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1. District Change Learning Community |
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Lead Organization
Bay
Area School Reform Collaborative
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Districts
Involved
27 California districts,
including 4 urban districts: San Francisco, Hayward, West Contra
Costa, and San Leandro
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Effort
Type
Partnership
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Goals
and Purpose
To redesign and build the capacity of school districts so that they can
better support and sustain school-level reform. The entire role of the
district office, school board, and union must shift dramatically to provide
appropriate support for students, teachers, and principals in a
standards-based system that is focused on closing the achievement gap. The
District Change Learning Community will define and explore questions in
three areas: 1) What can we learn from
research and examples of district-level change outside the region and
outside the state? 2) How can districts best
support schools? 3) what help and support do
districts need to change?
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Design
A five year project funded by the Annenberg and Hewlett Foundations. Grants
awarded to 23 "local collaboratives" made up of a school district
and 2 to 11 of its schools. "Experienced" anchor schools lead the
collaboratives, teaching a "Cycle of Inquiry" to its sister
schools. The Cycle of Inquiry includes collection and analysis of
achievement data, work plan development, sharing of achievement data with
community, implementation of work plan, review of results and revision of
work plan with community.
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Partners
28 districts involved.
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Status
From 2002 to 2003, supporting partner schools and districts through Cycle
of Inquiry and coaching work, building Role-Alike Networks and developing
and disseminating publications and tools that both document and support
inquiry based reform. Developed a new school district research initiative
in which Superintendents from four districts will begin working with
"executive coaches" - superintendents with hands-on experience in
district reform- and will meet regularly to share insights and ideas, while
Local Collaborative Coaches and outside technical experts work at the
school level. Released two reports that highlight the work in BASRC
districts: How Can Local School Boards Support Reform? and Literacy Coaching: How School Districts Can Support a Long-Term Strategy in a Short-Term World.
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Contact
Information
Marrill Vargo mvargo@basrc.org
Catherine Conway cconway@basrc.org
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2. District Research and Development
Grants
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Lead Organization
Bay
Area School Reform Collaborative
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Districts
Involved
Castro Valley Unified, Dublin Unified, Laguna Salada Union, Liberty Union
High, San Carlos Unified, and Walnut Creek, and a partnership
of Tamalpais Union High with the Reed and Ross Valley School Districts.
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Effort
Type
Research and Development
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Goals
and Purpose
To redesign and build the capacity of school districts so that they can
better support and sustain school-level reform. The entire role of the
district office, school board, and union must shift dramatically to provide
appropriate support for students, teachers, and principals in a
standards-based system that is focused on closing the achievement gap. The
District Change Learning Community will define and explore questions in
three areas: 1) What can we learn from
research and examples of district-level change outside the region and
outside the state? 2) How can districts best
support schools? 3) What help and support do
districts need to change?
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Design
Research and Development grants to examine how to change their own policies
and practices to better support school improvement
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Partners
Annenberg Foundation, Hewlett Packard Foundation and various foundations
and corporations
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Status
In the last five years, various foundations and corporations have
contributed up to $112 million in direct and aligned funding to support
BASRC's reform approach. New and continued funding will support BASRC'S
"Local Collaborative" work - clusters that include both schools
and districts - that will work together to support and sustain schools' Cycles
of Inquiry. Partnered with Just For Kids.
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Contact
Information
Marrill Vargo mvargo@basrc.org
Catherine Conway cconway@basrc.org
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3. Examining the Relationship between
Central Office Policies and School Improvement Efforts
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Lead Organization
Cross
City Campaign for Urban School Reform
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Effort
Type
Research
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Goals
and Purposes
To understand how central office policies and practices affect local action
on improving instruction and how school-level improvement efforts influence
central office policies.
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Design
Working in 3 school districts: Seattle, Chicago and Milwaukee. Observing and
doing interviews in 9 schools in each district, 10 people in each school
and about 26 central office staff in each district. Patricia Burch is the
principal investigator. Jim Spillane serves as a consultant.
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Partners
No formal partners.
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Status
Analyzing data, developing findings and recommendations. First of a series
of policy briefs will be released starting in Winter, and will be on mid-level
managers and the role they play in supporting school instruction.
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Contact
Information
Christina Warden chrisw@crosscity.org
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4. Learning from Philadelphia's School
Reform
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Lead
Organization
Research
for Action
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Districts
Involved
Philadelphia
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Effort
Type
Research
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Goals
and Purposes
A research and public awareness project that will assess the effectiveness
of school improvement in Philadelphia
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Design
The four-year project will analyze key aspects of the state takeover, the
multiple provider model, and reforms implemented by city- and state
appointed School District officials and make research findings available to
educators, parents and community leaders who can monitor and guide school
reform efforts.
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Partners
University of Pennsylvania's Graduate
School of Education and the Wharton School, The Philadelphia
Education Fund, Swarthmore College, Rutgers University, the Consortium on
Chicago School Research and other organizations.
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Status
First set of reports released including, Once and For All:
Placing a Highly Qualified Teacher in Every Philadelphia Classroom. In addition to annual reports on
teacher quality, future studies from this initiative will explore and
analyze standardized tests, new teachers experiences and principals
experiences with a variety of “interventions.”
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Contact
Information
Dr. Eva Gold egold@researchforaction.org
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5. Leadership for Education Achievement
in Districts (LEAD)
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Lead
Organization
Wallace
Foundation
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Districts
Involved
12
LEAD districts: Fairfax County (VA), Fort Wayne (IN), Providence (RI),
Springfield (MA), St. Louis (MO), Eugene (OR), Hartford (CT), Atlanta (GA),
Springfield (IL), Trenton (NJ), New York City(D10), Jefferson County (KY).
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Effort
Type
Leadership Development
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Goals
and Purpose
LEAD
is a district-based program that promotes systemic reform of leadership to
significantly improve learning for all students in K-12 public schools.
LEAD challenges districts to learn how to attract, develop and support
leaders that can continuously improve student learning. LEAD will support
research, collaborative planning, consultants and technical assistance,
program and capacity development, capacity building, policy reviews,
marketing and dissemination.
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Design
15 grant awards of one to five million each for five year program with
annual renewal based on acceptable progress and stable commitment by the
superintendent and Board of Education.
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Partners
Center for Public Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University, Education Development Center, Southern Regional
Education Board, Hechinger Institute in Education/Teacher’s College.
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Status
Work is in progress. Learning network of LEAD superintendents formed from
the 12 high need districts that will leverage change in state and local
policy areas, develop academic and community partnerships, build capacity
and focus on continuous improvement, resource allocation, student learning
as districts' priority and accountability systems.
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Contact
Information
Richard Laine rlaine@wallacefoundation.org
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6. Municipal Leadership in Education and
Municipal Leadership for Expanded Learning Opportunities
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Lead
Organization
National League of Cities
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Districts
Involved
Education: Charleston, S.C.;
Columbus, Ohio; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Lansing, Mich.; New Haven, Conn.;
and Portland, Ore.
After
school: Charlotte; Fort Worth; Fresno; Grand Rapids
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Effort
Type
Partnership
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Goals
and Purposes
To engage mayors and council members in promoting excellence in urban
education and expanded learning opportunities during afterschool hours (2
separate programs). Over 30 months, participating cities access technical
assistance from NLC staff; national experts in urban school and
after-school improvement; cross-site networking opportunities -- all
intended to strengthen municipal advocacy, planning, and implementation of
quality strategies and programs with potential for sustainability.
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Design
30 month project (until Fall 2003) funded by Carnegie Corporation
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Partners
NLC and mayors, city council members, and teams from selected cities.
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Status
Developed six Action Kits, available on website, for municipal leaders in
the areas of Early Childhood, Youth Development, Supporting Working
Families and Expanding Afterschool Opportunities. Several other publications
are available including: “The View from City Hall” and "Connecting
Vulnerable Youth: A Municipal Leader's Guide.”
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Contact
Information
Audrey Hutchinson hutchinson@nlc.org
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7. School Communities that Work:
A National Task
Force on the Future of Urban Districts
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Lead
Organization
Annenberg Institute for School Reform
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Effort
Type
Task Force
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Goals
and Purposes
To help create, support and sustain high achieving schools across entire
urban communities. The political and fiscal accountability of school
districts, their connection to many schools and their reach across
communities make them more promising venues for promoting equity and making
improvements.
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Design
Five year project led by core group of nationally know education scholars,
practitioners and policymakers. Design groups developed the Portfolio for
District Redesign during the 2000-2002 design phase. During the three-year
implementation phase (2002 to 2005) models, frameworks and resources of the
Portfolio, will be tested through partnerships with districts and
communities.
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Partners
Supported by Carnegie Corporation, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Rockefeller
Foundation, and the Annenberg Foundation.
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Status
Testing and implementation phase launched October of 2002 with release of
Portfolio for District Redesign. Many products already on-line; several
more expected during Phase II years, 2003 to 2005. Work underway in several
districts and communities.
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Contact
Information
Marla Ucelli Marla_Ucelli@brown.edu
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8. Teacher Quality Initiative
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Lead
Organization
Public Education Network
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Districts
Involved
Chattanooga-Hamilton County,TN; Seattle, WA; West Virginia, VA; Washington
DC and New York City districts.
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Effort
Type
Research
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Goals
and Purpose
In response to the increased demand for teachers, the Public Education
Network has launched this Teacher Quality initiative. Using several
well-chosen and proven strategies, local education funds are focusing on
recruitment, retention, and distribution of qualified teachers.
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Design
Two phase project. First phase, involving two groups of local education
funds, includes research, planning and partnership building in communities
around teacher quality. From these two groups, five will be involved in the
next phase, a three-year, community-wide strategic planning initiative.
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Partners
Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Dept. of
Education; Annenberg Foundation; Alliance for Public Education,
DC Voice, Education Alliance and New Visions
for New Schools.
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Status
During the three-year implementation process, participating LEFs in the District of Columbia, New York, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia will spearhead
development and implementation of community-wide strategic plans to address
the long-term goals of the initiative. Released “A Community Action
Guide to Teacher Quality” which builds on the experiences and
learning from eight sites and is intended as a tool for community groups
that want to build public knowledge and understanding and take action to
support quality teaching.
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Contact
Information
Wendy Puriefoy wpuriefoy@publiceducation.org
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9. Public Education Leadership Project
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Lead Organization
Harvard Graduate School of Education
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Districts
Involved
The nine districts are: Anne Arundel County (MD), Boston (MA),
Charleston (SC), Chicago (IL), Harrisburg (PA), Minneapolis (MN),
Montgomery County (MD), San Diego (CA), and San Francisco (CA)
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Effort
Type
Joint Research Project
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Goals
and Purposes
To work with individual districts while simultaneously conducting research
aimed at measuring the effectiveness of the program, identifying the key
underlying forces that are shaping educational leadership in urban school
systems and developing a set of powerful ideas to enable district
leadership teams to create high performing systems.
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Design
The PELP faculty team invited, through a competitive process,
urban school districts to partner in the design and delivery of an
innovative executive education program tailored specifically to meet the
challenges that educational leaders are facing. The three year project will have two
principal components: a weeklong executive education program offered each
summer beginning in 2004 for a five-to seven person leadership team from
each district, during which the team would learn from the experiences of
other districts while developing strategic improvement goals for the coming
year: and periodic on-site facilitation during the year from participating
faculty and staff.
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Partners
Supported by the Harvard Business Class of 1963
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Status
Beginning in Summer 2004, district leaders will spend a week at Harvard’s
Executive Education program.
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Contact Information
Robert Peterkin robert_peterkin@harvard.edu
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