Profiles of the Regional Educational Laboratories

Laboratory for Student Success

Mission

The primary mission of the Laboratory for Student Success (LSS) is to bring about lasting improvements in the learning of the mid-Atlantic region's increasingly diverse student population. The ultimate goal of LSS is to establish a system of research, development, and dissemination that connects schools, parents, community agencies, professional groups, and higher education institutions; gradually expands improvement efforts in the region to transform low-performing schools into high-performing learning communities; and is part of a national system of information exchange.

Regional Problem Areas to be Addressed

LSS's scope of work focuses on a coordinated and integrated approach that affects several areas from the classroom to the statehouse. Four key problem areas to be addressed include: improving teacher quality; building and sustaining comprehensive school improvement; developing school-family-community connections; and integrating technology as a catalyst for high-performing learning communities.

Improving teacher quality (staff contact: Frederick McCoy). Teacher quality and supply is one of the largest barriers to successful implementation of educational improvement initiatives in the five mid-Atlantic states. The intense relationship between teacher quality and student achievement becomes clear when addressing the "capacity" concerns of transforming low-performing schools into high-performing learning communities. Three key areas of LSS's work in this area include: re-engineering schools and colleges of education to increase the region's capacity to improve learning, both for children at rural and urban schools and for preservice teachers; developing a regional database that will detail the similarities and differences between states with regard to licensing, recruitment, and certification practices; and formulating policies that will support an intensive common approach to these issues. This work will be accomplished through the leadership and collaborative efforts of LSS, the Mid-Atlantic Deans and Superintendents Network, the Council for Basic Education, and the Maryland State Department of Education.

Building and sustaining comprehensive school improvement (staff contact: Roy Dawson). The work in this area advances the knowledge base needed to transform low-performing schools into high-performing learning communities. The following design principles guide LSS projects that address this critical area: resilience research, both on individuals (e.g., students and teachers) and institutions; collaboration with "strategic partners" to provide information and technical assistance for informed decisionmaking and planning for implementation to meet reform needs; and networking to contribute directly to capacity building at all levels to ensure student success in meeting state and local standards, and utilize the procedural knowledge to scale up school reform efforts focusing particularly on low-performing schools with a high concentration of students from educationally and economically disadvantaged rural and urban communities. An alliance of groups including a network of universities led by Fairleigh Dickinson University, the Public Sector Labor Management Committee, and Educational Research Service are participating in this work.

Developing school-family-community connections (staff contact: Ron Taylor). The emerging structures in many communities that closely link the work of schools, parents, and community agencies will become increasingly important in the years ahead. Problems of many children and families transcend the capacity of the school or any single agency to serve them effectively. Their problems are often very deep, tied to issues of economic disinvestments and joblessness in whole neighborhoods, and of child abuse and neglect in individual homes. Schools can only succeed to the extent that broader community efforts in health, economics, and safety also succeed. The very process of bridging as it occurs in communities, schools, universities, and elsewhere, and making the most of the resulting connections will be a key area of study at LSS. Collaborators in this work include the Academic Development Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Pennsylvania State University.

Integrating technology as a catalyst for high-performing learning communities (staff contact: Johann Sarmiento). The work in this area is designed to generate new opportunities to critically analyze and advance procedural knowledge concerning why, when, and how technologies can support, enhance, and transform teaching, learning, and the leadership of educational organizations. The Advanced Technologies for Learning (ATL) Lab at LSS serves as an in-house and regional interdisciplinary think-tank for effective integration of advanced technologies and educational initiatives. Broadly stated, four goals guide ATL work: foster the innovative and effective integration of digital technologies into K-12 teaching and learning; support informed decisionmaking on the part of regional K-12 educators, schools, districts, and state-level educational agencies in selecting, using, maintaining, and evaluating educational technologies; provide innovative sustained professional development activities for and with teachers, technology coordinators, administrators, and other educators; and create and sustain networks and repositories of shared expertise and material resources within the region. Collaborators in this area include the Network of Technology Demonstration Schools, the Learning Technology Support Group of the School District of Philadelphia, a selected group of Educational Technology Training Centers in New Jersey and Intermediate Units in Pennsylvania, as well as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Technology in Education Consortium and its State Officers Network.

National Leadership Area

Educational leadership (staff contact: Roy Dawson). As the lead Regional Educational Laboratory for educational leadership, LSS has identified three focus areas that will result in a program of cross-disciplinary applied research, development, and dissemination activities.

First, educational leadership requires capacity building at all levels to promote student learning and higher performance. LSS aims to advance procedural "know how," but focuses on providing technical assistance and evaluation support at the state and district level to develop policy initiatives, refine existing practices, and assess the impact of reform on teaching and learning. At the school-site level, the work of the LSS Services to the Field unit will greatly expand the knowledge-based professional development and outreach program in the region and nationally.

Secondly, widespread consensus on outcome-based accountability has created new challenges for educational leadership. Policymakers and practitioners have yet to agree on a common strategy to transform low-performing schools into high-performing learning communities. LSS focuses on leadership development through principals and small learning communities that focus on content knowledge and pedagogy that promote student-learning success. These advances include the use of best practices in curriculum and instruction from early childhood through high school; broadening parental and community engagement to foster a supportive learning environment for at-risk students; as well as strategies to raise student engagement, reduce apathy, challenge their academic interests, and facilitate ongoing support for teachers' knowledge development and collegial exchange.

Finally, as public education enters the 21st Century, the public increasingly looks for more efficient and equitable ways of providing schooling services that meet their high expectations. In some locales, city and state governments have taken over the public schools. System-wide sanctions and support strategies are applied to hold schools and students accountable for their performance. In other states and cities, charter schools within the public sector have been encouraged. Parental preferences and school autonomy are seen as the driving force to improve low-performing schools. Regardless of one's position on these emerging alternatives, there is an urgent research need to find out whether and how these new strands of service delivery are working. LSS aims to synthesize the existing knowledge base on these reforms and gather firsthand information on the design and implementation of alternative governance practices.

Key Accomplishments

LSS National Invitational Conference Series. These series address emerging issues of national importance and formulate next-step solutions. A major goal of the series is to cull from research and practical knowledge on what works and what does not work to significantly improve this nation's capacity to achieve healthy development and educational success of children and families. A major outcome of the series is the opportunity to exchange information and viewpoints mutually beneficial to the design and implementation of classroom practice, research priorities, and identify pressing technical assistance and professional development needs. Conference participants evaluated the series and indicated that LSS provided effective and high-quality products and services that continue to meet the ever-changing needs and goals of educational reform.

Community for Learning (CFL). The CFL program is a whole-school improvement model that connects the school, the family, and the community to implement a coordinated approach to achieve student success. At the core of CFL is an integrated design framework that emphasizes the implementation of a powerful instructional program and a collaborative process that links the resources and expertise of schools with other learning environments, including homes, churches, libraries, public- and private-sector workplaces, and postsecondary institutions. Education programs conducted in these environments are coordinated with those of various government agencies, such as health and social services, housing, and law enforcement. These programs are connected with community revitalization efforts to create a broad-based commitment to improve learning and competence of children and youth and the adults who serve them--in short, a Community for Learning. Findings from an evaluation of CFL indicated that the program was making a difference in student achievement and provides a model for consistent school and classroom practices.

Upcoming Products and Events

School choice vs. best systems provides an overview of research and practical applications of innovative school reforms being implemented across the nation (Spring 2001).

New teachers for a new century takes stock of the preparedness and quality of the present and prospective teaching force and examines ways to improve the quality of instruction in the nation's classrooms (Summer 2001).

Improving educational productivity utilizes new econometric methods to examine the relations between educational funding and the production of student outcomes, exploring such relevant issues as state aid, teacher quality, and school efficiency (Fall 2001).

LSS Spotlight on Student Success Series is a two-page research brief series that provides a summary of research findings based on the work of LSS researchers. To request copies or to access the series online, contact the LSS Web Site (http://www.temple.edu/lss/).

A national invitational conference on successful reading instruction. LSS will host a conference aimed at identifying ways to translate important research findings in reading and reading instruction into practice (Fall 2001, Washington, DC).

[Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University] [Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning]

This page last modified August 29, 2001 (jer)