Organizing Schools for Improvement
Lessons from Chicago
Organizing Schools for Improvement
Lessons from Chicago
In 1988, the Chicago public school system decentralized, granting parents and communities significant resources and authority to reform their schools in dramatic ways. To track the effects of this bold experiment, the authors of Organizing Schools for Improvement collected a wealth of data on elementary schools in Chicago. Over a seven-year period they identified one hundred elementary schools that had substantially improved—and one hundred that had not. What did the successful schools do to accelerate student learning?
The authors of this illuminating book identify a comprehensive set of practices and conditions that were key factors for improvement, including school leadership, the professional capacity of the faculty and staff, and a student-centered learning climate. In addition, they analyze the impact of social dynamics, including crime, critically examining the inextricable link between schools and their communities. Putting their data onto a more human scale, they also chronicle the stories of two neighboring schools with very different trajectories. The lessons gleaned from this groundbreaking study will be invaluable for anyone involved with urban education.
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328 pages | 72 line drawings, 11 tables | 6 x 9 | © 2009
Education: Curriculum and Methodology, Education--General Studies, Pre-School, Elementary and Secondary Education
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue: A Tale of Two Schools
Introduction: A Rare Opportunity to Learn about School Improvement
1 Developing Appropriate Outcome Indicators
2 A Framework of Essential Supports
3 Testing the Framework of the Essential Supports
4 Probing Deeper: Organizational Mechanisms
5 Trust, Size, and Stability: Key Enablers
6 The Influences of Community Context
Summary and Conclusions
Appendix A: Socioeconomic Status Factor
Appendix B: A Value-Added Indicator: A School’s Academic
Productivity Profile
Appendix C: Overview of the Fourteen Indicators for the Five Essential Supports
Appendix D: Probability Experiment to Evaluate Results Presented in
Figure 3.3
Appendix E: Interview Questions from the Project on Human Development
in Chicago Neighborhoods
Appendix F: Coefficients from Analyses of Leadership in Chapter 4
Appendix G: Value-Added Replication Results for 1997 through
2005
Appendix H: Efforts of the Consortium on Chicago School Research to
Build More Productive Ties between Research, Practice, and Policy
to Improve Practice
Notes
References
IndexBe the first to know
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