A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n
Program Quality and School Reform
Analysis and Highlights
Background
Program Quality and School Reform was prepared in support of the National Assessment of Chapter 1--mandated under P.L. 101-305, "The National Assessment of Chapter 1 Act." It examines the relationship between current school reform efforts and the Chapter 1 program. While Chapter 1 has been criticized for acting as an impediment to reform, it also has the potential to contribute to these efforts.
Selected Findings
-
Current innovations in Chapter 1 schools include two general program types: those that emphasize basic skill development, which use targeting and pullout arrangements, and those that emphasize the development of advanced skills, which use either pullout arrangements or schoolwide reform.
-
Basic skills programs may be easier to implement than more comprehensive reforms as they are more heavily dependent on structured "pre-packaged" materials than on extensive teacher training. The materials may include workbooks and worksheets designed to teach arithmetic computation, spelling, and other basic skills through drill and practice. However, basic skills programs alone cannot bring about lasting change. Comprehensive reform efforts that focus on whole school change and include a focus on advanced skills in teaching all students, hold more promise for transforming schools.
-
Programs that use pullouts to focus on advanced skills include Reading Recovery and Higher Order Thinking Skills. Programs that address advanced skills through whole school reform include the Accelerated Schools Program, the School Development Program (also known as the "Comer Process"), the Coalition of Essential Schools, and the Paideia Program.
- Helping teachers deepen their content knowledge and expand their pedagogical repertoires to meet the challenges of advanced skill programs demands the use of unconventional staff development. Nontraditional formats such as teacher networks, special institutes, university partnerships, and professional associations can often provide what teachers need.
Conclusion
To contribute to reform efforts, a reauthorized Chapter 1 program must move from a focus on "the Chapter 1 participant" to the development and support of learning communities in all high-poverty schools. Current research suggests five policy directions for ED:
- Support professional development consistent with school reform goals by channeling funds to existing teacher networks and other innovative efforts.
- Encourage promising initiatives by granting increased flexibility on use of funds to states attempting systemic change.
- Redirect technical assistance funds so that resources are closer to teachers and administrators trying to make change happen; encourage schools to draw on a variety of resources, including their own, to help them in the reform process.
- Increase attention to the overall academic environment of educationally disadvantaged students by targeting dollars to high-poverty schools rather than to students. Encourage states to use new assessments, tied to state or district goals, to hold schools accountable for results with low achieving students.
- Provide incentives for states that adopt monitoring systems focused on teaching and learning in classrooms, such as the inspectorate or program quality review models.
Copies of Program Quality and School Reform are available by writing the Planning and Evaluation Service, Office of the Undersecretary, U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence Ave. SW, Rm. 4165, Washington, D.C. 20202.
-###-
Return to Elementary and Secondary Education Page
mail to esed@ed.gov
Last update September 1996 (swz).