The authors of this monograph assert that by assisting school systems to more closely resemble "high reliability" organizations (HROs) that already exist in other industries and benchmarking against top-performing education systems from around the globe, America's school systems can transform themselves from compliance-driven…

Drawing on a realistic model for evaluating compensatory education effects, Chapter 1 staff members have developed a workshop series aimed at improving the effectiveness of local Chapter 1 programs. Improvement efforts are to be data driven, research based, team centered, locally controlled, systematic, and focused on student outcomes. (20…

Implementation of the Core Knowledge Sequence in 12 various schools across the United States is evaluated. Interviews and focus groups with teachers and principals reveal the nature of the reform program, local context, systemic and policy level forces, and the capacity for change impact on the implementation process. (MMU)

This special issue provides diverse data sets on a school-improvement initiative in Memphis, Tennessee. The effort seems unusually promising because of top-down district support for eight separate site-based reform designs, planners' reliance on New American Schools and other familiar designs, long-term data-collection opportunities, accessible…

This technical report presents third-year analyses of the progress of five Maryland elementary schools participating in a multi-school, multi-district implementation of the Core Knowledge Curriculum (E. Hirsch, 1987, 1996). Third-year results are presented in the areas of implementation and outcomes. Factors clearly affecting implementation of…

This article presents findings from a 4-year study of 13 culturally and linguistically diverse elementary schools implementing comprehensive school reform (CSR) models. The study focused on: (a) the actions at the state and district levels that facilitated or inhibited reform implementation; (b) the adaptability of the various reforms in…

Explores the reasons why this generation's educational reform period is lasting much longer than previous reform periods. Examines several promising programs for improving students' learning. Argues for valid teaching methods and programs and for highly reliable implementation methods. In a high-reliability organization, schooling designed by…

This volume presents methods and first-year findings from the urban and suburban/rural studies of Special Strategies for Educating Disadvantaged Children, a 3-year project that is collecting case study data on 10 different strategies identified as holding promise for educating this group of children. Data collected by Special Strategies involve…

This paper summarizes activities associated with school-improvement projects in 12 Louisiana School Effectiveness and Assistance Pilot Study (SEAP) Cohort One schools during school year 1997-98 and plans for future improvement activities in 1998-99. Faculty and administrators at each school were asked to revise their current school-improvement…

The No Child Left Behind legislation has drawn increased attention to student data. Data are most useful in educational decision-making when the purpose extends beyond vertical accountability and toward school- and classroom-level decision-making that enhances the experience and achievement of students. This necessarily involves getting practical…

The Memphis Restructuring Initiative's first-year data-gathering efforts have yielded implications for policy and practice. This article discusses findings and implications in seven areas: opportunity to choose, goals and directions, professional development, "constructivist" teaching and learning, authentic assessment, disjunctures…

This report provides background, implementation, and diverse outcome data from the first 3 years of an ongoing effort to implement a highly specified school reform design in a high-poverty, urban elementary school, Woodson Elementary School, Baltimore (Maryland). The design that is being implemented is the Calvert School model. The Calvert School…

This volume presents second year findings from a 3-year project that collected case study data on 10 promising strategies for educating disadvantaged children. The study occurred at 25 urban or suburban/rural sites. Participating schools had Chapter 1 programs or were eligible for Chapter 1. The sample included students in grades 1, 3, and 9 who…