Background
For children in high-poverty schools to meet high standards of performance, their entire instructional program not just a separate add-on effort funded through Title I must be substantially improved. High standards, flexibility, school-based staff development, school-family partnerships, and clear accountability can help create the conditions necessary for transforming schools, particularly those that serve high concentrations of poor children. Indeed, research demonstrates how schoolwide approaches can be an effective option for high-poverty schools. When the target of change is the entire school, not just the poorest performing children, schools serving even the most disadvantaged can succeed.
Moreover, research has shown that in schools where the majority of students are poor, it makes little sense to attempt to target the program on individual students, to the exclusion of many other needy students. The average performance of all students in high-poverty schools resembles that of Chapter 1 students in low-poverty schools. Where poverty is concentrated, the poverty level of the school itself is an impediment to the performance of all children in school.
At the same time, findings from Chapter 1 studies have identified a need for more assistance in planning, operating, and evaluating schoolwide projects. Many projects initially only reduced class size without making efforts to fundamentally improve instructional practices in schools. Some projects began quickly without adequate planning. Others relied on single measures for evaluation rather than multiple measures of student achievement.
The strategies that successful projects are using--a framework of high standards, comprehensive planning and continuous professional development, flexibility in drawing upon resources, extensive parent involvement and clear accountability for results are those our reauthorization proposal would extend to all Title I (formerly Chapter 1) schoolwide program schools.
This idea book provides information on how successful schoolwide projects have achieved results in high-poverty schools, based on in-depth interviews with administrators and teachers from such projects. The schools represent an array of program options and serve diverse student populations. Profiles of successful schoolwide projects are included in the idea book as well.
On Becoming Successful
Successful schoolwide projects start with an inclusive planning process and a plan that becomes a working document to motivate and guide staff, students and parents towards common challenging goals. Planning should be based on a comprehensive, school-generated needs assessment and parents and teachers should be an integral part of developing and implementing the plan. For example, at Snively Elementary School in Winter Haven, Florida, faculty, parents, and community representatives met frequently for six months to plan the schoolwide project. Teachers rewrote the curriculum to support an interdisciplinary, thematic unit approach and visited parents at home to solicit support for the project.
Schools need to build in adequate time for school staff to learn new roles and to allow time for members of the community, including parents, to accept and support the plan. School staff also need to be involved in developing the plan and need ongoing training and technical support as the school undertakes the changes. Professional development for all staff also needs to be provided in using technology, teaching new content, working positively with parents, and using new teaching methods. The idea book highlights successful strategies schools have used to engage staff and parents.
Successful schoolwide projects reach out to parents and the community in a variety of ways. At Balderas Elementary School in Fresno, California, school-home communications are routinely translated into five languages and followed up with calls to those who cannot read in any language. Two English classes are offered at the school for parents. Each month the school offers a parent workshop given in the languages spoken by school families. Approximately 80 percent of the parents attend. At the parents' request, Balderas also has a monthly open house, during which the school's programs are explained, student guides take visitors on a tour of the building, and parents eat lunch with their children. Balderas has also built strong relationships with the business community. Engineers from several large companies meet with school staff to identify promising technologies and their applications to teaching, and plan ways to install them at the school.
By incorporating the additional resources into the entire school program, schools can change the way they offer instruction throughout the school, extend student learning time, adapt proven program innovations to their school, and provide more focused, intensive staff development. Establishing smaller classes may or may not be a good starting point but is not in and of itself sufficient to bring about far-reaching reforms in the schools. It is also critical that the schoolwide project establish a well-structured, engaging academic program based on helping many more students achieve higher standards. McNair Elementary in North Charleston, South Carolina uses a summer enhancement program for students who scored poorly on district-based tests. The program focuses on the study of energy, space, marine life, and conservation. Francis Scott Key Elementary in Philadelphia adapted Johns Hopkins University's Success for All program to offer a rich array of whole language approaches to teaching. These schools used innovative approaches to improving instruction and learning in their programs.
Successful schoolwide projects use a variety of assessment tools to focus on students' progress. They may use a combination of teacher-designed tests, standardized criterion- and norm-referenced tests, portfolios of students' work, and mastery skills checklists. Teachers also monitor students' reading, and their capacity to demonstrate in writing their understanding of the core content areas of math, science and social studies. The attention paid to academic progress, as well as to monitoring attendance and discipline, provides staff with a fuller picture of student progress. Effective programs recognize that fundamental improvement takes time. Despite high standards and strong academics, students' test scores may waver from year to year and it may take several years to improve the performance of the neediest students.
State educational agency staff and school district staff can support the development and continued success of schoolwide projects through providing strong leadership and resources for planning, implementing, and evaluating the success of projects. They can identify and share successful approaches to team building and planning, staff development and technical assistance resources and encourage the formation of networks of schools using similar approaches. Some States have developed guidance on planning for a schoolwide project, with particular attention paid to conducting thorough needs assessments and identifying early on how districts will support schools in their efforts. States have also suggested types of instructional reforms schools may wish to undertake.
Districts can assist schools in developing their schoolwide plans, deciding on components most essential to improving achievement in the school. District staff can also hold training sessions for school teams interested in developing schoolwide projects and can provide information to school teams on other sources of technical assistance and professional development. While providing much more information and assistance on successful schoolwide approaches and planning processes, States and districts need to also provide greater flexibility and make certain their auditing, accreditation, and review procedures compliment, not stifle, successful whole school projects.
The full text of the report is available on-line.
Copies of Implementing Schoolwide Projects: An Idea Book are available by writing the Planning and Evaluation Service, Office of the Undersecretary, U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence Ave. SW, Rm. 4162, Washington, D.C. 20202.
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Last update September 1996 (swz).