scholarly journals America's Choice comprehensive school reform design first-year implementation evaluation summary

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Corcoran ◽  
Margaret Hoppe ◽  
Theresa Luhm ◽  
Jonathan Supovitz
Keyword(s):  
School Reform ◽  
Comprehensive School ◽  
Comprehensive School Reform ◽  
First Year ◽  
America's Choice ◽  
Implementation Evaluation

Opening Up the Black Box: Literacy Instruction in Schools Participating in Three Comprehensive School Reform Programs

2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Correnti ◽  
Brian Rowan
Keyword(s):  
School Reform ◽  
Literacy Instruction ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Comprehensive School ◽  
Comprehensive School Reform ◽  
Success For All ◽  
Accelerated Schools ◽  
America's Choice ◽  
Accelerated Schools Project ◽  
Improvement Programs

This study examines patterns of literacy instruction in schools adopting three of America’s most widely disseminated comprehensive school reform (CSR) programs (the Accelerated Schools Project, America’s Choice, and Success for All). Contrary to the view that educational innovations seldom affect teaching practices, the study found large differences in literacy instruction between teachers in America’s Choice schools and comparison schools and between teachers in Success for All schools and comparison schools. In contrast, no differences in literacy teaching practices were found between teachers in Accelerated Schools Project schools and comparison schools. On the basis of these findings and our knowledge of the implementation support strategies pursued by the CSR programs under study, we conclude that well-defined and well-specified instructional improvement programs that are strongly supported by on-site facilitators and local leaders who demand fidelity to program designs can produce large changes in teachers’ instructional practices.

Organizational Strategies for Promoting Instructional Change: Implementation Dynamics in Schools Working With Comprehensive School Reform Providers

2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 252-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Rowan ◽  
Robert J. Miller
Keyword(s):  
School Reform ◽  
Program Implementation ◽  
Implementation Fidelity ◽  
Comprehensive School ◽  
Comprehensive School Reform ◽  
Cultural Control ◽  
Instructional Change ◽  
Organizational Strategies ◽  
Change Initiatives ◽  
America's Choice

This article develops a conceptual framework for studying how three comprehensive school reform (CSR) programs organized schools for instructional change and how the distinctive strategies they pursued affected implementation outcomes. The conceptual model views the Accelerated Schools Project as using a system of cultural control to produce instructional change, the America's Choice program as using a model of professional control, and the Success for All program as using a model of procedural control. Predictable differences in patterns of organizing for instructional improvement emerged across schools working with these three programs, and these patterns were found to be systematically related to patterns of program implementation. In particular, the two CSR programs that were organized to produce instructional standardization produced higher levels of instructional change in the schools where they worked. The results of the study suggest organizational strategies program developers can use to obtain implementation fidelity in instructional change initiatives.

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