Sustaining Reform Efforts in Broward County Schools PDF Download

Author: Sharon Moffitt
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Educational change
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description

Author: Nettie Legters
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
Researchers from MDRC and Johns Hopkins University partnered with Florida's Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) in 2009 to launch an independent evaluation of the district's initiative to implement Ninth Grade Academies (NGAs) in every district high school. An NGA is a self-contained learning community for ninth-graders that operates as a school within a school. With its own administrative leadership, space, faculty, and teacher teams, it is designed to offer ninth-graders a more personalized, engaging, and responsive learning environment. The study found strong district leadership at the outset and widespread uptake of core NGA components across the 18 high schools in the sample. The investigation also uncovered substantial variation in the overall quality and duration of NGA implementation across schools, however, with strong and sustained implementation of multiple components occurring in just three schools, even though many more had access to models of strong NGAs nearby. These implementation experiences in BCPS suggest that many schools will need more specific guidelines, on-site support, training for teachers, secure resources, and tools to guide practice and facilitate scheduling if they are to implement fully fledged, continuously improving, and self-sustaining NGAs. The following are the key findings from the study: (1) District leadership for the initiative was strong at the outset, but not sustained as district priorities changed; (2) While schools received some support through a cross-school professional learning community for NGA administrators, they did not receive any other technical or financial support for pro-gram implementation; (3) The district's definition of NGAs focused on structural components in each school--ninth-grade administrative leadership, dedicated ninth-grade space, dedicated ninth-grade faculty, and interdisciplinary teacher teams. Improving ninth-grade curriculum, instruction, and student supports were not a direct focus of the initiative. In fact, other reforms in these areas aimed at improving student outcomes competed with NGA implementation; (4) It was more feasible for schools to implement and sustain the administrative leadership and space components of NGAs than the dedicated ninth-grade faculty and interdisciplinary teaming components; and (5) Only three high schools achieved strong implementation. Ten achieved a threshold level of implementation, and five fell below threshold. Most schools did not improve from the first to the second or third year. The following are appended: (1) Sample Selection; and (2) Scoring Rubrics for Core NGA Components. [This report was written with Emma Alterman, Joanne Fennessey, and Janell Smith. A list of earlier MDRC publications related to high school reform, smaller learning communities, and the ninth-grade transition is included.].

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dissertations, Academic
Languages : en
Pages : 668

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Author: Jonathan A. Supovitz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
In 1999, the Duval County (Fla.) school system set out to improve every school in the district.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 748

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Book Description

Author: Jo Deakin
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319715593
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 604

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Book Description
Truly international in scope, this Handbook focuses on approaches to discipline, surveillance and social control from around the world, critically examining the strategies and practices schools employ to monitor students and control their behavior. Bringing together leading scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, the chapters scrutinize, analyze and compare schools' practices across the globe, providing a critical review of existing evidence, debates and understandings, while looking forward to address emerging important questions and key policy issues. The chapters are divided into four sections. Part 1 offers accounts of international trends in school discipline, surveillance and punishment; Part 2 examines the merging of school strategies with criminal justice practices; Part 3 focuses on developments in school technological surveillance; and Part 4 concludes by discussing restorative and balanced approaches to school discipline and behavior management. As the first Handbook to draw together these multiple themes into one text, and the first international comparative collection on school discipline, surveillance and social control, it will appeal to scholars across a range of fields including sociology, education, criminology, critical security studies and psychology, providing a unique, timely, and indispensable resource for undergraduate educators and researchers.

Author: Jay Philip Heubert
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300082968
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
An examination of six of the most controversial school reform initiatives in the US: school desegregation; school finance reform; special education; education of immigrant children; integration of youth services; and enforcable performance mandates.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Middle schools
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Author: National Conference of State Legislatures. Legislators' Education Action Project
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description

Author: Heather Zavadsky
Publisher: Harvard Education Press
ISBN: 1612502717
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
The inspiration for this book was a crucial observation: that if the school turnaround movement is to have widespread and lasting consequences, it will need to incorporate meaningful district involvement in its efforts. The result is a volume that considers school turnaround efforts at the district level, examining the evidence thus far and indicating fruitful directions for district-based initiatives going forward. At the heart of the book are case studies of districts—in Philadelphia, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Denver, Sacramento, and Long Beach—that have developed systemwide policies and programs for instituting turnaround reforms in their member schools. These cases—and the book as a whole—bring district-based initiatives and options into the larger discussion of the turnaround movement and its potential for improving chronically low-performing schools.