youth. This is why reducing these disparities through a coordinated approach warrants validation as a cohesive school improvement initiative to close the achievement gap. Local, state, and national policies for implementing this recommendation are suggested. © 2011, American School Health Association.

Urban special education policy and the lived experience of stigma in a high school science classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hale, Chris

2015-12-01

In this paper, I provide a window into the lived experience of a group of urban high school science students confronted with the stigma associated with special education, disability, and academic failure and present tools to understanding the ideological forces and institutional structures that undermine the ability of schools to create a culture of care and inclusion of children with disabilities. With the purpose of understanding the context of these students' tainted social status within the school community, I draw connections between the ideological bipolarity and ambiguity of federal and state special education law and the lack of moral commitment at the local level to including and protecting the rights of children with disabilities in New York City schools. An important element of this paper is an exploration of a decade of neoliberal reform in the New York City Department of Education and the meticulously documented failure of New York City's special education system to provide mandated services, adequately include special education students, and generally protect the rights of children with disabilities. I conclude that the ableism embedded in special education law and a lack of meaningful enforcement renders special education regulations intangible to administrators whereas neoliberal performance benchmarks are extremely salient due to the dire consequences for schools of not meeting them.

Reforming Victoria's primary health and community service sector: rural implications.

PubMed

Alford, K

2000-01-01

In 1999 the Victorian primary care and community support system began a process of substantial reform, involving purchasing reforms and a contested selection process between providers in large catchment areas across the State. The Liberal Government's electoral defeat in September 1999 led to a review of these reforms. This paper questions the reforms from a rural perspective. They were based on a generic template that did not consider rural-urban differences in health needs or other differences including socio-economic status, and may have reinforced if not aggravated rural-urban differences in the quality of and access to primary health care in Victoria.

Schools of Promise: A School District-University Partnership Centered on Inclusive School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Causton-Theoharis, Julie; Theoharis, George; Bull, Thomas; Cosier, Meghan; Dempf-Aldrich, Kathy

2011-01-01

A university-school district partnership, Schools of Promise (SOP), was formed to improve elementary schools for all children through whole-school reform. This effort focused on the concepts of belonging and inclusion, positioning the needs of marginalized students at the center of the reform through a university-facilitated restructuring of…

A Study of Workplace Aggression as Related to Pedagogical Reform in Hong Kong Secondary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tam, Frank Wai-ming

2013-01-01

Purpose: Previous research on pedagogical reforms has seldom looked at how reform may contribute to aggression in school organizations. The purpose of this paper is to hypothesize that teachers' disengagement from school mediates the tendency for teachers to manifest aggression when they are implementing pedagogical reform in school. Behind this…

A Classroom Observational Study of Qatar's Independent Schools: Instruction and School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmer, Douglas J.; Sadiq, Hissa M.; Lynch, Patricia; Parker, Dawn; Viruru, Radhika; Knight, Stephanie; Waxman, Hersh; Alford, Beverly; Brown, Danielle Bairrington; Rollins, Kayla; Stillisano, Jacqueline; Abu-Tineh, Abdullah M. Hamdan; Nasser, Ramzi; Allen, Nancy; Al-Binali, Hessa; Ellili, Maha; Al-Kateeb, Haithem; Al-Kubaisi, Huda

2016-01-01

Qatar initiated a K-12 national educational reform in 2001. However, there is limited information on the instructional practices of the teachers in the reform schools. This project was an observational study of classrooms with a stratified random sample of the first six cohorts of reform schools. Specifically, 156 classrooms were observed in 29…

Big Cities and Welfare Reform: Early Implementation and Ethnographic Findings from the Project on Devolution and Urban Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quint, Janet; Edin, Kathryn; Buck, Maria L.; Fink, Barbara; Padilla, Yolanda C.; Simmons-Hewitt, Olis; Valmont, Mary Eustace

This is the first report on the Project on Devolution and Urban Change, a multidisciplinary 5-year study of welfare reform in 4 large urban counties and their major cities (Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, and Philadelphia). It uses data from interviews and focus groups conducted with welfare agency officials and line staff, observations of…

Ten Things Everyone Should Know about Welfare Reform. New Federalism: Issues and Options for States, Series A, No. A-52. Assessing the New Federalism: An Urban Institute Program To Assess Changing Social Policies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weil, Alan

This brief presents 10 key findings about welfare reform, using research from the Urban Institute's Assessing the New Federalism project. Welfare reform has taken hold, and, in the immediate aftermath of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), states have made major changes to their welfare systems that…

Canadian Schools in Transition: Moving from Dual Education Systems to Inclusive Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lupart, Judy; Webber, Charles

2002-01-01

This article analyzes the many meanings of school restructuring and highlights the ongoing nature of school reform in Canadian schools. Following a selective chronology of general and special education reform, it attempts to capture what appear to be the key features of school reform and progressive inclusion. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Comprehensive School Reform at the Helm: The North Carolina Instructional Leadership Reform Program. Benchmark. Volume 5, Issue 4, Fall 2004

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Janc, Helen; Appelbaum, Deborah

2004-01-01

This newsletter discusses how in many ways the development of the school reform concept parallels with the evolution of thinking about principal leadership over the past decade. Under Comprehensive School Reform (CSR), schools are increasingly being asked to use data to plan for improvement and to fortify instruction and professional development…

State School Finance Reform in the 1970's (Excerpted from School Finance Reform: A Legislators' Handbook).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Conference of State Legislatures, Washington, DC.

This report describes and evaluates the record of reform in several states that have revised their school finance systems since 1971. The introductory chapter provides an overview of reform's recent successes, shortcomings, and prospects. Six subsequent chapters offer a close look at its main features. Chapters 2 and 3 analyze new school aid…

Equity in Reform: Case Studies of Five Middle Schools Involved in Systemic Reform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kahle, Jane Butler; Kelly, Mary Kay

Science and mathematics education reform documents of the last decade have called for improved teaching and learning for all children. To overcome inequalities, a systemic approach to reform has been adopted. The case studies synthesized in this analysis arc part of a larger effort to reform science and mathematics education systemically and assess the progress of systemic reform. The purpose of this study was to assess the progress toward achieving equitable systemic reform in five middle schools. A multiple-case study design was used, and qualitative data were collected. Kahle's Equity Metric was used to analyze the schools' progress toward achieving equitable systemic reform of mathematics and science. Two results occurred: Various equity issues were identified in the five case studies, and the metric proved efficacious in identifying barriers to or facilitators of equitable reform in the schools. Overall, the study illustrates how schools might assess their commitments to providing high-quality science and mathematics education to all students.

The household registration system and migrant labor in China: notes on a debate.

PubMed

Chan, Kam Wing

2010-01-01

The household registration (hukou) system in China, classifying each person as a rural or an urban resident, is a major means of controlling population mobility and determining eligibility for state-provided services and welfare. Established in the late 1950s, it was initially used to bar rural-to-urban migration. After the late 1970s reforms, an inflow of rural migrant workers was allowed into the cities to meet labor demands in the burgeoning export industries and urban services without, however, changing the migrants' registered status, thus precluding their access to subsidized housing and other benefits available to those with urban registration. While there have been many calls for reforming this system, progress has been limited. Proposed reforms have attracted increasing academic and media attention.

The Need for Transformational Leadership in Singapore's School-Based Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Retna, Kala S.; Ng, Pak Tee

2009-01-01

In Singapore, "decentralization" and "school-based reforms" are key words within the current education reform agenda. This article argues that a key success factor in this agenda is transformational leadership in school. With more autonomy given to the school, transformational leadership at the school level will facilitate the…

Educational Reform and the World of Work: France. Reforms at the First Level of Secondary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Western European Education, 1977

1977-01-01

Investigates the effect of technical progress on educational reform in France. Factors considered include the lengthening of compulsory schooling, introduction of guidance and counseling facilities, vocational education reforms, and introduction of technology as a subject in the secondary school curriculum. (Author/DB)

Taking Stock of Gender Reform Policies for Australian Schools: Past, Present and Future.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kenway, Jane

1997-01-01

Narrates 20 years of gender reform in Australian schools, including boys' education. Discusses the practices and processes of schools' gender reform work, indicating strengths and limitations. Identifies current contexts of gender reform, including the fields of educational policy and politics. Mentions larger cultural shifts affecting gender…

Inside the Black Box of School Reform: Explaining the How and Why of Change at "Getting Results" Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDougall, Dennis; Saunders, William M.; Goldenberg, Claude

2007-01-01

This article reports key findings from a process-focused external evaluation that compared a subset of "Getting Results" project schools and comparison schools in order to understand the dynamics of school-wide reform efforts at these primary schools. Findings shed light on the "black box" of school reform and illuminate the…

Minorities, the Poor and School Finance Reform. Vol. 3: The Impact of California's 1972 School Finance Reform on Poor and Minority Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singleton, Robert; And Others

Examination of California's experience with school finance reform was part of a nine-volume, six-state study of the impact of finance reform on poor and minority students. Researchers used correlation coefficients and measures of central tendency and dispersion to analyze data on educational revenues, school district wealth, tax effort, district…

Comprehensive School Reform: A Longitudinal Study of School Improvement in One State

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Good, Thomas L.; Burross, Heidi Legg; McCaslin, Mary M.

2005-01-01

We report on comprehensive school reform (CSR) reform in 48 schools over 6 consecutive years. In 1998, a total of 24 schools received CSR awards to improve student achievement. Control schools were carefully matched on 26 demographic variables to form a comparison group. Students' average performance, as represented in publicly available school…

Exploring the role of curriculum materials to support teachers in science education reform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schneider, Rebecca M.

2001-07-01

For curriculum materials to succeed in promoting large-scale science education reform, teacher learning must be supported. Materials were designed to reflect desired reforms and to be educative by including detailed lesson descriptions that addressed necessary content, pedagogy, and pedagogical content knowledge for teachers. The goal of this research was to describe how such materials contributed to classroom practices. As part of an urban systemic reform effort, four middle school teachers' initial enactment of an inquiry-based science unit on force and motion were videotaped. Enactments focused on five lesson sequences containing experiences with phenomena, investigation, technology use, or artifact development. Each sequence spanned three to five days across the 10-week unit. For each lesson sequence, intended and actual enactment were compared using ratings of (1) accuracy and completeness of science ideas presented, (2) amount student learning opportunities, similarity of learning opportunities with those intended, and quality of adaptations , and (3) amount of instructional supports offered, appropriateness of instructional supports and source of ideas for instructional supports. Ratings indicated two teachers' enactments were consistent with intentions and two teachers' enactments were not. The first two were in school contexts supportive of the reform. They purposefully used the materials to guide enactment, which tended to be consistent with standards-based reform. They provided students opportunities to use technology tools, design investigations, and discuss ideas. However, enactment ratings were less reflective of curriculum intent when challenges were greatest, such as when teachers attempted to present challenging science ideas, respond to students' ideas, structure investigations, guide small-group discussions, or make adaptations. Moreover, enactment ratings were less consistent in parts of lessons where materials did not include lesson specific educative supports for teachers. Overall, findings indicate curriculum materials that include detailed descriptions of lessons accompanied by educative features can help teachers with enactment. Therefore, design principles to improve materials to support teachers in reform are suggested. However, results also demonstrate materials alone are not sufficient to create intended enactments; reform efforts must include professional development in content and pedagogy and efforts to create systemic change in context and policy to support teacher learning and classroom enactment.

Using School Change States to Analyze Comprehensive School Reform Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wetherill, Karen S.; Applefield, James M.

2005-01-01

Comprehensive school reform (CSR) projects are being funded throughout the United States in a determined effort to improve the performance of public education. The multidimensional nature of comprehensive school reform presents unique challenges for explaining widely discrepant outcomes among schools. These challenges are addressed in a study of 8…

The Implementation of the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program: The Work of 40 Schools in Seven Midwest States.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faddis, Bonnie J.; Beam, Margaret; Hahn, Karen J.; Willardson, Marlyn; Sipe, Deborah; Ahrens-Gray, Paul

The Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) Program was established through Public Law 105-78, the 1998 Department of Education Appropriations Act. CSRD provides financial assistance to underachieving schools implementing comprehensive school-reform programs that are based on reliable research and effective practices. It intends to…

Quality Education: School Reform for the New American Economy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnevale, Anthony P.; Porro, Jeffrey D.

The reform of schools and the modernization of workplaces are inextricably linked. Finding common ground begins with a realization that educators have a tripartite mission to teach students to be good neighbors, involved citizens, and qualified workers. Unless the reform of schools and reform of workplaces proceed at the same pace, a mismatch is…

Instructional Leadership in Indonesian School Reform: Overcoming the Problems to Move Forward

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sofo, Francesco; Fitzgerald, Robert; Jawas, Umiati

2012-01-01

The paper reviews the research on instructional leadership and, through identifying problems emerging in Indonesian school reform, suggests some sustainable solutions. There are some discrepancies in the processes of Indonesia's school reform, and the objectives of the national education reform do not seem to have been reflected in the actual…

The New Technology and Educational Reform: Guidelines for School Administrators.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matthews, Mark; Karr-Kidwell, PJ

This paper presents the results of a literature review on educational methodology reforms. The first section discusses five factors in broad-based school reforms: change theory; organizational theory; state/national politics; local politics/governance; and leadership theory. Five types of reforms for school-wide success are described in the second…

Students Matter in School Reform: Leaving Fingerprints and Becoming Leaders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osberg, Jerusha; Pope, Denise; Galloway, Mollie

2006-01-01

Our examination of three schools demonstrates how students can be involved in school reform by giving input about problems, helping design the reform, and sharing implementation responsibilities with adult leaders. Their involvement affects both the reform--as students leave their fingerprints on it--and the students themselves, who show signs of…

Fitting the Pieces: Education Reform That Works. Studies of Education Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klein, Steven; And Others

Nearly all school reforms, regardless of their scope or intended target, share a number of characteristics. This report reviews the essential elements of planning, implementing, and sustaining school reform and presents eight key lessons to guide prospective reformers. The lessons are drawn from 12 major studies of education reform funded by the…

Comprehensive School Reform and Student Achievement: A Meta-Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borman, Geoffrey D.; Hewes, Gina M.; Overman, Laura T.; Brown, Shelly

Using 232 studies, this meta analysis reviewed the research on the achievement effects of the nationally disseminated and externally developed school improvement programs known as "whole-school" or "comprehensive" reforms. In addition to reviewing the overall achievement effects of comprehensive school reform (CSR), the meta…

Using Synthetic Controls to Evaluate the Effect of Unique Interventions: The Case of Say Yes to Education.

PubMed

Bifulco, Robert; Rubenstein, Ross; Sohn, Hosung

2017-12-01

"Place-based" scholarships seek to improve student outcomes in urban school districts and promote urban revitalization in economically challenged cities. Say Yes to Education is a unique district-wide school reform effort adopted in Syracuse, NY, in 2008. It includes full-tuition scholarships for public and private universities, coupled with extensive wraparound support services in schools. This study uses synthetic control methods to evaluate the effect of Say Yes on district enrollment and graduation rates. It also introduces the synthetic control method and provides guidance for its use in evaluating single-site interventions. Combining school district-level data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Common Core of Data and New York State School Report Cards, this article uses synthetic control methods to construct a synthetic comparison district to estimate counterfactual enrollment and graduation trends for Syracuse. We find that Say Yes to Education was associated with enrollment increases in the Syracuse City School District, a district that had previously experienced decades of sustained enrollment declines. We do not find consistent evidence of changes in graduation rates following adoption of the program. Graduation rate analyses demonstrate that estimates of treatment effects can be sensitive to choices that the researcher has to make in applying synthetic control methods, particularly when pretreatment outcome measures appear to have considerable amounts of noise.

Economic Segmentation and Health Inequalities in Urban Post-Reform China.

PubMed

Kwon, Soyoung

2016-01-01

During economic reform, Chinese economic labor markets became segmented by state sector associated with a planned redistributive economy and private sector associated with the market economy. By considering an economic sector as a concrete institutional setting in post-reform China, this paper compares the extent to which socioeconomic status, measured by education and income, is associated with self-rated health between state sector and private sector. The sample is limited to urban Chinese employees between the ages of 18 and 55 who were active in the labor force. By analyzing pooled data from the 1991-2006 Chinese Health and Nutrition Survey , I find that there is a stronger association between income and self-rated health in the private sector than in the state sector. This study suggests that sectoral differences between market and redistributive economies are an important key to understanding health inequalities in post-reform urban China.

Economic Segmentation and Health Inequalities in Urban Post-Reform China

PubMed Central

Kwon, Soyoung

2016-01-01

During economic reform, Chinese economic labor markets became segmented by state sector associated with a planned redistributive economy and private sector associated with the market economy. By considering an economic sector as a concrete institutional setting in post-reform China, this paper compares the extent to which socioeconomic status, measured by education and income, is associated with self-rated health between state sector and private sector. The sample is limited to urban Chinese employees between the ages of 18 and 55 who were active in the labor force. By analyzing pooled data from the 1991–2006 Chinese Health and Nutrition Survey, I find that there is a stronger association between income and self-rated health in the private sector than in the state sector. This study suggests that sectoral differences between market and redistributive economies are an important key to understanding health inequalities in post-reform urban China. PMID:29546178

Irrational Exuberance for Market-Based Reform: How Federal Turnaround Policies Thwart Democratic Schooling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trujillo, Tina; Renée, Michelle

2015-01-01

Background: In 2009, the Obama Administration announced its intention to rapidly "turn around" 5,000 of the nation's lowest-performing schools. To do so, it relied on the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program to provide temporary funding for states and schools, and to mandate drastic, school-level reforms. Most of these reforms require…

Leading a School through Change--Principals' Hands-on Leadership Strategies in School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soini, Tiina; Pietarinen, Janne; Pyhältö, Kirsi

2016-01-01

Principal's hands-on strategies reflecting their theories of changing have a substantial effect on the development of their schools and on how the large-scale reform takes root. The study explores five comprehensive school principals' leadership strategies during a large-scale school reform in Finland. The principals' strategies in the middle of…

Processes and Dynamics behind Whole-School Reform: Nine-Year Journeys of Four Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Yuk Yung

2017-01-01

Despite decades of research, little is known about the dynamics of sustaining change in school reform and how the process of change unfolds. By tracing the nine-year reform journeys of four primary schools in Hong Kong (using multiyear interview, observational, and archival data), this study uncovers the micro-processes the schools experienced…

A Constrained Bureaucratic Model of Behavioral Responses to School Finance Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ullrich, Laura D.; Murray, Matthew N.

2017-01-01

"Tennessee Small School Systems v. McWherter" case led to a significant reform of the state's school finance system during 1992-1993 with the phased-in implementation of the Basic Education Program. This paper examines the impact of Tennessee's school finance reform on education spending using a complete panel of school districts from…

Vulnerability of Rural Hospitals to Medicare Outpatient Payment Reform

PubMed Central

Mohr, Penny E.; Franco, Sheila J.; Blanchfield, Bonnie B.; Cheng, C. Michael; Evans, William N.

1999-01-01

Because the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 requires implementation of a Medicare prospective payment system (PPS) for hospital outpatient services, the authors evaluated the potential impact of outpatient PPS on rural hospitals. Areas examined include: (1) How dependent are rural hospitals on outpatient revenue? (2) Are they more likely than urban hospitals to be vulnerable to payment reform? (3) What types of rural hospitals will be most vulnerable to reform? Using Medicare cost report data, the authors found that small size and government ownership are more common among rural than urban hospitals and are the most important determinants of vulnerability to payment reform. PMID:11481724

Comprehensive School Reform in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Contexts: Implementation and Outcomes from a Four-Year Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Datnow, Amanda; Borman, Geoffrey D.; Stringfield, Sam; Overman, Laura T.; Castellano, Marisa

2003-01-01

This article presents findings from a 4-year study of 13 culturally and linguistically diverse elementary schools implementing comprehensive school reform (CSR) models. The study focused on: (a) the actions at the state and district levels that facilitated or inhibited reform implementation; (b) the adaptability of the various reforms in…

Putting "The System" into a School Autonomy Reform: The Case of the Independent Public Schools Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gobby, Brad

2016-01-01

The Australian Federal and state governments have been introducing neoliberal reforms to the governance of their education systems for a number of decades. One of the most recent programs of reform is the Western Australian Independent Public Schools (IPS) initiative. Similar to decentralizing reforms around the world, the IPS program seeks…

Ignored Expertise: Teacher Response to School Reform at a "D" School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gayles, Jonathan

2004-01-01

Since the publication of "A Nation at Risk" (National Commission for Excellence in Education, 1983), school reform has not been far from the center of dialogue about public education in the United States. This report certainly provided a reference point for much of the reform that immediately followed it and much of the reform that…

Deciding Who Decides Questions at the Intersection of School Finance Reform Litigation and Standards-Based Accountability Policies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Superfine, Benjamin Michael

2009-01-01

Courts hearing school finance reform cases have recently begun to consider several issues related to standards-based accountability policies. This convergence of school finance reform litigation and standards-based accountability policies represents a chance for the courts to reallocate decision-making authority for each type of reform across the…

Minorities, the Poor and School Finance Reform. Vol. 2: The Impact of Texas' 1975 School Finance Reform on Poor and Minority Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brischetto, Robert

As part of a nine-volume, six-state study of the impact of school finance reforms on minorities and the poor, the author examines the history and effects of finance reform in Texas. He presents a political and socioeconomic profile of the state and discusses past Texas school financing, the role of the Rodriguez v. San Antonio Independent School…

Beyond Gifted Education: Building a Shared Agenda for School Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sapon-Shevin, Mara

1996-01-01

This discussion of the relationship of gifted education programs to broader school reform efforts focuses on negative effects of gifted programs on schools at large; issues in the reexamination of the gifted construct; and suggestions to avoid positioning school reform advocates, gifted education proponents, and full inclusion supporters in…

Strategic Leadership and School Reform in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Peiying

2008-01-01

This article examines school leadership in the context of Taiwanese educational reform since the mid-1990s. The goal of the inquiry is twofold: to explore the conflicts that school administrators have confronted in facilitating school reform and to analyze the strategic and innovative leadership practices that have facilitated improvements in…

Community Organizing for School Reform in New York City.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mediratta, Kavitha

This paper examines school reform via community organizing in New York City's lowest performing public school districts. It summarizes findings from a national study on community organizing for school reform, profiling 10 community organizing groups. In 2000, researchers conducted surveys of and interviews with all NYC groups currently engaged in…

The (Evasive) Language of School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noguera, Pedro A.; Pierce, Jill C.

2016-01-01

Across the United States, decisions championed in the name of school "reform" are segregating students on the basis of race and class. Traditional public schools that serve low-income students of color have been closed, consolidated, or co-located with charter schools. The officials initiating these reforms claim they will benefit…

Making Sense of School Leaders' Sense-Making

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ganon-Shilon, Sherry; Schechter, Chen

2017-01-01

Effective education reform depends on its successful realization by the school leadership carrying out the reform. School principals and middle leaders in the 21st century re-examine their traditional role so as to understand complexities and ambiguities characterizing their various responsibilities within the context of school reform. As critical…

School Reform: Past and Present.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker, Franklin

United States educational history is full of uncertain reform attempts beginning with colonial New England's school reform goal of salvation in this world as a preparation for eternal life in the next. A more practical type of education characterized the Early National Period. Monitorial schools and communal schools, as in New Harmony, Indiana,…

The Role of Democratic Governing Bodies in South African Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karlsson, Jenni

2002-01-01

School governance reform in post-apartheid South Africa aimed to democratize schooling while accommodating diverse school histories of underdevelopment or self-management. Analysis of relevant legislation shows the reform was structured to allow representative democracy and partnerships. But two recent studies suggest that governance reforms have…

Community Action, Urban Reform, and the Fight against Poverty: The Ford Foundation's Gray Areas Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Connor, Alice

1996-01-01

Describes the process by which experimental Ford Foundation programs designed to stem the urban crisis evolved into more narrowly constructed interventions to reform service delivery systems and alleviate poverty in inner-city neighborhoods. Related themes are highlighted and limitations caused by problems of institutional constraints, political…

Improving low-performing high schools: searching for evidence of promise.

PubMed

Fleischman, Steve; Heppen, Jessica

2009-01-01

Noting that many of the nation's high schools are beset with major problems, such as low student reading and math achievement, high dropout rates, and an inadequate supply of effective teachers, Steve Fleischman and Jessica Heppen survey a range of strategies that educators have used to improve low-performing high schools. The authors begin by showing how the standards-based school reform movement, together with the No Child Left Behind Act requirement that underperforming schools adopt reforms supported by scientifically based research, spurred policy makers, educators, and researchers to create and implement a variety of approaches to attain improvement. Fleischman and Heppen then review a number of widely adopted reform models that aim to change "business as usual" in low-performing high schools. The models include comprehensive school reform programs, dual enrollment and early college high schools, smaller learning communities, specialty (for example, career) academies, charter high schools, and education management organizations. In practice, say the authors, many of these improvement efforts overlap, defying neat distinctions. Often, reforms are combined to reinforce one another. The authors explain the theories that drive the reforms, review evidence of their reforms' effectiveness to date, and suggest what it will take to make them work well. Although the reforms are promising, the authors say, few as yet have solid evidence of systematic or sustained success. In concluding, Fleischman and Heppen emphasize that the reasons for a high school's poor performance are so complex that no one reform model or approach, no matter how powerful, can turn around low-performing schools. They also stress the need for educators to implement each reform program with fidelity to its requirements and to support it for the time required for success. Looking to the future, the authors suggest steps that decision makers, researchers, and sponsors of research can take to promote evidence-based progress in education.

Effects of school reformon education and labor market performance: Evidence from Chile’s universal voucher system

PubMed Central

Bravo, David; Mukhopadhyay, Sankar; Todd, Petra E.

2011-01-01

This paper studies the effects of school reform in Chile, which adopted a nationwide school voucher program along with school decentralization reforms in 1981. Since then, Chile has had a relatively unregulated, competitive market in primary and secondary education. It therefore provides a unique setting in which to study how these reforms affected school attainment and labor market outcomes. This paper develops and estimates a dynamic model of school attendance and work decisions using panel data from the 2002 and 2004 waves of the Encuesta de Protección Social survey. Some individuals in the sample completed their schooling before the voucher reforms were introduced, while others had the option of using the vouchers over part or all of their schooling careers. The impacts of the voucher reform are identified from differences in the schooling and work choices made and earnings returns received by similar aged individuals who were differentially exposed to the voucher system. Simulations based on the estimated model show that the voucher reform significantly increased the demand for private subsidized schools and decreased the demand for both public and nonsubsidized private schools. It increased high school (grades 9–12) graduation rates by 3.6 percentage points and the percentage completing at least two years of college by 2.6 percentage points. Individuals from poor and non-poor backgrounds on average experienced similar schooling attainment gains. The reform also increased lifetime utility and modestly reduced earnings inequality. PMID:22059095

Exploring status and determinants of prenatal and postnatal visits in western China: in the background of the new health system reform.

PubMed

Fan, Xiaojing; Zhou, Zhongliang; Dang, Shaonong; Xu, Yongjian; Gao, Jianmin; Zhou, Zhiying; Su, Min; Wang, Dan; Chen, Gang

2017-07-20

Prenatal and postnatal visits are two effective interventions for protection and promotion of maternal health by reducing maternal mortality and improving the quality of birth. There is limited nationally representative data regarding the changes of prenatal and postnatal visits since the latest health system reform initiated in 2009 in Shaanxi, China. The aim of this study was to explore the current status and determinants of prenatal and postnatal visits in the background of new health system reform. Data were drawn from two waves of National Health Service Surveys in Shaanxi Province which were conducted prior and post the health system reform in 2008 and 2013, respectively. A concentration index was employed to measure the degree of income-related inequality of maternal health services utilization. Multilevel mix-effects logistic regressions were applied to study the factors associated with prenatal and postnatal visits. The study sample consists of 2398 women aged 15-49 years old. The data of the 5th National Health Services Survey in 2013 showed in the criterion of the World Health Organization (WHO), the percentage of women receiving ≥4 prenatal visits was 84.79% for urban women and 82.20% for rural women, with women receiving ≥3 postnatal visits were 26.48 and 25.29% for urban and rural women respectively. In the criterion of China's ≥ 5 prenatal visits the percentages were 72.25% for urban women and 70.33% for rural women; 61.69% of urban women and 71.50% of rural women received ≥1 postnatal visits. As for urban women, the concentration index of postnatal visit utilization was -0.075 (95% CI:-0.148, -0.020) after the health system reform. The determinants related to prenatal and postnatal visits were the change of reform, women's education, parity and the delivery institution. This study showed the utilization of prenatal and postnatal visits met the requirement of the WHO, higher than other areas in China and other developing countries after the new health system reform. The new health system reform increased the utilization of postnatal visits in poor urban women and improved the frequency of prenatal and postnatal visits in rural women.

Rural vs urban hospital performance in a 'competitive' public health service.

PubMed

Garcia-Lacalle, Javier; Martin, Emilio

2010-09-01

In some western countries, market-driven reforms to improve efficiency and quality have harmed the performance of some hospitals, occasionally leading to their closure, mostly in rural areas. This paper seeks to explore whether these reforms affect urban and rural hospitals differently in a European health service. Rural and urban hospital performance is compared taking into account their efficiency and perceived quality. The study is focused on the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) in Spain, which has implemented a freedom of hospital choice policy and a reimbursement system based on hospital performance. Data Envelopment Analysis, the Mann-Whitney U test and Multidimensional Scaling techniques are conducted for two years, 2003 and 2006. The results show that rural and urban hospitals perform similarly in the efficiency dimension, whereas rural hospitals perform significantly better than urban hospitals in the patient satisfaction dimension. When the two dimensions are considered jointly, some rural hospitals are found to be the best performers. As such, market-driven reforms do not necessary result in a difference in the performance of rural and urban hospitals. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

School Finance Reform and the Distribution of Student Achievement. NBER Working Paper No. 22011. Revised

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lafortune, Julien; Rothstein, Jesse; Schanzenbach, Diane Whitmore

2016-01-01

We study the impact of post-1990 school finance reforms, during the so-called "adequacy" era, on absolute and relative spending and achievement in low-income school districts. Using an event study research design that exploits the apparent randomness of reform timing, we show that reforms lead to sharp, immediate, and sustained increases…

From Schools to Community Learning Centers: A Program Evaluation of a School Reform Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Magolda, Peter; Ebben, Kelsey

2007-01-01

This manuscript reports on a program evaluation of a school reform initiative conducted in an Ohio city. The paper describes, interprets, and evaluates this reform process aimed at transforming schools into community learning centers. The manuscript also describes and analyzes the initiative's program evaluation process. Elliot Eisner's [(1998).…

Leading Inclusive Reform for Students with Disabilities: A School- and Systemwide Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Theoharis, George; Causton, Julie

2014-01-01

It is of great importance to maximize access to general education for all students with disabilities. This article focuses on how leaders create inclusive schools for all students--inclusive school reform. Inclusive school reform can result in all students with disabilities being placed into general education settings (including students with…

School Reform in the United States: Frames and Representations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shannon, Patrick

2012-01-01

This essay reviews six competing positions on U.S. school reform: a speech from Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan; Diane Ravitch's "The Death and Life of the Great American School System"; Frederick Hess's "The Same Thing Over and Over"; Charles Payne's "So Much Reform, So Little Change"; Anthony Byrk and others' "Organizing School for…

The Limits of Teacher Education Reforms: School Subjects, Alchemies, and an Alternative Possibility

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Popkewitz, Thomas

2010-01-01

Contemporary U.S. schools and professional reforms call for teachers to have greater disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge for teaching school subjects. Reform efforts leave unexamined the rules and standards of "reason" that historically order school subjects. The notion of alchemy provides an analytic "tool" to consider the…

School Reform in Chicago: Lessons in Policy and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russo, Alexander, Ed.

2004-01-01

"School Reform in Chicago" shares the lessons learned from the city of Chicago's school reform efforts over the past two decades, the most ambitious in history, becoming a huge laboratory for innovations in areas such as school governance, leadership, accountability, and community involvement. In 1987, The U.S. Secretary of Education…

Smart, Bold Reform for Powerful Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cahill, Michelle

2009-01-01

Over the past 10 years, the author has spent time in hundreds of high schools reviewing data; observing classes; learning about interventions and whole-school reforms; and speaking with principals, teachers, counselors, and students. She has also been a district leader in New York City responsible for high school reform that has achieved promising…

77 FR 6573 - Announcement of Funding Awards; Fair Housing Initiatives Program Fiscal Year 2011

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-08

... and Urban Development Reform Act of 1989, this announcement notifies the public of funding decisions...)(C) of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Reform Act of 1989 (103 Stat. 1987, 42 U.S.C..., Suite 118, Cincinnati, OH 45202-1458. Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis, 430 First Lisa Cohen, 612-746...

The Implementation of the Full Service School Reform Model and Its Impact on Middle School Climate and Student Achievement: An Investigative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Joseph Hamilton

2012-01-01

The Full Service Schools (FSS) reform model is an inter-agency collaboration between the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), Choices, Inc., Insights Education Group and the DC Department of Mental Health. This comprehensive school reform model is based in the Response to Intervention paradigm and is designed to mitigate student academic…

Using "Short" Interrupted Time-Series Analysis To Measure the Impacts of Whole-School Reforms: With Applications to a Study of Accelerated Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bloom, Howard S.

2002-01-01

Introduces an new approach for measuring the impact of whole school reforms. The approach, based on "short" interrupted time-series analysis, is explained, its statistical procedures are outlined, and how it was used in the evaluation of a major whole-school reform, Accelerated Schools is described (H. Bloom and others, 2001). (SLD)

Recent urban policy and development in China: a reversal of "anti-urbanism".

PubMed

Kwok, R Y

1987-10-01

The nature of and reasons for China's urban distribution policy adopted in 1982 are examined. The influence of socialist planning ideology on urban policy is noted. Contradictions between economic reform and urban policies are identified.

Learning to teach science in urban schools by becoming a researcher of one's own beginning practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furman, Melina; Calabrese Barton, Angela; Muir, Ben

2012-03-01

An urgent goal for science teacher educators is to prepare teachers to teach science in meaningful ways to youth from nondominant backgrounds. This preparation is challenging, for it asks teachers to critically examine how their pedagogical practices might adaptively respond to students and to science. It asks, essentially, for new teachers to become researchers of their own beginning practice. This study explores the story of Ben as he coauthored a transformative action research project in an urban middle school as part of a teacher education program and, later, over his first year of teaching at that same school. We describe how Ben and his partner teacher created innovative spaces for science learning. This offered Ben an opportunity to make some of his deeply engrained pedagogical beliefs come alive within a context of distributed expertise, which provided for him a space of moderate risk where he could afford the chances of failure without undermining how he felt about his own capacity as a teacher. Our study highlights the importance of creating reform opportunities within the context of teacher education programs that may help beginner teachers construct positive images of teaching that they can hold on to in their future practice.

The National School Reform Faculty: Reforming Schools from the Inside

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Educational Horizons, 2005

2005-01-01

In the Winter 2005 issue of "educational HORIZONS," Charles Glenn wrote that schools designed in a perfect system of educational diversity and choice could nonetheless end up as "uninspired carbon copies produced by educators without the foggiest idea of how to do anything differently." Most school reform tries to avoid that fate with various…

Boosting Student Achievement: The Effect of Comprehensive School Reform on Student Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gross, Betheny; Booker, T. Kevin; Goldhaber, Dan

2009-01-01

Between the late 1980s and early 2000s, schools, districts, states, and the federal government devoted enormous resources to the implementation of Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) models. With more than 1.6 billion federal dollars distributed through the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) project and its successor, the CSR project,…

Organizational Behavior in Education: Instructional Leadership and School Reform. Seventh Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owens, Robert G.

This book concentrates on the connection between organizational behavior and the clamor for school reform, whether market-based, standards-based, or whole-school reform. It explains the great need for school leaders to develop a theory and practice that draws on what is known about organizational behavior in education. Educational leaders need a…

Intersections between School Reform, the Arts, and Special Education: The Children Left Behind

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hourigan, Ryan M.

2014-01-01

Arts education and special education within public schools have faced similar challenges in the wake of school reform. Services and programming have been reduced, leaving a larger gap in resources and accessibility. Because of loopholes in policy, new reform initiatives such as vouchers and charter schools will continue to marginalize students…

In the Midst of Comprehensive School Reform: Principals' Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Good, Thomas L.

2008-01-01

Background/Context: The role of the principal, and especially the role of the principal in promoting school reform to increase student achievement, is a topic with a long and evolving history. Principals are believed to play a critical role in school reform because they have the potential to impact all aspects of school policy, from time allocated…

Becoming Good American Schools: The Struggle for Civic Virtue in Education Reform. The Jossey-Bass Education Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oakes, Jeannie; Quartz, Karen Hunter; Ryan, Steve; Lipton, Martin

Education reform based on technical and rational processes often short-circuits reform because it is uncontentious, abstract, and provides educators with no legitimate ways to question the marketplace values and policies that drive much contemporary school reform. The perspective referred to as "betterment" is an alternative reform that…

School Finance Reform: Assessing General Equilibrium Effects. NBER Working Paper No. 13524

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Epple, Dennis N.; Ferreyra, Maria Marta

2007-01-01

In 1994 the state of Michigan implemented one of the most comprehensive school finance reforms undertaken to date in any of the states. Understanding the effects of the reform is thus of value in informing other potential reform initiatives. In addition, the reform and associated changes in the economic environment provide an opportunity to assess…

Secondary School Reform, Inclusion, and Authentic Assessment. Research Institute on Secondary Education Reform (RISER) for Youth with Disabilities Brief.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Braden, Jeffery P.; Schroeder, Jennifer L.; Buckley, Jacquelyn A.

The Research Institute on Secondary Education Reform for Youth with Disabilities (RISER) has identified Schools of Authentic and Inclusive Learning (SAIL) to explore whether and how secondary students with disabilities are included in secondary education reform. In this brief, the literature describing the intersection of reform, inclusion, and…

Survey of attitudes towards curriculum reforms among medical teachers in different socio-economic and cultural environments.

PubMed

Simunovic, Vladimir J; Hren, Darko; Ivanis, Ana; Dørup, Jens; Krivokuca, Zdenka; Ristic, Sinisa; Verhaaren, Henri; Sonntag, Hans-Günther; Ribaric, Samo; Tomic, Snjezana; Vojnikovic, Benjamin; Seleskovic, Hajrija; Dahl, Mads; Marusic, Ana; Marusic, Matko

2007-10-01

Curriculum reforms in medical schools require cultural and conceptual changes from the faculty. We assessed attitudes towards curriculum reforms in different academic, economic, and social environments among 776 teachers from 2 Western European medical schools (Belgium and Denmark) and 7 medical schools in 3 countries in post-communist transition (Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina). The survey included a 5-point Likert-type scale on attitudes towards reforms in general and towards reforms of medical curriculum (10 items each). Teaching staff from medical schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina had a more positive attitude towards reforms of medical curriculum (mean score 36.8 out of maximum 50 [95% CI 36.1 to 37.3]) than those from medical schools in Croatia or Slovenia (30.7 [29.8 to 31.6]) or Western Europe (27.7 [27.1 to 28.3]) (P < 0.001, ANOVA). Significant predictors of positive attitudes towards medical curriculum reform in post-communist transition countries, but not in Western European schools, was younger age, as well as female gender in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Factors influencing faculty attitudes may not be easy to identify and may be specific for different settings. Their identification and management is necessary for producing sustainable curriculum reform.

Elementary School Principals in Low Socio-Economic-Status Schools: A University-Based Research Programme Designed to Support Mandated Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Archambault, Jean; Garon, Roseline

2012-01-01

This paper presents a reform initiative, the Supporting Montreal Schools Program (SMSP), created by the government of Quebec to assist 184 low socio-economic-status schools in Montreal implement seven reform strategies prescribed by the government. On a regular basis, the professional team of the SMSP engages in reflection and research with…

Learning from Experience: A Cross-Case Comparison of School-to-Work Transition Reform Initiatives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rogers, Anne M.; And Others

A cross-case study approach was used to determine how school-to-work reform affects clients and participants and to identify elements critical to the success of school-to-work systems. Fourteen school-to-work reform initiatives in communities across the United States were examined by using a research protocol that included individual interviews,…

Happy Marriage or Uneasy Alliance? The Relationship between Comprehensive School Reform and State Accountability Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Datnow, Amanda

2005-01-01

The purpose of this article is to examine how the relationship between comprehensive school reform (CSR) and state accountability systems helps or hinders school improvement efforts. This article draws on case study data collected in schools in 3 states that received funding to implement reforms through the federal CSR program. Findings show that…

New Perspectives on School Improvement: A Summary of Research Findings on Approaches to Educational Reform and the Management of School Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Organizational Analysis and Practice, Inc., Ithaca, NY. Educational Systems Div.

Although educational reform approaches have varied from state to state, most efforts have shared some common elements: (1) concentration of educational policymaking in state capitols by state-level officials; (2) a widespread conviction that schools of education, local school officials, and teachers are unwilling or unable to "reform"…

Cutting through the Hype: The Essential Guide to School Reform. Revised, Expanded, and Updated Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

David, Jane L.; Cuban, Larry

2010-01-01

"Cutting Through the Hype: The Essential Guide to School Reform" is a revised, expanded, and updated version of the classic work by Jane L. David and Larry Cuban. It offers balanced analyses of 23 currently popular school reform strategies, from teacher performance pay and putting mayors in charge to turnaround schools and data-driven instruction.…

High School Diversification against Educational Equality: A Critical Analysis of Neoliberal Education Reform in South Korea

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oh, Jeongran

2011-01-01

Recent reforms of high school education in Korea have focused on transforming the uniform and standardized system into a deregulated and diversified system that has an emphasis on school choice and competition. Situating the high school diversification policy in the context of the recent controversy of the neoliberal educational reform, this study…

Constraints and Subsequent Limitations to Parental Involvement in Primary Schools in Abu Dhabi: Stakeholders' Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hourani, Rida Blaik; Stringer, Patricia; Baker, Fiona

2012-01-01

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is developing its public schools by initiating reform agendas for school improvement. High on the list of reforms is the call to increase parental involvement in schools. For this reform to work successfully, it is important to identify and examine the constraints and subsequent limitations that exist. Seven primary…

Improving Public Education through Comprehensive School Reform: An Issue Brief from the International Reading Association.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

International Reading Association, Newark, DE.

The Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program is a new initiative that could affect International Reading Association members in the United States--but will benefit only those who take advantage of it. The purpose of the CSR initiative is to provide financial incentives for schools to develop comprehensive school reforms. Funding is available to…

Parent Anxiety and School Reform: When Interests Collide, Whose Needs Come First?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fried, Robert L.

1998-01-01

Alfie Kohn's attack on affluent, educationally focused parents (in the April 1998 "Kappan") sidesteps citizens' dismay at reformers' failure to make schools work for disadvantaged, average, or gifted students. What are the systemic implications? Elite colleges must champion reforms, schools must communicate curriculum essentials…

78 FR 33078 - Applications for New Awards; Training and Information for Parents of Children With Disabilities...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-03

...; college- and career- ready standards and assessments; school reform efforts to improve student achievement...- and career- ready standards and assessments; school reforms to improve student achievement and... standards and assessments; school reform efforts to improve student achievement and increase graduation...

Neoliberalism and Corporate School Reform: "Failure" and "Creative Destruction"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saltman, Kenneth J.

2014-01-01

In the United States, corporate school reform or neoliberal educational restructuring has overtaken educational policy, practice, curriculum, and nearly all aspects of educational reform. Although this movement began on the political right, the corporate school model has been heralded across the political spectrum and is aggressively embraced now…

Leadership Metaphors: School Principals' Sense-Making of a National Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schechter, Chen; Shaked, Haim; Ganon-Shilon, Sherry; Goldratt, Miri

2018-01-01

During reforms, principals often experience ambiguity, contradicting demands, and lack of information. As critical change agents and system players, principals interpret reform demands and translate them into school practices through a process of sense-making. The current qualitative research explored 59 elementary school principals' sense-making…

Women, Class, and School Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mickelson, Roslyn Arlin; Wadsworth, Angela L.

1996-01-01

Analyzes ordinary women's role in shaping school reform in their community, highlighting interplay of class conflict, regionalism, and gender roles in reform efforts. The women protesting the Odyssey Project framed the debate as a juncture between a national, elitist reform movement and a local grassroots countermovement protecting children,…

Life after High School: Which Postschool Outcomes Matter for Students with and without Disabilities in Restructured High Schools? Research Institute on Secondary Education Reform (RISER) for Youth with Disabilities Brief.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mooney, Marianne; Phelps, L. Allen

The Research Institute on Secondary Education Reform for Youth with Disabilities (RISER) has been studying three significantly restructured high schools that have included students with disabilities and their parents in the design and/or implementation of school reform efforts. Each of these schools has operated for 3-12 years with its new,…

"Hold up..do pigs eat bacon?!" An investigation of science instruction for urban Black youth and the need for a culturally considerate response

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ridgeway, Monica Lynn

As a critical race ethnography, this dissertation attempts to foreground the richness of Black urban youth culture during and around science classroom instruction. Ironically, during an era of much diversity rhetoric in the United States, the culture of urban Black youth is rarely reflected in mainstream public school culture. I attempt to explicate such a worldview compassionately and authentically for both insiders and outsiders of the lived experiences of Black America. Education in the United States can be damning for Black youth who do not fit the mainstream mold, and several authors have provided detailed critique of mechanisms that shape, direct, and marginalize outliers to the successful academic cultural model. The U.S. through this lens is experiencing an opportunity gap, not an achievement gap--one which equitable educational experience can best be viewed through the richness of critical ethnographic methods. This methodical approach allowed me as a researcher to listen to marginalized voices and to incorporate lived interactions with youth, their parents, and community stakeholders all committed to provide support for the today's youth. As a Black female science educator, I explore the evidence for reform impact as I examine in school experiences and science teaching of culturally relevant pedagogies for urban, working-class and poor families of color in grades six-eight who participated in a Western New York academic enrichment program. Findings suggest that skepticism of reform efforts and new pedagogical approaches existed for all stakeholders aforementioned, but that students were the most amenable and responsive to alternative educational approaches. Specific recommendations for engaging students in inquiry processes are given for teachers, institutions, parents and students on the basis of videotaped lessons, interviews, and instructional artifacts. Implications include the recommendations that educators working with youth of color need to be prepared to discuss the ethnic and racial identities of students and jointly construct a sense of activism and empowerment in the face of existing systemic oppression that can and should be eliminated if we are to reach the national goal (AAAS, 1986) of "Science for All Americans," professed as many as three decades ago.

Community Organizing as an Education Reform Strategy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Renee, Michelle; McAlister, Sara

2011-01-01

Community organizing for school reform offers an urgently needed alternative to traditional approaches to school change. Many current reforms fail to thrive due to lack of trust, understanding, or cultural relevance to the community being targeted. The high turnover of reformers (superintendents, principals, or outside organizations) in high-need…

Outline Guide to Educational Reform Initiatives. ERS Research Digest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Educational Research Service, Arlington, VA.

Many educational reform initiatives are being tried in an effort to restructure the American school system. This guide compares major educational reform efforts by goal, vision, teaching and learning, and system components. The first section of the guide covers major systemic educational reform initiatives, including Accelerated Schools Project,…

Leaving Fingerprints: Principals' Considerations While Implementing Education Reforms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schechter, Chen; Shaked, Haim

2017-01-01

Purpose: Turning an education reform program into school reality greatly depends on the principal. In certain cases, principals choose to implement reform instructions only partially. The purpose of this paper is to explore school principals' considerations leading to their decisions not to fulfill a national reform's guidelines in a full and…

The Profession Speaks: Educator Perspectives on School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Brett Gardiner

2018-01-01

An educator, who compiled teachers' stories of accountability era reforms into a book, explains why teacher voice is central. The book, "Inside Our Schools: Teachers on the Failure and Future of Education Reform," is organized around the recurring buzzwords the mainstream education reform movement has used to define its policies:…

The Effects of Behavioral Health Reform on Safety-Net Institutions: A Mixed-Method Assessment in a Rural State

PubMed Central

Sommerfeld, David H.; Aarons, Gregory A.; Waitzkin, Howard

2013-01-01

In July 2005, New Mexico initiated a major reform of publicly-funded behavioral healthcare to reduce cost and bureaucracy. We used a mixed-method approach to examine how this reform impacted the workplaces and employees of service agencies that care for low-income adults in rural and urban areas. Information technology problems and cumbersome processes to enroll patients, procure authorizations, and submit claims led to payment delays that affected the financial status of the agencies, their ability to deliver care, and employee morale. Rural employees experienced lower levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment and higher levels of turnover intentions under the reform when compared to their urban counterparts. PMID:23307162

Why Do Policy Leaders Adopt Global Education Reforms? A Political Analysis of SBM Reform Adoption in Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Komatsu, Taro

2013-01-01

This paper presents a political analysis of school-based management reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). School-based management (SBM), based on the principle of school autonomy and community participation, is a school governance system introduced in many parts of the world, including post-conflict nations. Such a phenomenon seems to follow the…

Circulation and Internationalisation of Pedagogical Concepts and Practices in the Discourse of Education: The Hamburg School Reform Experiment (1919-1933)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mayer, Christine

2014-01-01

In the context of the international exchange of school reform ideas and concepts, the new schools in Hamburg were recognised as exemplary instances of a revolutionary and forceful reform in the public elementary school systems. Based on studies of transfer and their premise that the transnational transfer of ideas, practices and objects does not…

Inequality trends of health workforce in different stages of medical system reform (1985-2011) in China.

PubMed

Zhou, Kaiyuan; Zhang, Xinyi; Ding, Yi; Wang, Duolao; Lu, Zhou; Yu, Min

2015-12-08

The aim of this study was to identify whether policies in different stages of medical system reform had been effective in decreasing inequalities and increasing the density of health workers in rural areas in China between 1985 and 2011. With data from China Health Statistics Yearbooks from 2004 to 2012, we measured the Gini coefficient and the Theil L index across the urban and rural areas from 1985 to 2011 to investigate changes in inequalities in the distributions of health workers, doctors, and nurses by states, regions, and urban-rural stratum and account for the sources of inequalities. We found that the overall inequalities in the distribution of health workers decreased to the lowest in 2000, then increased gently until 2011. Nurses were the most unequally distributed between urban-rural districts among health workers. Most of the overall inequalities in the distribution of health workers across regions were due to inequalities within the rural-urban stratum. Different policies and interventions in different stages would result in important changes in inequality in the distribution of the health workforce. It was also influenced by other system reforms, like the urbanization, education, and employment reforms in China. The results are useful for the Chinese government to decide how to narrow the gap of the health workforce and meet its citizens' health needs to the maximum extent.

The Influence of News Framing on Support for Charter School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feuerstein, Abe

2015-01-01

This study examined the influence of media framing on attitudes toward charter school reform. Participants in an Internet-based experiment were presented, at random, with one of three manipulated news articles framing charter school reform as (a) supportive of values such as freedom, choice, and innovation; (b) conflicting with values such as…

Longitudinal Assessment of Comprehensive School Reform Program Implementation and Outcomes: First-Year Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tushnet, Naida C., Flaherty, John, Jr., Smith, And

2004-01-01

The Longitudinal Assessment of Comprehensive School Reform Implementation and Outcomes (LACIO) responds to the No Child Left Behind Act's requirement for an evaluation of the federal Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program. The legislation stipulates two broad goals for the evaluation: (1) to evaluate the implementation and outcomes achieved by…

Improving Teacher Practice: Teachers' Perspectives on Capacity-Building Initiatives in Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mattos, Joseph C.

2011-01-01

Educational research over the past 15 years shows that schools and school districts have, on a large scale, failed to translate reform goals into improved teacher practice and student learning. Although classroom teachers are central to successful school reform, research has rarely examined how teachers experience reform initiatives and how that…

Standardization and Subjection: An Autonomist Critique of Neoliberal School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slater, Graham B.; Griggs, C. Bradford

2015-01-01

Education under neoliberal reform has been targeted as an indispensable source of profit. Market-based reforms have commodified education and are transforming public school into a corporatized industry concerned not with democracy but with the smooth functioning of the capitalist economy. Targeting public schooling as a site in which to accumulate…

Converging Paths or Ships Passing in the Night? An "English" Critique of Japanese School Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green, Andy

2000-01-01

Examines origins and potential effects of liberalizing reforms in Japanese secondary education in light of British experiences with policies such as local school management and school choice. Argues that Japanese reform involves necessary diversification of curriculum and pedagogic practices, but administrative shifts toward deregulation and…

Perspectives on High School Reform. NCREL Viewpoints, Volume 13

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Learning Point Associates / North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), 2005

2005-01-01

Viewpoints is a multimedia package containing two audio CDs and a brief, informative booklet. This volume of Viewpoints focuses on issues related to high school reform. This booklet offers background information explaining the issues surrounding high school reform with perspectives from research, policy, and practice. It also provides a list of…

A Broader and Bolder Approach to School Reform: Expanded Partnership Roles for School Counselors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steen, Sam; Noguera, Pedro A.

2010-01-01

This article describes a broader, bolder approach to education reform aimed at addressing the social and economic disadvantages that hinder student achievement. Central principles of this approach to reform include the provision of supports such as early childhood and preschool programs, after-school and summer enrichment programs, parent…

A Comprehensive System of School Reform Based on Student Results

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Little, Mary E.

2007-01-01

School reform is achieved through the collaboration and coordination among educators with the mutual goal of improved learning for all students. Given the complexity within and among educational systems, the need to develop and implement a common framework of school reform based upon mutually agreed-upon goals, standards, outcomes, and…

Correcting the Money Myth: Re-Thinking School Resources

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grubb, W. Norton

2010-01-01

The Money Myth is the contention that any education problem requires increased spending and, conversely, that reform is impossible without more funding. However, increased funding works for only certain kinds of school resources. Many reforms require resources that money cannot buy. What is needed are reforms that build the capacity of schools to…

Bridging the Gulf between Courtroom and Classroom: A Reflective Essay on "Law and School Reform."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biddle, James R.

1999-01-01

Heubert's "Law & School Reform Report" is an interdisciplinary exploration of schooling litigation and legislation since 1950. Superficially resembling a primer of successful law-driven reforms, the book actually reveals the great gap between legal victories and educational successes. Child advocacy is needed to redress inequities.…

Legitimating Leadership in Southern Thai Schools: Considering Local Responses to Neoliberal Reforms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maxcy, Brendan; Sungtong, Ekkarin; Nguyen, Thu Suong Thi

2010-01-01

Mounting religious-ethnic tensions and broad-scale reform have precipitated reconsideration of the mission, traditions, operations and institutional positions of government schools in southern Thailand. The authors report on a study of a dozen schools located in four border provinces adapting to national reforms and regional unrest. The authors…

Critical Race Feminism and the Complex Challenges of Educational Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Childers-McKee, Cherese D.; Hytten, Kathy

2015-01-01

Throughout the past several decades, there has been an abundance of research about school reform, particularly in schools predominated by students of color and students experiencing poverty. Critics acknowledge that many reform efforts have failed and comprehensive solutions to school change remain elusive. In this article, we provide an overview…

Reforming U.S. Teacher Education in the 1990s.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker, Franklin

In the spirit of educational reform efforts, public schools have national goals for the first time and are under pressure to adopt a national curriculum, national testing, and parental choice of schools. School reform depends on upgrading teacher education. Only a more carefully recruited, better prepared, and more professionally rewarded teaching…

American School Reform: What Works, What Fails, and Why

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDonald, Joseph P.

2014-01-01

Dissecting twenty years of educational politics in our nation's largest cities, "American School Reform" offers one of the clearest assessments of school reform as it has played out in our recent history. Joseph P. McDonald and his colleagues evaluate the half-billion-dollar Annenberg Challenge--launched in 1994--alongside other…

Beyond Reform: Transformation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davidson, Jill

2007-01-01

The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) is not a reform movement. To reform is to make a thing again; reformation implies a stasis that doesn't deliver enough for the educational future. This issue of Horace demonstrates that Essential schools and the districts and networks that support them are at various points in the journey of transformation,…

Florida's Lessons for Indiana K-12 Reform. School Choice Issues in the State

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ladner, Matthew

2009-01-01

Jeb Bush campaigned for Governor on a clear and bracing set of education reforms in 1998. Having won office, he immediately pursued a dual track strategy of education reform: standards and accountability for public schools, choice options for dissatisfied parents. Florida lawmakers followed these reforms with additional measures, including…

Gender Politics in 21st Century Literacy Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bishop, Kay

2013-01-01

From 2001 to 2004 Education Queensland undertook significant literacy reform in schools through the Literate Futures Project. Research into the impact of this reform has revealed that significant demands were placed on women at all levels, from those producing resources to those leading change within schools. Although the reform was a government…

Effects of Comprehensive School Reform on Student Achievement and School Change: A Longitudinal Multi-Site Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sterbinsky, Allan; Ross, Steven M.; Redfield, Doris

2006-01-01

The longitudinal impacts on school change and student achievement of implementing varied Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) models was investigated in 12 elementary schools in diverse geographic locations. Each school was individually matched and compared to a demographically similar control school on measures of school climate, teacher…

Discovering: Students' meanings for research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rymer, John Ewan

The call for science education reforms in the mid-1980s resulted in the implementation of a new Alberta senior high school science curriculum in 1992. The reformed curriculum reflected the call for increased authentic practice in the sciences. Part of my interpretation of this curriculum included a month long field biology research project. The students' scientific understandings while involved in this project have been a source of wonder and curiosity for me. As teacher researcher, I sought to interpret the meanings students held for scientific research as they progressed through their self-directed investigations. In an urban high school two of my Biology 20 classes comprised of a total of fifty-four students were involved in this study. Using data collected from student questionnaire responses, student field notebooks and recorded conversations my interpretations were developed. Based on these interpretations it appeared that students' understandings of research altered slightly through the course of the field project. Initially, I interpreted students' meanings for scientific research to include the notion that an independent external world exists which may be methodologically studied. Research was both purposeful and personal, seeking to discover new knowledge through the use of advanced technologies. Over the course of the biology project the students' meanings came to include the sense that research involved dealing with the uncertainty of novelty. Research became dynamic in nature and was seen to be never ending. It became apparent from students' conversations with me that students were aware school social structures and responded to the research project through their understanding of these structures. The potential benefits desired in the reformers' call for authentic scientific practice may have been subverted to a degree by the students' acceptance of school social structures and their underlying discourse. As a result, the implementation of authentic science within the parameters of contemporary school discourse is questioned. I also realized my personal connection to the discourse and structures of schooling. As a result, my initial assumptions and practices in the biology project's implementation had to be reconsidered. This is one of the benefits of teacher research considered in my reflections.

Liberalism, Radicalism, and Self-Governing Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swartz, Ronald

1978-01-01

Contrasts Karl Popper's theory of social reform with a Marxist theory of reform. Concludes that a liberal approach to educational reform, as exemplified by A.S. Neill's self-governing school at Summerhill, is generally more satisfactory. (Author/DB)

School-Based Management in Hong Kong: Centralizing or Decentralizing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pang, I-Wah

2008-01-01

This paper examined the debate on a reform of school-based management in Hong Kong, which was to set up the Incorporated Management Committee (IMC) to manage the subsidized school. The nature of the debate during legislation and the characteristics of the reform were examined. The advantages, disadvantages and the implications of the reform were…

School Performance, Accountability and Waiver Reforms: Evidence from Louisiana. CEPA Working Paper No. 17-06

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dee, Thomas; Dizon-Ross, Elise

2017-01-01

States that received federal waivers to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act were required to implement reforms in designated "Focus Schools" that contribute to achievement gaps. In this study, we examine the performance effects of such "differentiated accountability" reforms in the state of Louisiana. The Focus School reforms…

Beyond Organizational Tinkering: A New View of School Reform. On Balance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rettig, Perry R.

2004-01-01

American public schools are in clear need of real school reform centered on leadership style and organizational structure. To help bring about such reform, lessons taught by the new sciences and through the lens of critical theory need to be considered. At the beginning of the Industrial Age, businesses organized their burgeoning systems using…

It's Our School Too: Youth Activism as Educational Reform, 1951-1979

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ajunwa, Kelechi

2011-01-01

Activism has the potential for reform (Howard, 1976). Unlike previous studies on high school activism this study places a primary focus on underground newspapers and argues that underground newspapers allowed high school students to function as activists as well as educational reformers. In order to make this argument, this study examined over 150…

9 Hard Things to Do in Order to Sustain School Reform. Newsletter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement, 2005

2005-01-01

The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement invited Ann Chafin to share her thoughts and ideas about sustaining school reform. Chafin, chief of Program Improvement and Family Support Branch of the Maryland State Department of Education, was a speaker at the annual Institute for CSR State Coordinators held May 9-10 in Washington,…

Rodriquez V. San Antonio Independent School District: Gathering the Ayes of Texas--The Politics of School Finance Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yudof, Mark G.; Morgan, Daniel C.

1974-01-01

An historical account is given of movements toward educational finance reform in Texas, culminating in the Rodriquez v. San Antonio Independent School District case and its aftermath. The role of political pressures applied by various interest groups is traced and the prospects for future reform assessed. (EH)

School Sector and Student Achievement in the Era of Standards Based Reforms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carbonaro, William; Covay, Elizabeth

2010-01-01

The authors examine whether standards based accountability reforms of the past two decades have closed the achievement gap among public and private high school students. They analyzed data from the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) to examine sector differences in high school achievement in the era of standards based reforms. The authors found…

Reform at the Grass Roots.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaul, Thomas H.; And Others

1994-01-01

Survey forms were sent to 6,000 school board members who subscribe to "The American School Board Journal" in an attempt to discover what reform efforts are being utilized and which ones are working best in schools. A total of 1,347 readers (22.5%) responded. Curricular and instructional reforms were cited by 91% of the respondents, and 70% said…

A Distributional Difference-in-Difference Evaluation of the Response of School Expenditures to Reforms and Tax Limits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMillen, Daniel P.; Singell, Larry D., Jr.

2010-01-01

Prior work uses a parametric approach to study the distributional effects of school finance reform and finds evidence that reform yields greater equality of school expenditures by lowering spending in high-spending districts (leveling down) or increasing spending in low-spending districts (leveling up). We develop a kernel density…

Positivism and Post-World War I Elementary School Reform in Ontario

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milewski, Patrice

2012-01-01

Following the end of World War I, the Ontario Department of Education initiated a series of reforms aimed at both elementary and secondary schooling. This article examines the reforms that were made to elementary school curriculum and pedagogy. These were initiated within the context of a call for a general reconstruction of education and society…

Children Achieving: Philadelphia's Education Reform. A Second-Year Evaluation. Executive Summary. Progress Report Series 1996-97.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Consortium for Policy Research in Education, Philadelphia, PA.

The 1996-97 school year was the second year of the Children Achieving reform initiative in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). This summary describes findings from this second-year evaluation. The evaluation team conducted interviews and observations in 21 schools and 14 clusters, interviewing education reform leaders in the school district and…

Re: School Finance Reform: Emerging Issues and Needed Research. Occasional Paper #7.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Odden, Allan

Several new school finance reform issues are emerging that require further analysis. The first issue is the impact of previous school finance reforms especially regarding their fiscal, programmatic, and governance effects. More analysis is also needed of the effects of the composition of the property tax base and the structure of state…

School-Based Management and Arts Education: Lessons from Chicago

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fitzpatrick, Kate R.

2012-01-01

School-based management, or local school control, is an organizational school reform effort aimed at decentralizing school decision-making that has become prevalent in districts throughout the United States. Using the groundbreaking Chicago system of local school control as an exemplar, this article outlines the implications of such reform efforts…

A Case Study of the Partnership Schools Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Epstein, Joyce L.

2005-01-01

This case study reports the feasibility of the Partnership Schools Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) model for school improvement in a Title I elementary school. Interviews were conducted and documents were collected for 3 years to study whether and how the school implemented key policy attributes--specificity, consistency, authority, power, and…

Effects of a Data-Driven District-Level Reform Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slavin, Robert E.; Holmes, GwenCarol; Madden, Nancy A.; Chamberlain, Anne; Cheung, Alan

2010-01-01

Despite a quarter-century of reform, US schools serving students in poverty continue to lag far behind other schools. There are proven programs, but these are not widely used. This large-scale experiment evaluated a district-level reform model created by the Center for DataDriven Reform in Education (CDDRE). The CDDRE model provided consultation…

Wisconsin's Elementary-Secondary School Finance Reform Legislation: Assembly Substitute Amendment 1 to 1973 Assembly Bill 300.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buchmiller, Archie A.

This paper traces the development of school finance reform pressures in Wisconsin from pressure in 1967 for property tax reform to 1973 legislative reform proposals. The 1973 proposal is designed to provide further equalization of educational opportunity to all Wisconsin students and to guarantee adequate financial resources to provide these…

Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform. School Development and the Management of Change Series: 10.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fullan, Michael

Debunking popular reform efforts, this book argues that education reformers are fighting a fruitless uphill battle. Neither top-down regulation nor locally based reforms will transform schooling. The insurmountable problem is juxtaposing a continuous change theme with a continuous, conservative system that defies change. In partnership with all…

A Decade of Education Reform in Thailand: Broken Promise or Impossible Dream?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hallinger, Philip; Lee, Moosung

2011-01-01

This study addresses the perceived gap between the vision of education reform in Thailand embodied in its Education Reform Law of 1999 and the results of implementation a decade later. Drawing upon opportunistic data obtained from a sample of 162 Thai school principals, we analyze trends in reform implementation across schools in all regions and…

School Leadership Mentoring Characteristics in an Era of Significant Educational Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monahan, Bobbie Jo

2012-01-01

The state of Indiana is undergoing substantial educational reform, as is the nation. Educational leaders are in great need of support as they address reform initiatives. The support that educational leaders receive from mentors/coaches may be a determining factor in how they embrace the latest reform and work with their school communities. The…

Variables that impact the implementation of project-based learning in high school science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cunningham, Kellie

Wagner and colleagues (2006) state the mediocrity of teaching and instructional leadership is the central problem that must be addressed if we are to improve student achievement. Educational reform efforts have been initiated to improve student performance and to hold teachers and school leaders accountable for student achievement (Wagner et al., 2006). Specifically, in the area of science, goals for improving student learning have led reformers to establish standards for what students should know and be able to do, as well as what instructional methods should be used. Key concepts and principles have been identified for student learning. Additionally, reformers recommend student-centered, inquiry-based practices that promote a deep understanding of how science is embedded in the everyday world. These new approaches to science education emphasize inquiry as an essential element for student learning (Schneider, Krajcik, Marx, & Soloway, 2002). Project-based learning (PBL) is an inquiry-based instructional approach that addresses these recommendations for science education reform. The objective of this research was to study the implementation of project-based learning (PBL) in an urban school undergoing reform efforts and identify the variables that positively or negatively impacted the PBL implementation process and its outcomes. This study responded to the need to change how science is taught by focusing on the implementation of project-based learning as an instructional approach to improve student achievement in science and identify the role of both school leaders and teachers in the creation of a school environment that supports project-based learning. A case study design using a mixed-method approach was used in this study. Data were collected through individual interviews with the school principal, science instructional coach, and PBL facilitator. A survey, classroom observations and interviews involving three high school science teachers teaching grades 9--12, were also used in the data collection process. The results of the study indicated that the use of PBL increased student engagement, ability to problem-solve, and to some extent academic performance. The results also revealed several factors that impacted the implementation of project-based learning: (a) Student attributes such as high student absenteeism, lack of motivation, and poor behavior prevented teachers from completing the PBL unit in a timely fashion. (b) Certain school and district policies and requirements were not conducive to PBL implementation. Policies and practices impacting instructional time and teaching supplies acquisition made it difficult for teachers to plan lessons and obtain necessary supplies. (c) Teachers did not receive PBL training in a timely fashion. Teachers received training approximately two months prior to implementation. (d) Teacher collaboration influenced PBL implementation as it enabled teachers to share and discuss ideas, resources, and lessons. Implications for practice include: (a) School and district leaders must create and follow policies and procedures that support conditions that support inquiry learning, (b) Teachers need resources to overcome the challenges associated with project-based learning, (c) Teachers must have the freedom to have a vision for the implementation of PBL that fits their particular classroom context, and (d) Steps should be taken to ensure students have the prior knowledge and skills to successfully engage in PBL.

Not Driven by High-Stakes Tests: Exploring Science Assessment and College Readiness of Students from an Urban Portfolio Community High School

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fleshman, Robin Earle

This case study seeks to explore three research questions: (1) What science teaching and learning processes, perspectives, and cultures exist within the science classroom of an urban portfolio community high school? (2) In what ways does the portfolio-based approach prepare high school students of color for college level science coursework, laboratory work, and assessment? (3) Are portfolio community high school students of color college ready? Is there a relationship between students' science and mathematics performance and college readiness? The overarching objectives of the study are to learn, understand, and describe an urban portfolio community high school as it relates to science assessment and college readiness; to understand how the administration, teachers, and alumni perceive the use of portfolios in science learning and assessment; and to understand how alumni view their preparation and readiness for college and college science coursework, laboratory work, and assessments. The theoretical framework of this study encompasses four theories: critical theory, contextual assessment, self-regulated learning, and ethic of care. Because the urban high school studied partnered with a community-based organization (CBO), it identifies as a community school. Therefore, I provide context regarding the concept, culture, and services of community schools. Case study is the research design I used to explore in-depth this urban portfolio community high school, which involved mixed methods for data collection and analysis. In total, six alumni/current college students, five school members (administrators and teachers), and three CBO members (administrators, including myself) participated in the study. In addition to school artefacts and student portfolios collected, classroom and portfolio panel presentation observations and 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand the portfolio-based approach as it pertains to science learning and assessment and college science readiness. Data from the transcripts of two graduating classes were analyzed and the interview transcripts were coded and analyzed as well. Analysis of qualitative data revealed key findings: (1) the school's Habits of Mind, authentic scientific inquiry, self-regulated learning triggers and strategies, and teacher feedback practices driven by an ethic of care supported students' science learning and portfolio assessment; and (2) the cyclical and extensive portfolio processes of writing, revision, and submission well prepared alumni for college science laboratory work and coursework, to a certain extent, but not for the traditional assessments administered in college science courses. Analysis of quantitative data revealed that, if based solely on the City University of New York's Regents score criteria for college readiness, the majority of students from these two graduating classes studied would not have been considered college ready even though all participants, including interviewed alumni, believed the school prepared them for college. The majority of these students, however, were transitioning to college readiness based on their Regents-level science and mathematics coursework. Findings of this study have implications for science assessment, professional development in science, education policy reform, and high school partnerships with CBOs and postsecondary institutions as they pertain to college and college science readiness for students of color in urban portfolio community high schools.

Organizational Culture in a Mexican School: Lessons for Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davila, Anabella; Willower, donald J.

1996-01-01

Discusses a study of a Mexican Roman Catholic high school's organizational culture, highlighting findings concerning school reform and improvement processes. The school stressed community and featured activities and values promoting student commitment to learning. Religion reinforced the school's "hidden curriculum" of good conduct and…

Rap as a roadway: creating creolized forms of science in an era of cultural globalization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elmesky, Rowhea

2011-03-01

Even during an era of cultural globalization where diversity, hybridity, and heterogeneity prevail, educational institutions remain unchanged and economically and racially marginalized students continue to experience a sense of exclusion in school. Whereas the science education community often addresses such exclusion in terms of the achievement gap or the lack of materials and qualified teachers in urban schools, there are also more subtle ways in which these students remain as outsiders to the culture of science. The study highlights how the acceptance and affordance of students' cultural capital can encourage a sense of belonging with school science. Specifically, this paper contributes to the literature by sharing longitudinal findings that reveal students' skills of orality, in the form of rap practices, can be rich resources for developing creolized forms of school science, and how rap creates entryways for students to form and reform hybridized identities in which canonical science discourse and lyrics about non-science subjects can begin to emerge in integrated, fluid and seamless manners.

Down by the Riverside: A CRT Perspective on Education Reform in Two River Cities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Celia Rousseau; Dixson, Adrienne D.

2016-01-01

In this article, the authors utilize core ideas from Critical Race Theory (CRT) to examine the nature of education reform in two river cities. Similar to other cases of education reform in urban districts, the reforms in the two focal cities reflect at least four characteristics in common: (1) a form of portfolio management; (2) the growth of…

The Effects of a High School Curriculum Reform on University Enrollment and the Choice of College Major

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Görlitz, Katja; Gravert, Christina

2018-01-01

This paper evaluates the effects of a high school curriculum reform on students' probability to enroll at university and to choose a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) major. The reform increased the difficulty of graduating from high school by increasing the instruction time in core subjects and by raising the graduation…

University-School Partnerships in English Pre-Service Teacher Education: A Dialogic Inquiry into A Co-Teaching Initiative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diamond, Fleur; Parr, Graham; Bulfin, Scott

2017-01-01

Evidence has been accumulating for some time about the impact of standards-based education reforms on schools and schooling, but there has been little research investigating the influence of these reforms on university-based initial teacher education (ITE). This article critically inquiries into the effects of these reforms on an ITE co-teaching…

Needed: A New Kind of Teacher.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Elizabeth C.

This essay discusses the need for reform of American public school education as part of a general process of social reform. The author argues that the old image of the school as a "factory" in which the student is regarded as a product to be processed must be reformed so that the school really does provide a quality education for all. The reform…

An Alternative Method for Measuring Cost-Effectiveness: A Case Study of New York City's Annenberg Challenge Grant

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iatarola, Patrice; Fruchter, Norm

2006-01-01

Every school reform initiative promises to improve some aspect of schooling and, ultimately, the academic performance of the target schools and their students. The reform's cost often determines not only whether the particular initiative is implemented but also how the reform is implemented. Analyzing the cost-effectiveness of a programmatic or…

The Need for District Support for School Reform: What the Researchers Say. Research Brief.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Appelbaum, Deborah

This article focuses on the school district's role in implementing Comprehensive School Reform (CSR). Research shows that effective district support for CSR varies from district to district. This is due, in part, to the fact that many prior models bypassed the district, operating under the belief that reform would be more effective if it targeted…

Social Networks among Land Reform Beneficiaries and Their Use in Supporting Satellite Schools in Zimbabwe: A Case Study of a Satellite School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tarisayi, Kudzayi Savious; Manik, Sadhana

2017-01-01

This article examines the ways in which land reform beneficiaries in a selected community use their social networks to support a satellite school. Contemporary literature on the implications of land reform in Zimbabwe revealed a number of perspectives, which include the political, human rights, livelihoods, and agricultural productivity…

Understanding State School Funding: The First Step toward Quality Reforms. The Progress of Education Reform. Volume 13, Number 3

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffith, Michael

2012-01-01

This quote, taken from a piece written by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) nearly 30 years ago, demonstrates that researchers have long recognized the relationship between quality education reform and the structure of a state's school funding system. However, many policymakers continue to view their state's school funding formula not…

Why Don't Students Like School? Willingham, Perkins, and a Comprehensive Model of School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Jennifer L.; Jones, Karrie A.; Vermette, Paul J.

2013-01-01

As teachers attempt to sustain meaningful school change, the need for visionary yet feasible reform becomes profound. To help reach this end, this article examines the ideas of Willingham and Perkins for principles of effective teaching and learning. While seemingly divergent in their approaches for reform, examination of their collective ideas in…

Toward an Understanding of How Teachers Change during School Reform: Considerations for Educational Leadership and School Improvement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaniuka, Theodore Stefan

2012-01-01

As the concept of distributed leadership and its concomitant organizational structures become more prevalent in schools, studying how teacher capacity can be enhanced and can be used as a catalyst for reform is important. This article documents the nature of how the implementation of a research-validated reform influenced what teachers thought…

The Court versus Consent Decrees? Schools, "Horne v. Flores" and Judicial Strategies of Institutional Reform Litigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chilton, Bradley; Chwialkowski, Paul

2014-01-01

Is the U.S. Supreme Court inviting litigants to take aim at unraveling injunctions in institutional reform litigation--especially consent decrees in the schools? In "Horne v. Flores" (2009), the court remanded a 17-year-old school reform case to a federal judge with orders to look beyond consent decrees on financing, reducing class…

Tobephobia Experienced by Teachers in Secondary Schools: An Exploratory Study Focusing on Curriculum Reform in the Nelson Mandela Metropole

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, P.

2011-01-01

Because of its history from apartheid to democracy, the aspiration to reform schools is a recurrent theme in South African education. Efforts to reform education in schools based on the outcomes-based education (OBE) curriculum approach created major challenges for policy makers in South Africa. The purpose of this exploratory research was…

Teacher Job Satisfaction in a Reform State: The Influence of Teacher Characteristics, Job Dimensions, and Psychological States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winter, Paul A.; Brenner, Doris B.; Petrosko, Joseph M.

2006-01-01

Despite the importance of job satisfaction, little research exists about this factor as it relates to teachers working in a school reform environment. This study addressed teacher characteristics, job dimensions, and work-related psychological states that predict public school teacher job satisfaction in a school reform state. Teachers (N = 578)…

Do Your Homework! Investigating the Role of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Comprehensive School Reform Models Serving Diverse Student Populations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durden, Tonia

2008-01-01

Like the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child", many educational researchers charge that it takes a comprehensive school reform to raise student achievement. With the passing of the No Child Left Behind legislation in 2002, national officials authorized the Comprehensive School Reform program to support low performing…

How Do School Leaders Navigate ICT Educational Reform? Policy Learning Narratives from a Singapore Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chua Reyes, Vicente

2015-01-01

The purpose of this research inquiry focuses on how school leaders "make sense" of educational reform in their local contexts. In order to do this, an exploratory qualitative case study of two schools that took part in policy reform initiatives directed at ubiquitous use of information communication and technology (ICT) in the Singapore…

School Reform for Youth At Risk: Analysis of Six Change Models. Volume I: Summary and Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCollum, Heather

This document analyzes six school-reform models for at-risk youth. Part 1 examines three curriculum-based reform programs that explicitly target curriculum and instruction: Reading Recovery; Success for All; and the Academy model. These programs focus on changes in student achievement and work within the structure of existing schools. Part 2…

[Social health insurance in China: principal reforms and inequalities].

PubMed

Ferreira, Fabianna Bacil Lourenço

2017-01-01

This article analyzes the social health insurance system in China, its reforms and the principal social inequalities uncovered. Based in the work of a number of authors of reference, it is possible to observe that rural and urban reforms follow the same pattern: large systems that were gradually reduced and then again expanded relatively quickly. Improvements notwithstanding, some of China's historical problems persist, especially the rural-urban gap and regional disparities. The lack of integration of workers that migrate from the country to the city is reproduced in the current Chinese public health system, constituting one of the primary challenges to be faced at present.

Shaping School Culture: The Heart of Leadership.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deal, Terrence E.; Peterson, Kent D.

Reforms that strive for educational excellence will fail unless they are meaningfully linked to schools' unique cultures. Chapter 1, "Introduction: The Case for School Culture," discusses the impact of culture on achievement, reform, and learning. Chapter 2, "Schools as Tribes," examines a school that transformed itself through…

"Was Lietz padagogisch erstrebte, hat Hitler politisch durchgesetzt". Schulreformerische Traditionen und nationalsozialistische Schulpolitik in Thuringen" ("The Pedagogical Intentions of Lietz Were Enforced Politically by Hitler". Traditions of School Reform and National Socialist School Policy in Thuringia).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lesanovsky, Werner

1998-01-01

Inquires of the regional effects of National Socialist school policy, using as an example Thuringia (Germany), the educational landscape of which is traditionally characterized by reform-oriented institutions. Reveals how streamlining of reform schools and instruction from the top and self-streamlining from the bottom ran parallel after 1933. (CMK)

The Construct Validity of Teachers' Perceptions of Change in Schools Implementing Comprehensive School Reform Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nunnery, John A.; Ross, Steven M.; Bol, Linda

2008-01-01

This study reports the results of a validation study of the Comprehensive School Restructuring Teacher Questionnaire (CSRTQ) and the School Observation Measure (SOM), which are intended for use in evaluating comprehensive school reform efforts. The CSRTQ, which putatively measures five factors related to school restructuring (internal focus,…

Cost-Effectiveness of Comprehensive School Reform in Low Achieving Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ross, John A.; Scott, Garth; Sibbald, Tim M.

2012-01-01

We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of Struggling Schools, a user-generated approach to Comprehensive School Reform implemented in 100 low achieving schools serving disadvantaged students in a Canadian province. The results show that while Struggling Schools had a statistically significant positive effect on Grade 3 Reading achievement, d = 0.48…

Large-Scale High School Reform through School Improvement Networks: Exploring Possibilities for "Developmental Evaluation"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peurach, Donald J.; Lenhoff, Sarah Winchell; Glazer, Joshua L.

2016-01-01

Recognizing school improvement networks as a leading strategy for large-scale high school reform, this analysis examines developmental evaluation as an approach to examining school improvement networks as "learning systems" able to produce, use, and refine practical knowledge in large numbers of schools. Through a case study of one…