Challenges of Conflicting School Reforms: Effects of New American Schools in a High-Proverty District

A decade ago, New American Schools (NAS) launched an ambitious effort for whole-school reform to address the perceived lagging achievement of American students and the lackluster school reform attempts that produced so little meaningful change. As a private non-profit organization, NAS set out to he...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Berends, Mark, Chun, JoAn, Schuyler, Gina, Stockly, Sue, Briggs, R J
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
ATTITUDES(PSYCHOLOGY)
COMMUNITY RELATIONS
EDUCATION
Humanities and History
INSTRUCTORS
LEARNING
NAS(NEW AMERICAN SCHOOLS)
ORGANIZATIONS
RAND REPORTS
SCALING FACTOR
SCHOOLS
STUDENTS
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Summary:A decade ago, New American Schools (NAS) launched an ambitious effort for whole-school reform to address the perceived lagging achievement of American students and the lackluster school reform attempts that produced so little meaningful change. As a private non-profit organization, NAS set out to help schools and districts significantly raise the achievement of large numbers of students by offering whole-school designs and design-based assistance during the implementation process. NAS is currently in the scale-up phase of its effort and its designs are being widely diffused to schools across the nation. The purpose of this study is to examine the conditions of NAS classrooms compared with non-NAS classrooms and to study the relationships between classroom conditions and student achievement in a high-poverty district in San Antonio, Texas. The focus is on the conditions in the district, schools, and classrooms that promote or inhibit design implementation and changes in teaching and learning. Specifically, this study addresses the following questions: * Do the NAS designs extend beyond changes in school organization and governance and permeate classrooms? Do NAS teachers and students interact with each other and subject materials in ways that reflect the innovative curricular and instructional approaches of the design teams? * What factors at the district, school, and classroom level are related to implementation of designs, changes in classroom instruction, and student achievement?