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Changing for Good

Sustaining School Improvement

By: Melissa Evans-Andris

Implement a comprehensive, whole-school reform program that lasts!

The most beneficial school improvements are the ones that endure. This book offers strategies for introducing, managing, and sustaining successful school improvement programs. Based on a six-year study of 74 schools, the author provides a model for generating the necessary district support, schoolwide leadership, teacher commitment, and performance outcomes to cultivate improvement that lasts. Applicable at the state, district, and school level, this model helps educational leaders:

Create a research-based improvement plan
Support change by developing a shared vision
Promote distributed leadership
Celebrate gains to encourage cooperation

Full description

Product Details

Grade Level: K-12
ISBN: 9781412968690
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2009
Page Count: 216
Publication date: November 23, 2012

Price: $41.95

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Review Copies

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Description

"This important work identifies the critical elements of sustainability—the necessary goal of systemic reform—which requires a long-term commitment to change for the benefit of students."
—Lois Adams-Rogers, Deputy Executive Director
Council of Chief State School Officers

Implement a comprehensive, whole-school reform program that lasts!

The recent emphasis on educational reform has led to many books on initiating school improvement, but relatively few on how to sustain reform efforts so that improvements have a lasting impact.

Changing for Good offers a detailed examination of current schoolwide reform efforts and identifies strategies for introducing, managing, and sustaining successful school renewal programs. Based on a four-year study of 74 schools, the book provides a model for generating the necessary district support, schoolwide leadership, teacher commitment, and performance outcomes to cultivate improvement that lasts. Applicable at the state, district, and school level, this model helps readers:

Align reform efforts with educational standards and accountability guidelines
Create a research-based improvement plan
Support change by developing a shared vision
Promote distributed leadership
Celebrate gains to encourage cooperation

The most beneficial school improvements are the ones that endure. With this exceptional resource, educational administrators and leaders can create a school environment that embraces meaningful change, sustains positive reform, and ensures successful learning outcomes.

Key features

Informed by a six-year study that includes both quantitative and qualitative assessments of comprehensive school reform successes at 18 schools
Organized around a model that articulates the conditions and strategies necessary to sustain effective reform efforts in schools: district support, leadership, professional development and teacher commitment, and school performance outcomes
Offers strategies for selecting, introducing, and implementing comprehensive school reform models that are most effective in leading schools to successful outcomes
Outlines patterns of sustainability of comprehensive school reform in schools after termination of CSR funding
Furthers an understanding of school reform under continued efforts of standardization and accountability, specifically in the context of No Child Left Behind

Author(s)

Melissa Evans-Andris

Melissa Evans-Andris is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Louisville, Kentucky. Her interests include the sociology of education, work and occupations, and qualitative research methodologies particularly as they relate to schools and teaching. Her research focuses on school reform, sustainability of school improvement, and teacher quality. She authored a book in 1996 entitled An Apple for the Teacher: Computers and Work in Elementary Schools. Most recently she directed two research efforts, including a federal study entitled “Comprehensive School Reform, Educational Dynamics, and Achievement in Kentucky Middle Schools” and a state project entitled “A Research Study of the Kentucky Teacher Internship Program Pilot Project” that tracked the experiences of new teacher-interns during their first three years on the job. She is active in local and statewide discussion forums related to improvement in Kentucky schools. She received her PhD in sociology at Indiana University in 1991.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Introduction

Comprehensive School Reform

Purpose and Focus of the Book

Researching Reform Sustainability in Schools

Organization of the Book

1. Sustaining Change in Schools

Two Decades of Reform Policies

Sustaining Reform

Organizational Capacity and Sustaining Change in Schools

Toward a Model of Sustainability

2. Setting the Stage for School Reform

School Reform and State Infrastructure

Opportunity for Improvement Through Comprehensive School Reform

Discussion of the State Context for School Reform

3. Supporting Change in Schools

Waterton County

Burkett County

District Support for Sustaining Change in Other Schools

Discussion of District Support for Sustaining Reform

4. Promoting Distributed Leadership

Leadership for Change

Distributed Leadership in Tipton Middle School

Developing Distributed Leadership in Greely Elementary School

Principal Leadership for Reform

Reform Facilitation

Negotiation of Tasks and Responsibilities

Preparing to Sustain School Reform

Leadership and the Challenge of Change in Other Schools

Discussion of Distributed Leadership and Sustaining Reform

5. Gaining Teacher Commitment

Control of Teachers Versus Workplace Autonomy

Forestview Middle School

Littleton Middle School

Teacher Commitment to Reform

Teacher Commitment in Other Schools

Lack of Teacher Commitment to Reform in Other Schools

Discussion of Teacher Commitment and Sustaining Reform

6. Celebrating Gains

Comprehensive School Reform and School Performance

Tangible Resources and Supplies

Contributions to School Culture

Spillover Effects From the Grant Experience

Discussion of the Effects of Reform and Sustainability

7. Changing for Good

Sustaining Comprehensive School Reform

Sustainability With Funding

Commitment to Sustainability Without Funding

Sustained Momentum for Improvement and Innovation

No Sustainability

Discussion of Patterns of Reform Sustainability

8. Reforming Reform

Patterns of Sustainability

A Model for Sustaining Change

What Happened to CSR?

Recommendations for Educators

Resource: Methodology

Design of the Study

Research Questions

Selection of Schools

Data Collection Methods

Reliability and Verification

Data Analysis

Ethical Considerations

References

Index

Reviews

“This important work identifies the critical elements of sustainability—the necessary goal of systemic reform—which requires a long-term commitment to change for the benefit of students.”

Lois Adams-Rogers, Deputy Executive Director
Council of Chief State School Officers

Other Titles in: Principalship | Superintendents & District Administration | School Change, Reform, & Restructuring

Select Format:

Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.