Research Brief
Reforming America's Schools: Observations on Implementing ''Whole School Designs''
Jan 1, 1998
Prospects for Bringing Designs to Multiple Schools
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New American Schools was established in 1991 to help schools transform themselves into high-performing organizations. This report is a formative assessment of the first two years (1995-1997) of the scale-up phase, during which NAS partnered with 10 jurisdictions to implement design-based programs for improving student performance. A series of lessons emerged from this analysis: (1) The effort at school reform is complex because of the multiple actors involved. (2) Design teams do not accomplish implementation by themselves but only with the cooperation of schools and districts. (3) Teachers found stable school and district leadership and clear signals about the effort's priority to be important. Perhaps the most important lesson is that there still are no silver bullets for ensuring the implementation of reforms, but several districts have made significant progress in the two-year period.
Chapter One
Introduction
Chapter Two
History of NAS and the Scale-Up Strategy
Chapter Three
Research Approach and Methods
Chapter Four
Findings on Progress Toward Implementation
Chapter Five
The Influence of the Selection Process and School Climate
Chapter Six
Influence of Design and Team Factors
Chapter Seven
Influence of School Structural and Site Factors
Chapter Eight
Influence of Jurisdictional and Institutional Factors
Chapter Nine
Caveats and Conclusions
Appendix A
Background History of New American Schools
Appendix B
Descriptions and Designs
The research described in this report was supported by New American Schools and conducted by RAND Education.
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