Cover: Facing the Challenges of Whole-School Reform

Facing the Challenges of Whole-School Reform

New American Schools After a Decade

by Mark Berends, Susan J. Bodilly, Sheila Nataraj Kirby

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About a decade ago, New American Schools (NAS) set out to address the perceived lagging performance of American students and the lackluster results of school reform efforts. As a private nonprofit organization, NAS’s mission was—and is—to help schools and districts raise student achievement levels by using whole-school designs and design team assistance during implementation. Since its inception, NAS has engaged in a development phase (1992–1993), a demonstration phase (1993–1995), and a scale-up phase (1995–present). Over the last ten years, RAND has been monitoring the progress of the NAS initiative. This book is a retrospective on NAS and draws together the findings from RAND research. The book underscores the significant contributions made by NAS to comprehensive school reform but also highlights the challenges of trying to reform schools through whole-school designs. Divided into sections on each research phase, the book concludes with an afterword by NAS updating its own strategy for the future. This book will interest those who want to better understand comprehensive school reform and its effects on teaching and learning within high-stakes accountability environments.

Table of Contents

  • Preface

  • Figures

  • Tables

  • Summary

  • Acknowledgements

    Acknowledgments

  • Acronyms

  • Chapter One

    Introduction

  • Chapter Two

    The Development of New American Schools

  • Chapter Three

    Changes in NAS Designs

  • Chapter Four

    Implementation of NAS Designs During the Scale-Up Phase

  • Chapter Five

    Implementation of NAS Designs in a High-Poverty District

  • Chapter Six

    NAS Designs and Academic Achievement

  • Chapter Seven

    The Future of Whole-School Designs: Conclusions, Observations, and Policy Implications

  • Afterword

  • Appendix

    Methodology for the Studies on Implementation and Performance

  • References

The research described in this report was performed under the auspices of RAND Education.

This report is part of the RAND Corporation Monograph report series. The monograph/report was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1993 to 2003. RAND monograph/reports presented major research findings that addressed the challenges facing the public and private sectors. They included executive summaries, technical documentation, and synthesis pieces.

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