Report is based on a three-year qualitative study undertaken in 2000 in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Seattle that "examined the role and importance of district/school interactions in the implementation of instructional improvement initiatives" (p. 3). The authors of these case studies found that district mandates made little impact on improving classroom instruction, district rhetoric around improving instruction did not match its stronger focus on improving test scores, teacher voice was excluded from policy debates, districts failed to give adequate support and capacity building to teachers to achieve its goals, principals had overlapping and sometimes conflicting responsibilities, and professional development was fragmented and not always tied to district goals. They make six recommendations: "1) Superintendents need to have a vision of good instruction; 2) Central office policies and mandates should be evaluated based on how they help principals and teachers improve instruction and student learning; 3) Districts should be responsible for providing a plan, a realistic time-line, and sufficient resources to build staff capacity when new instructional policies are adapted; 4) Student academic goals should drive the district's policy agenda; 5) Professional development should be school-based and embedded in teachers' daily work; 6) If teachers and principals are to truly focus on instruction, central office demands need to be drastically reduced.

Attempts to address a paradox of education reform — that both "more school autonomy and greater central office coordination are necessary" (p. 2) - by both reviewing the literature on the district role in supporting school-based change and by drawing on data from an evaluation of the pseudonymous Riverside Public Schools' experience implementing comprehensive school reform. The analysis focuses on district context (especially the experience of the district in supporting school-based improvement) and on three aspects of capacity — strategic, administrative, and human resource capacity. Concludes that central office must be the "architect" for reform, providing a "clear strategic context and the enabling resources needed" (p. 28) for schools to engage in improvement. Also suggests that with greater school autonomy, more resources will be needed in the central office to support greater variability among schools. Encourages comprehensive school reform providers to include central office in informational and staff development seminars.

This book describes a two-year, mixed method study examining, first, the differences between classrooms of schools adopting New American Schools (NAS) designs and the classrooms of non-NAS campuses and, second, the relationships between classroom conditions and student achievement within a high-poverty, urban Texas school district. Adoption of the NAS design demonstrated no significant effects on student achievement. Yet authors are quick to note that these results were taken at the early stages of implementation. Similarly, the authors did not find that instructional conditions promoted by reforms such as NAS—including teacher—reported collaboration, quality of professional development, and reform-like instructional practices—were related to student achievement or of other student and classroom conditions. Lastly, the authors found that while high-stakes tests may motivate these schools to increase performance, they may also provide disincentives to adopt richer, more in-depth curricula that could improve students' learning opportunities. (Adapted from summary)
> Order on-line, download pdfs by chapter.

This book contains a detailed analysis of an in-depth study of the success of New American Schools (NAS) comprehensive school reform designs. Chapter 8 specifically discusses the variation across districts, highlighting jurisdictional and institutional factors affecting implementation of NAS models. It concludes that implementation is hampered when district leadership is (or is perceived to be) unstable; when there is a history of distrust between central office and schools; when there is little school-level autonomy; and when resources are limited.
> Download pdfs by chapter

A qualitative study was conducted on the sociometric relationships among high-level administrators at an urban district's central office with respect to their knowledge of and attitudes toward school-based innovations. Analysis of data found little structural or behavioral evidence that personnel in this school district's central office had a clear understanding of innovation, or of the complexity inherent in the implementation processes. The lack of leadership, the over-reliance on externally funded programs, and the proliferation of unrelated job responsibilities all contributed to the district's limited effect on school-based innovations. (Abstract adapted from article.)

Using a panel of school districts from years 1978 to 1987, this paper presents some evidence on resource allocation in New York State and attempts to determine if there is any evidence at the district level of a systemic relationship between administrative inputs and educational outputs in the form of standardized test scores. A variety of statistical models is shown to yield inconsistent results, providing weak support for the argument that administrative resources are necessarily detrimental to educational productivity. (Adapted from abstract)

This report from the Center on Education Policy describes the implementation and effects of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) during calendar year 2003, the second year of the Act's existence. The report is the first and most comprehensive national examination of all main aspects of NCLB implementation at the federal, state, and local levels, and is the second CEP report to examine the implementation of NCLB. The information in this report is based on a survey of 47 states and the District of Columbia, a nationally representative survey of 274 school districts, in-depth case studies of 33 urban, suburban, and rural school districts, and other research methods. Among the major findings are that: states and school districts are trying hard to meet the requirements of the Act and agree with its goals; broader and deeper effects of the law were being felt by school districts in 2003, which is resulting in additional help for schools identified for improvement; choosing another public school is rarely used by parents of children in identified schools, while the option of receiving tutoring services is used more frequently; states and school districts are moving slowly to update the qualifications of teachers and paraprofessionals as required by the Act; some of the requirements of the Act are "unworkable"; and states and school districts face serious funding pressures and a lack of capacity to carry out the Act. (Adapted from abstract)
> Full report, pdf files

This report is intended to help district leaders, school staff, reformers policymakers, elected officials and scholars gain a better understanding of the essential leadership roles that mid level staff play in implementing instructional reform. To ensure that mid level resources are being used for maximum effectiveness a series of recommendations were issued, including 1) School districts must forge strong working relationships with principals and teachers that build trust within the school system; 2) Central offices must move from a command and control approach of implementing district policy implementation to a more facilitative approach 3) Mid level central office staff should be positioned as brokers between effective district leadership and improved instructional practice in schools. As brokers, mid-level staff people operate as tool designers, data managers, trainers and support providers and network builders; and 4) District office should be primarily responsible for cultivating the critical exchange of information and expertise between leaders working at the very top of the system and those running reforms from inside the schools.
> Executive Summary [pdf: 8 p., 452 KB]

This chapter analyzes the history of high school reforms from 1998–2004 in San Diego under superintendent Alan Bersin. Early reforms under Bersin — part of the Blueprint for Success, focusing on reading instruction — did not raise student achievement at high schools, though there was a positive impact at elementary schools. Problems included a lack of widespread implementation and complaints from high school teachers and principals that Blueprint's one-size-fits-all approach was inappropriate. A report on high school reform in 2003 argued that instructional reform was not enough, and tailored, differentiated reforms with an emphasis on student engagement were necessary. The superintendent grouped high schools into five categories: community engagement, challenge, redesign, alternative, and freestanding small high schools. This move towards a "portfolio" of high schools was an attempt to allow for more "bottom-up" high school designs. Additionally, San Diego's portfolio of schools differs from other districts in that it "implies that a district intentionally manage (and revise) its mix of schools to meet student, parent, and community expectations and needs" (p. 150). Specifically, the district's functions in managing this portfolio of high schools includes "fostering school development," "assessing and reporting on school performance," and "building a 'supply pipeline' of schooling options to refresh the portfolio when needed" (p. 150).

The product of 49 interviews with district and local school staff during the 2002–03 academic year, this report focuses on the steps taken in the Houston, Milwaukee and San Diego districts to reinvent the role of the Human Resources department. The report concludes with recommendations for superintendents and local boards in transforming HR to improve education. One of the report's central conclusions is that transforming the district HR function requires a combination of two things: administrative reforms to increase the department's capacity and close attention from district leaders. Administrative reforms aimed at increasing capacity in the study districts touched on three critical areas: the skills of the people who worked in the department, the way the department was organized, and the tools it used. (adapted from abstract)
> Report pdf [63 p., 1.14 MB]

Based on onsite visits and other data collection efforts, the authors highlight six school districts — most of which enroll a large proportion of high-poverty and at-risk students — that posted impressive gains in student achievement.
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Presents the findings of four studies highlighting school districts-most high poverty and at risk-that have achieved academic progress. For improvement efforts to work, district-level leadership and support are critical, according to the report.
> Go to ERS on-line catalog

Current policies place unprecedented demands on districts to use evidence to guide their educational improvement efforts. How districts respond is likely to be influenced by how individuals in the district conceptualize what it means to use evidence in their ongoing work. This study draws on sensemaking and institutional theory to investigate how individuals in one urban school district conceive of evidence-based practice. The study develops grounded typologies that describe the ways that individuals conceptualize high-quality evidence, appropriate evidence use, and high-quality research. It then explains variation in conceptions, pointing to the ways organizational responsibilities and reform history shape how individuals come to understand evidence-based practice. The article closes by suggesting implications for district response to federal policy demands for evidence-based practice.

The authors discuss how resource use is influenced by the management of certain key problems of instruction, including coordination, incentives to use resources, and management of instructional environments. Additionally, authors highlight research designs that would be appropriate to identify resource effects.
> Download pdf [24 pages, 458 KB]

The organizational arrangements, leadership behavior, and shared improvement norms of five districts, four suburban and one rural, were analyzed to understand the extent to which teachers and administrators had access to and used instructional knowledge for instructional improvement efforts. The role of central office in instructional improvement, the authors report, is most effective when the message is clear that improving instruction is and should be the primary focus of teachers and administrators. Secondly, the consistency of this message is a function of involvement, support, and communication. (Abstract adapted from conclusion.)

Describes findings from a Consortium for Policy Research study of the role of central office staff members in shaping and supporting instructional reforms in three large urban school districts. Discusses how all three districts struggled to decide what to do (design and adoption of reforms), how to do it (support and coordination), and what to "scale up" (replication). All three districts showed a serious interest in making decisions based on evidence, but their efforts were hampered by the inadequacy of the research, including conflicting findings and a lack of attention to issues most critical to districts.

Review of findings from a study of the Pew Charitable Trusts' four-year grants to seven urban school districts to support standards-based reform. Critiques the "core components" of standards-based reform, which include standards, assessments, and accountability and concludes that they "do not play their intended roles well" (p. ii). While high-stakes accountability does motivate educators to avoid sanctions, it emphasizes improving test scores which, the authors assert, does not lead to more ambitious teaching or higher expectations for students. Where widespread changes in instruction did occur, clear instructional expectations and consistent professional development was in place and was preceded by serious modifications in the priorities, organization, and resource allocation of school districts.
> Download pdf [58 pages, 218 KB]

Describes findings of a three-district study conducted to learn more about whether school districts can transform themselves from their industrial-era roots. Each of the three districts, all of which were attempting systemic reform, focused in some way on three themes: school restructuring as long-term comprehensive change focused on developing schools as stimulating workplaces and learning environments; new skills, authority, and time for school staff members; and new coalitions and new conceptions of accountability. Found that pioneering districts are "creating new organizational models" through efforts to balance central control with school autonomy. Suggests roles for states in supporting districts to begin this transformation.

This study examines policy mechanisms and processes that districts can use to provide high-quality in-service professional development for teachers. Provides empirical support from a national proba-bility sample of district coordinators for the link between federal policies and strategies of support, implementation, and the quality of teachers professional development. (Adapted from abstract)

Drawing on data and experience implementing Accelerated Schools in over a thousand schools across the U.S., the authors assert that restructuring must extend beyond the schools to school district central offices. Describes how central offices that exhibit high levels of support help smooth the implementa-tion and benefits of Accelerated Schools, but critiques the focus of most central offices as overly reliant on compliance and control. Provides a historical rationale for this stubbornly bureaucratic organization. Uses neo-institutional theory to argue that school districts must adopt and develop a role as "agents" as well as change institutional structures. Concludes with a vision of a "New District."

Educators, political leaders, and the public in the United States share a broad consensus that school systems in the larger urban areas are not meeting the educational needs of the children they are charged to serve. The result has been a virtual explosion in alternative reform strategies. In one fascinating example, some cities have consciously decided to recruit a school CEO or superintendent whose professional backgrounds lie entirely outside of the sphere of public education. We liken these education outsiders, these nontraditional school system leaders, to the "gunslinger" of American frontier mythology, the stranger, like Shane, who rises into town and solves a menacing problem that the townsfolk cannot manage themselves. This article explores the gunslinger phenomenon in public education leadership by describing it, specifying the conditions under which cities resort to this sort of reform, and exploring its implications for public education.

Discusses several important potential roles of districts, including promoting local democracy, balancing interests and incentives across jurisdictions, and adapting state and national policy to local conditions. Contrasts those roles with what districts actually do, concluding that most of district work is "scattered, piecemeal, and, for the most part, weak in influencing teaching" (p. 112). Argues that more coherent education policy at the state and national levels will provide districts with incentives to focus on teaching and learning.

Synthesizes interviews, observations, and other analyses of Community School District 2 in New York City to provide insight into the potential of local districts to be effective change agents. Under the leadership of superintendent Anthony Alvarado, this district achieved national recognition for imple-menting an effective reform strategy that involved mobilizing all resources toward streng-thening and supporting all aspects of professional development to ultimately improve student achievement outcomes. This report describes and examines the continuous process of improvement efforts made by this district to "offer guidance to educators who are interested in the role local school districts might play in systemic school improvement and in the role of professional development in connecting reform policy to class-room practice" (p. 2). Strong leadership, enduring networks and structures, and supportive and stable resources are, reportedly, some of the key factors that contributed to the stability and long-held focus that determined the systemic instructional improvement of District 2.
> Link to download pdf [5 p., 110.7 KB]

To study the impact of charter schools on districts, site visits were made and interviews with district staff and leaders were conducted in forty-nine districts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Michigan. Findings revealed that districts do make changes in their educational services (e.g., become more customer-service oriented) in response to charter schools; and that these changes are influenced by enrollment trends, financial conditions, and the nature of the granting agencies. The authors call on future researchers to conduct longitudinal studies that are more representative of the whole country.

This report, by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), presents information and strategies for implementing reform efforts in middle-grades schools; in particular, it draws on the perspectives and experiences of 50 district administrators from 35 urban districts who participated in the Urban Middle-Grades Reform Network.
> pdf available on-line [43 p., 118 KB]

Reviews school district use of state educational reform. Active users want to and can respond posi-tively. A dominant coalition, which believes it can set its own agenda and sees the reforms as ways of meeting its own ends, promotes willingness. Systems for managing key change functions or linkages are essential. (Adapted from abstract.)

Fieldwork conducted in two American states and in England and Wales helps to clarify the implementation of assessment policy at the central office level, local administrative (school and district) level, and classroom level. This article examines implementation from three perspectives. The power perspective suggests that formal sanctions can result in educators attending to assessments but that such sanctions are not likely to change practice alone. A second perspective highlights what educators need to learn in order to change practice and the shortage of opportunities to do so. The legitimacy perspective attends to the ways in which policy-makers generate confidence in their institutions at different levels and the conflicting criteria for supporting institutions. Authors conclude that assessment policy is useful for promoting observable changes but not deep modifications of teaching practice. (Adapted from abstract.)

Describes the implementation of Children Achieving, Philadelphia's systemic reform initiative of 1995–2000, from the central office perspective. Identifies key beliefs and assumptions underlying the theory of action of the reform and describes how an initial emphasis on decentralization gave way to more central office prescription over the course of the reform. Describes how context and institutional capacity contributed to the transformation. Ends with lessons for districts implementing systemic reform, noting particularly a flaw in systemic reform. Systemic reform promises both high levels of flexibility at the school site and strong alignment between outcome measures and curriculum, but it cannot deliver both.
> Download pdf [57 p., 226 KB]

This research report from the Washington School Research Center provides information and research on classroom instruction in a high standards environment, school-wide and district practices in a high standards environment and lessons learned from the Gates Foundation.
> pdf available on-line [74 p., 542 KB]

This article reports initial findings about the reform process and effects in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, where the authors interviewed state and local policy-makers and educators in twenty-four districts and fifty-nine schools. Findings from the reform process and local implementation are compared to expectations and lessons derived from past research. District context and activities, although long appreciated by researchers, were found to be more influential than predicted and paramount in orchestrating and amplifying state policies around the local political, social, and economic priorities. Suggests a new implementation model for local responses to state reform policies and topics for further research.
> Available on-line with free login

This article reviews three "types" of large-scale reforms and the emerging lessons being learned. According to the author the three are: whole school district reform involving all schools in a district; whole school reform in which hundreds of schools attempt to implement particular models of change, and ; state or national initiatives in which all or most of the schools in the state are involved. Eight factors and issues are identified and discussed – factors, if addressed, promise to achieve reform on a larger scale than ever before.

Describes the limitations of both centralization and decentralization and uses an example from one school district's work with the greater Toronto Learning Consortium as an example of school and district co-development. Key aspects of the Learning Consortium's work included an extensive and continuing program of school-based staff development; increased professional development capacity within the system; a learning community open to external ideas and resources; and systemwide linkages among different programs. The author derives lessons for school districts from this example – most importantly, that a happy medium needs to be found between "over-control on the one hand and chaos on the other" (p. 23). Also suggests that combinations of systemic, short-term, and mid- to long-term strategies are required to improve whole networks of schools. Raises the question of whether school districts are necessary at all.

Following a state takeover of the Philadelphia public schools in 2002, 45 schools were turned over to private managers, making Philadelphia the site of the nation's largest experiment in the private management of public schools. This collaborative study by RAND Corporation and Research for Action examines achievement effects in the privately managed schools, as well as in schools with district-led interventions, and examines these effects in the context of districtwide trends in achievement.
> Download pdf [66 p., 416.5 KB]

This paper reports results of the first systematic analysis of the progress of standards-based reform in U.S. school districts. Using data from a recent national survey of school districts and a companion national survey of schools, it is found that not only do districts appear to play an important role, but also that bigger districts appear to be particularly successful in promoting reform. Those who see reform as an exclusively state-school process may miss key ingredients for success. It is also a mistake to assume that large districts are not responsive. The benefits of larger size, however, appear to be moderated in high-poverty districts. An appendix contains questions on progress from the district and school surveys. (Adapted from ERIC Clearinghouse.)
> Download pdf [34 p., 111 KB]

Reports on an October 2000 conference in Houston called "Making the Grade," where education leaders and researchers came to analyze the Houston school district's progress and scrutinize its success. Papers were categorized and presented on accountability, capacity, and empowerment components that improved the performance of Houston's districts and schools significantly. Descriptions of Houston's accomplishments, and of next steps, implications, and overall experience frame the last section of this report, which discusses the national implications of Houston's reform movement.

The authors of this guide explain how school districts can review current professional development programs and policies and realign them into a coherent system. They also explain how professional development can be aligned with other key systems to support comprehensive school reforms.
> Download pdf [33 p., 317.4 KB]

Using the vision put forth by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) as a basis, this study investigates the implementation of standards-based math reform in four Colorado school districts. Personal interviews, classroom and professional development observations, and extensive document review suggest that there was uneven implementation of the reform across and within the districts. Teachers and principals generally evidenced poor or partial interpretations of the reform while administrators generally demonstrated partial or good understandings. The contextual conditions that shaped educators' responses included the federal and state policy provisions and the local capacity of the school districts to provide training, time, and other resources. For SBE reform to significantly impact math classrooms, particularly in low-achieving districts, states and districts will need to provide more opportunities for teachers to understand the reform; time and professional development that allows teachers to make fundamental changes to their practices; assistance to alleviate other pressing problems; and alignment of messages sent by district assessment practices and reform policies. Unless these issues are attended to it is unlikely that standards-based reform of the type envisioned by NCTM will occur. (Adapted from abstract.)

Uses data from 325 respondents in fifty-seven school districts to critique the politics of urban school reform. Describes how political pressures encourage superintendents to employ reforms that will make an immediate difference, sacrificing long-term improvement for short-term change and contributing to what Hess has dubbed "policy churn."

Contrary to the widespread perception of school districts as rigid bureaucracies and obstacles to reform, this volume shows how school districts can and do make essential contributions to the renewal and enhancement of American education. In the book, an authoritative group of contributors presents and analyzes emerging evidence on district policy and leadership. The volume assembles current research from prominent researchers, including a case study of San Diego's Alvarado/Bersin reform initiative; expands the conversation on what school districts are, what they do, and how they can enhance the quality of teaching and learning in U.S. schools; introduces conceptual frameworks for visualizing school districts as a catalyst for meaningful and sustained reform, highlighting particular roles the district can play to prompt instructional renewal; and identifies dilemmas and contradictions that arise when examining the district as a key unit of analysis, raising questions for future research and practice. (Adapted from abstract)

Defines charter school districts and describes their potential benefits, including creating educational options for parents unhappy with their child's assigned school; increasing the funding available to individual schools by decreasing bureaucracy; creating smaller schools by eliminating mandatory staffing tables; attracting new teachers and school leaders by reducing barriers to teaching; enabling officials to hold schools accountable for performance by providing real options if schools perform badly; attracting philanthropic and private investment; integrating community resources into public education; and working around space limitations. Identifies states and localities where charter districts are now possible under current law. Acknowledges challenges of charter districts, most notably that school boards and superintendents would have to rethink current models of school oversight.
> Article on-line

This publication promotes a move towards a "portfolio management" model for school organization, which Hill argues is a move away from the typical, school board "command and control" model. There are eight features of a portfolio model: public oversight, public funding, concentration of resources near the student, strategic use of community resources, rewards for high performance, an openness to promising ideas, people, and organizations, free movement of dollars, students, and educators, and an environment of support for both new and existing schools (p. 2). A public education system with a portfolio management system would have a mixture of neighborhood schools, magnet schools, alternative schools, and schools run by non-district actors (e.g., nonprofits, for-profits, and community groups). And the superintendent and school board would be able to "shuffle" the porfolio of schools based on student performance. To achieve this, at least two conditions would be required – outside pressure such as the prospect of state takeover, and empowered and organized local citizens and community groups. Districts would also need to be able to inform parents about schools that would fit their children's needs; create simple measurements of student performance that could be applied across all schools; and identify failing schools early.
> Download pdf [19 p., 205.8 KB]

This article defines district central office administrators' roles and capacity to support the implementation of school-community partnerships. Findings come from a strategic case study of Oakland, California (1990–2000). Using concepts from organizational learning theory for the theoretical framework, this study demonstrates that supporting collaboration departs significantly from central office administration-as-usual and highlights conditions and capital that enable central office administrators' new roles.

This paper examines partnerships between district central offices and various "community organizations" such as health and human services and youth development agencies and their forms, functions, and constraining/enabling factors in school improvement. Findings come from an embedded comparative case study of these partnerships in one urban district between 1990 and 2000. Research highlights that central office-community partnerships in this district took three predominant forms — contractual, collaborative, and control relationships — and that functions varied from the provision of new discrete resources to schools to broader capacity building functions for the central office itself. Other findings revealed institutional pressures as primary drivers of the partnerships. Implications relate to how districts and community agencies might work together to create contexts that promote school improvement. (adapted from abstract)
> Download pdf [51 p., 218 KB]

Intermediary organizations have become increasingly prominent participants in education policy implementation despite limited knowledge about their distinctive functions and the conditions that constrain and enable them in fulfilling their functions. This paper addresses that research-practice gap by drawing on concepts from theories of organizational ecology and findings from a comparative case study of four intermediary organizations that helped with collaborative policy implementation in Oakland, California. Using insights from a strategic case study, this paper begins to build theory about intermediary organizations as important participants in contemporary policy implementation. (adapted from abstract)
> Download pdf [67 p., 368 KB]

How do central office administrators use evidence in their practice? A research review revealed that district leaders use evidence far more often than is commonly assumed, although there is little concrete evidence so far that this has led to improved school outcomes. Districts need ways to translate evidence into usable forms.

The designation of district central-office administrators to operate as boundary spanners among the central office, schools, and community agencies can help with the implementation of challenging policy demands. However, educational research teaches little about central-office boundary spanners in practice. This article addresses that gap with findings from an embedded, comparative case study of boundary spanners in the implementation of collaborative education policy. The study's conceptual framework draws on public management and sociological literature on boundary spanning and neo-institutional theories of decision making. Findings reveal that the boundary spanners in this case intiially were particularly well suited to help with implementation in part because they brought non-traditional experiences to the central office. However, over time, many of the resources that aided them initially became liabilities that frustrated their work. This article documents the importance of examining boundary-spanning roles in implementation and suggests how central offices might provide supports to boundary spanners to increase their potential as levers of bureaucratic change.

School restructuring raises questions abou the role of school districts in improving student learning. Centralization by state governments and decentralization to individual schools as proposed in systemic reform leave districts' role unsettled. Empirical research on the district role in the context of ongoing reform is inadequate. This analysis of combined data from the NAEP and the Common Core of Data (CCD) was intended to address the issue. We analyzed 1990, 1992, and 1996 NAEP 8th grade mathematics national assessment data in combination with CCD data of corresponding years to examine the extent to which student achievement was related to districts' control over instructional expenditure, adjusting for relevant key factors at both district and student levels. Upon sample modification, we used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to estimate the relationships of student achievement to two district fiscal policy indicators, current expenditure per pupil (CEPP) and districts' discretionary rates for instructional expenditure (DDR). Net of relevant district factors, DDR was found unrelated to districts' average 8th grade math performance. The null effect was consistent in the analysis of the combined NAEP-CCD data for 1990, 1992, and 1996. In contrast, CEPP was found related to higher math performance in a modest yet fairly consistent way. Future research may be productive to separately study individual states and integrate the findings onto the national level.

Authors report findings of two-part study and establish that New York City Community school districts contribute significantly to student achievement. Characterizes "district effects" and then identifies a variety of instructional practices that differentiate high-performing from low-performing districts through comparative case studies of four sample districts. Points to recent studies on high-performing or improving districts that produced similar results.

This study examines the role of school sub-city districts in determining the performance/efficiency of their member schools. The study identifies low and high performing schools and sub-city districts using a three-year panel of data on New York City elementary and middle schools. The results suggest that districts "matter" to school performance even when they have no revenue raising responsibility. The implication is that accountability systems need to be designed to recognize the role of school districts, and hold them accountable for their performance as well. (Adapted from abstract)

The current high-stakes accountability environment has created strong incentives for educators to systematically collect and use data to inform instructional decisions. This article examines the strategies employed by three urban school districts to promote data use for instructional improvement and their effect on administrator, principal, and teacher practice. Several factors are found to affect data use, including accessibility and timeliness of data, perceptions of data validity, training, and support for teachers with regard to data analysis and interpretation, and the alignment of data strategies with other instructional initiatives.

This descriptive analysis provides new insights into the amount U.S. school districts spend on teacher professional development. A measure of professional development expenditures is analyzed using three panels of data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Findings reveal that districts devote approximately three percent of total general expenditures to professional development activities, which equates to approximately $200 per pupil. These findings were quite stable during the 1990's and thus reflect a fairly flat trend in new investments in teacher training and quality enhancement. Findings are reported by state, school district size, and urbanicity. (Adapted from abstract)

This paper reviews what high-quality research over the past two decades has to say about confronting district support for professional learning. It was undertaken as part of a longer-term investigation into professional development strategies within districts seeking to create policy environments that support teachers' ability to realize high standards.

In this report, The New Teacher Project provides an in-depth study of urban district hiring practices and their effect on applicant attrition and teacher quality by analyzing data from four "hard to staff" districts. Data reveal that late hiring practices due to vacancy notification requirements, teachers union transfer requirements, late budget timetables and inadequate forecasting are common barriers, contributing more to the loss of high quality applicants than any other practice or policy of district human resource offices. Recognizing the challenge of addressing these barriers, authors assert an earlier hiring timeline and changes to current policies and practice responsible for late and ineffective hiring of high quality teachers.
> Link to pdf

Reviews research on rural and urban school improvement efforts focusing on the descriptions provided about the superintendent's and district's roles. Argues that the literature contains assumptions that cannot be generalized to all districts and, more importantly, that the community context is consistently missing from this research. After comparing two projects, one in a rural and the other in an urban setting, Louis discusses the lessons and implications derived from her analyses. Although districts in all settings (rural, suburban, or urban) need a stable policy environment and a coherent strategic approach, the community context shapes and determines the role of both superin-tendents and districts as well as their relationship with schools. Suggests a co-management style to enhance district-school relations in pushing improvement efforts forward and describes responsibilities superintendents and district staff should fulfill if this style is acquired.

This paper examines a small body of literature that explores the role of the school district in developing promoting and sustaining high performing schools. Drawing on the research findings and the experience of the Talent Development Project, the authors offer suggestions for the role school districts can play in building an innovative support system that a) provides teachers with ongoing access to professional development activities b) identifies and provides schools in need with sustained organizational assistance and c) finds ways to effectively use data to create and sustain the formations of strong learning environments. Districts must also evaluate existing policies regarding budget, staffing, scheduling, teacher advancement, and the use of time to ensure that they support rather than hinder reform efforts. Finally, authors propose a five-way partnership among schools, school districts, external design teams, local reform organizations, and foundations as one mechanism through which systematic gains in academic achievement can be realized.

This issue of the CEIC Review features three papers presented by Kenneth Wong, Cozette Buckney, and James Lytle at an October 2000 conference on Emerging Models of Governing School Districts. One of the many recommendations that emerged from this conference was "the creation of central offices that are service-oriented and reach all students in the district – public, private, charter, and choice."

Presents a literature review focused on the role districts play in reform, how they interact with their respective partners and community, and what factors contribute to (or hinder) the achievement of reform goals. The quality of the studies is analyzed at two levels: district-state relations and district-school/ teacher relations. Community involvement and the relationships that are developed with districts to support reform were also part of the analysis. Factors which influence districts' reform efforts that emerged from the district-state analysis include human and social capacity, size, understanding, leadership, organization and governance, political climate, and nature of the policy. The district-school analysis elicited mixed results, with some similarities to district-state relations such as capacity, understanding, and leadership. One element that strongly predicted how district-school relationships support the improvement of teaching and learning is the balance between central authority and school autonomy. A conclusive finding from the research analysis is that community-district relations are portrayed as having a secondary role that normally impedes reform efforts. Ends by raising questions about the lack of information on community-district relations and providing a basis for future explorations.
> Abstract
> pdf [32 p., 247.4 KB]

Improving school systems is critical to bridging the achievement gap and achieving federal accountability goals. Research in three urban districts partnered with a university-based intermediary organization sheds light on promising instructional reform strategies and challenges to bringing about systemwide change. Analyses of district efforts to promote the instructional leadership of principals, support teacher learning through school-based coaches, specify curriculum, and promote data-based decisionmaking identify common factors constraining and enabling instructional improvement. The research also shows that third-party organizations can help facilitate policy alignment and build the capacity of district staff to lead instructional change.
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This conference summary spotlights the various accomplishments comprehensive school reform (CSR) can claim in improvements to school environment and student performance and expands on these lessons by creating a multi-tiered set of policy recommendations for the future of the whole school reform movement. In turn, it recognizes that whole or comprehensive school reform by itself is an incomplete theory of action and that whole district reform is needed as well to create the environment for improving learning of all students – the central aim of policymakers at all levels.
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This brief explores the promises and challenges of four major capacity-building strategies that researchers at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education observed in twenty-two districts in California, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, and Texas over a two-year period. The districts' most promising and frequently used strategies included interpreting and using data, building teacher knowledge and skills, aligning curriculum and instruction, and targeting interventions on low-performing students and/or schools. Regarding the use of data, challenges arose in helping teachers and administrators understand what to do with data and how to use data effectively once it was obtained. For example, district staff found it was difficult for teachers to use data, focusing more on aligning curriculum rather than reflecting on their own instructional strategies to improve students' test scores. Furthermore, districts had trouble managing data because there was such an overwhelming amount of it. Additionally, creating professional development systems that were coherent and mutually reinforcing and that met the needs of the school or district as a whole were also challenging. Addressing data issues, the varying professional development needs of new and veteran teachers, and the staffing shortage is necessary to build capacity for educational improvement.
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Describes different types of school district strategies for building capacity and the impact of state policy on local strategies. Concludes with a section on issues and challenges: the tendency of state and federal policy to bypass districts; the threat of alternatives of whittling away district power; and lack of experience and knowledge about interpreting data and translating that to practice.

The authors explore the relationship between the superintendent's leadership and the organizational culture of school districts, based on case studies of three successful Pennsylvania school districts. Several leadership characteristics were common to all three superintendents, including espousing child-centered values, modeling beliefs and values important to the district, and paying attention to matters of educational importance such as staffing, goal setting, and staff development. (Abstract adapted from the introduction to the paper.)

Within the last five years, many educators, researchers, entrepreneurs, and other professionals have recommended alternative school district models to deal with the current failings of traditional urban public school districts. This short paper is a review of eight proposals chosen for their varied perspectives. (Abstract adapted from the introduction to the paper.)

By detailing the experiences of three reforming California districts, this research report offers new evidence of district effects on school reform progress and improved student outcomes. The case studies offer instructive exception to conventional wisdom„or myths„about district reform. Among the refuted myths: teachers and principals resist a strong district role; turnover derails efforts to establish and sustain a consistent reform agenda; and local politics will defeat any serious reform agenda. (adapted from abstract)

Analyzes professional development spending in four urban districts to assist district leaders in planning and developing a professional development strategy that supports the implementation of comprehensive school reform designs. Demonstrates how spending on professional development is widely uncoordinated and difficult to manage because some spending is outside of district- or school-level control. Additionally, the districts' were heavily dependent on external funds and spending was not focused on academic content. These findings demonstrate how a spending analysis can be a strong foundation for creating a clear and "powerful" professional development strategy. The authors conclude with five steps for developing an effective strategy that supports comprehensive school reform to improve teaching and, in turn, student learning.

Offers five ways in which districts can shift their spending and staffing to align with reform efforts. Miles asserts that district leaders must have the courage to set priorities, make tough decisions, and, more importantly, ensure that spending and staffing complements their commitments to systematically improving student performance. This New American Schools tool is one of three that encourages districts to re-evaluate their spending so that resources become allocated appropriately to support the intent of the reform.

New funding means little for raising student performance if it is added on top of flawed programs, practices, and structures. Districts must re-evaluate the use of existing resources (i.e., time, staff, dollars). The first stage of a comprehensive school reform strategy involves finding or freeing money to "jump start" the introduction of school reform. In the second stage, districts need to look at how they have organized to support schools and teachers in sustaining their efforts to improve practice. To sustain comprehensive school reform, schools need quality professional development, curriculum development, program research and evaluation, and provision of standards and student assessments. Schools need more control over their resources than most districts allow (i.e., hiring, budgets). Using resources well is the basis for making improvements in teaching and learning.

Presents findings of a study that sought to identify factors and processes that characterize instructionally effective school districts (IESDs) in California. Reportedly, IESDs enjoyed peaceful relations between teachers and administrators, active board support, and community acceptance. A significant feature of the IESDs' climate was their strong focus on productivity, improvement, problem solving, and internal operations, along with their instrumental orientation — the use of data to make informed decisions. Overall, there was a higher-than-anticipated degree of coordination between district, school, and classrooms for curriculum and instruction. IESDs were goal-driven; they also established and monitored an instructional and curricular focus; demonstrated consistency and coordination of instructional activities; and provided strong instructional leadership. Lastly, a balance or "dynamic tension" was observed giving way to rationality without bureaucracy, structured district control with school autonomy, and systems perspective with people orientation. The authors note that although variability between districts' themes was anticipated, due to differences in size and type, similarities were prevalent among all IESDs.

This report examines the current status of teacher quality in the School District of Philadelphia and identifies the qualifications, experience, and school-assignment patterns of the district's 11,700 member teaching force. The study was conducted by a group of scholars who have launched Learning from Philadelphia's School Reform, a three-year research project designed to measure and help the public understand the impact of the 2001 state takeover of Philadelphia schools, the school-management partnerships undertaken with external for-profit and nonprofit organizations, and the reforms initiated by the state- and city-appointed School Reform Commission (SRC) members and School District of Philadelphia CEO Paul Vallas.
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Describes five positive outcomes of the Clark Foundation's support for standards-based middle school reform in Corpus Christi, San Diego, and Long Beach districts. Districts developed and implemented content and performance standards and provided principals, as well as teachers, with professional development focused on improving instruction. Districts and schools have also created safety nets, that is, standards-based support services that are available to students. Finally, the capacity of nearly all districts grew; if this capacity is sustained, it will ensure that schools will continue to improve students' opportunities to learn and achieve through concentrating all efforts on creating instructionally focused cultures. The report concludes by pointing out potential challenges for districts that are implementing standards-based reforms such as accountability measures and mandates, getting to scale, and sustaining accomplishments without foundation support. The author urges districts to continue to establish and build relationships with foundations and to also take proactive steps in keeping informed about standards-based reform.

Two districts' capacities were examined regarding their role in implementing the Comer School Development Program. Case study analyses revealed that school districts abandoned systemic reform because their efforts were undermined by accountability policies. In turn, these policies contributed to districts' weak capacity in supporting effective child development principles and practices in schools. Districts' capacities to provide technical assistance or expertise to schools were also negatively affected. Lastly, districts offered local schools "shopping mall" options when selecting school reform designs and then remained unaccountable when those implementations failed. Authors' suggest that school reform be used to rethink school districts as public institutions.

This chapter looks at San Diego's efforts, under superintendent Alan Bersin, to address the needs of low-performing schools, within the context of accountability-driven reforms. O'Day differentiates between the typical notion of "school-based accountability," where problems of low achievement are laid on individual schools, and "reciprocal accountability," where the district shares responsibility with individual school sites for improving student learning. O'Day defines reciprocal accountability as follows: "If the district (or state) is to hold schools accountable for producing specified outcomes for their students, the district (or state) has the responsibility to provide those schools with the resources (human, material, and intellectual) and the conditions necessary to produce those outcomes" (p. 119). O'Day describes San Diego as using a "three-pronged strategy" to improve student achievement in low-performing schools: pursuing a system-wide reform strategy with common goals and strategies for improvement, focusing and intensifying supports specifically to low-performing schools, and transforming the "bureaucratic mindset and central office practices that perpetuate underperformance in certain schools" (p. 120). And despite budget cuts due to CA's financial crisis, O'Day argues the district has made progress in its instructional practices and student achievement.

National attention to a possible superintendent shortage has created concern about the changing nature of the superintendency, particularly new challenges, and how superintendents are prepared. Through 23 focus group interviews, superintendents across the country described the challenges they faced when new, how these have changes in recent years, and the benefits and gaps of their leadership preparation. Through a grounded theory analysis and comparison with relevant adult learning and leadership development theories, this article argues that structured advanced leadership development experiences could improve superintendents' leadership development and transition. The article recommends that these experiences be structured as a learning community that is experiential and intensively reflective.
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Study of nine school districts with different models of management. Three are top-down (U-Form); three are totally decentralized (all Catholic, known as H-form); and three are "in-between" (M-form). Concludes that M-form school districts (Seattle, Edmonton, and Houston) have better student achievement. Does not address instructional needs or mix of centralization/decentralization used in these districts. Emphasizes the importance of management and asserts that funding levels and teaching expertise do not have to change. Cites student-based budgeting or "weighted student formula" as a key building block for improving management.

The literature on effective schools suggests that building level power is associated with increased student performance. To the extent that central district offices try to assert their power over school buildings, one would hypothesize that students' performance would decline. This study uses the National Educational Longitudinal Study as a database to test this expectation. This database traces students interviewed in 8th grade until their graduation from high school. Results suggest that intrusive central offices are associated with somewhat lower student performance. (Adapted from abstract)

A performance-driven school system engages in four types of practices - setting clear, rigorous and measurable student achievement goals, undertakes "regular efforts to gather and access information, especially information related to student achievement," analyzes "ongoing performance, resulting in action plans designed to improve those results," and engages in "an ongoing feedback loop to evaluate programs and processes, with changes made as necessary." (pp. vi–vii). In a study of 28 school systems with a significant improvement in student performance, NewSchools found that they "are still very early in their transition toward cultures of performance" (p. vii) and are implementing performance-driven practices in many different ways. In the study, there were six overarching findings: 1) a performance-driven organization is more about people and processes than about particular goals, policies, and systems; 2) performance-driven practices "is a district-wide effort, across functions and hierarchies;" 3) professional development is crucial; 4) districts need to balance central oversight with site-based leadership; 5) external accountability systems (i.e., NCLB) have placed a focus on student achievement outcomes and data, but often states have poor information management systems that harm districts; 6) Significant hurdles – discontinuity of leadership, lack of coordination, lack of technology infrastructure, organizational culture, and fiscal constraints — remain in the way of districts becoming performance-driven.
> Abstract

This report is part of a longitudinal study of the performance of high-poverty schools in Texas, which reveals that there are entire school districts where such schools are achieving high academic results. Instead of finding isolated pockets of excellence, the Charles A. Dana Center has identified a few large and medium-size school districts in which large clusters of high-poverty schools are achieving the top levels in the state accountability system. This study sought to determine what was happening at the level of the superintendent, the school board, and the central office to create, sustain, and support high levels of academic achievement in high-poverty schools. (Abstract adapted from "Background" section of the report.)

The authors argue that school districts have been historically underemphasized in school reform, and can play an important role for improving achievement and advancing equity in schools. This would be a move beyond improvements at single school campuses (i.e., "islands of excellence"). A review of the prior 20 years of research on districts provides "glimpses of what a coherent theory of district effectiveness in the context of systemic reform might look like" (p. 4).

This paper addresses the key issues surrounding the scaling up of educational reforms, including why scaling up is difficult to achieve and the few scaling up successes.

This case study examines restructuring and organizational change over a twelve-year period in a California district. Shifting goals and strategies, an alternating locus of organizational control, poorly defined methods of sustaining change, and administrative turnover are identified as the dynamics causing a seemingly incoherent pattern of school and district restructuring. When initial efforts to restructure the district through school-based management appeared unsuccessful, school officials ultimately chose short-term bureaucratic remedies to solve longstanding systemic problems. (Adapted from introduction.)

School districts transfer millions of dollars each year from schools in poor neighborhoods to those with wealthier students and higher-paid teachers, according to the authors. The study documents the previously hidden effects of a funding system used by nearly all of America's school districts, which allocates money among schools as if all teachers made the same salary even though better-paid teachers overwhelmingly teach in affluent neighborhoods. By switching to a system that accounts for actual pay, districts could let poorer schools recoup the lost dollars for smaller classes or better technology. Authors recommend not only using real salaries in budgeting, but adding financial incentives to lure better teachers to struggling schools.
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Since 1987, schools in Baltimore have been working with the Fund for Educational Excellence and the education research center at Johns Hopkins University to develop comprehensive programs of school-family-community partnerships. To better understand how these schools are building and improving their partnership programs, administrators, teachers, and parents serving on Action Teams for School-Family-Community Partnerships at six schools were interviewed. This report focuses on how Action Teams for School-Family-Community Partnerships in the schools that were visited use Epstein's framework of six types of involvement to develop more effective school-family-community connections.

The authors collected and analyzed more than 80 research reports and articles over the past 10-15 years that looked at districts that have shown significant improvement. They identified 13 common themes, organized into four broader categories. Under "Effective Leadership," successful districts "focus on all students learning," have "dynamic and distributed leadership," and have "sustained improvement efforts over time." Under Quality Teaching and Learning, successful distsricts have "high expectations and accountability for adults," "coordinated and aligned curriculum and assessment," "coordinated and embedded professional development," and provided "quality classroom instruction." Successful districts also provided Support for Systemwide Improvement, which included the "effective use of data," "strategic allocation of resources," and "policy and program coherence." Finally, improving districts had Clear and Collaborative Relationships, which consisted of a "professional culture and collaborative relationships," a "clear understanding of school and district roles and responsibilities," and "interpreting and managing the external environment." (Adapted from executive summary)

This article considers the following crucial questions surrounding mayoral control of urban school systems: 1. Why would anyone think that mayors have the ability to foster instructional change at the school and student levels? 2. Since mayoral involvement in education usually focuses on districts rather than schools, what is the mechanism by which top-down reforms can permeate individual schools and classrooms? 3. What do mayors need to know about instructional improvement in order to make their efforts meaningful, and how can they learn it? The authors found that cities where mayoral control has been successful happened when "changes in governance have been combined with serious attention to the instructional core through the adoption of common curricula and pedagogical approaches, as well as signficant investments in teaching quality, such as coaching, teacher recruitment, and retention strategies... These observations reveal that by themselves, the governance changes that typically occur when mayors exert a greater role in education may have an immediate impact on organizational efficiency but fail to promote long-term improvements to the instructional core." (p. 191). The authors conclude by arguing that mayoral leadership needs to be used to create "smart systems" with a focus on results, equity, and community.

Study demonstrates that whole school districts (rather than just individual schools) and the Texas educational accountability system can play powerful roles in facilitating academic success for children of color and those of low socio-economic status.

Reports findings from case studies on four urban school districts that demonstrated improvement in student achievement and in narrowing the achievement gap between minorities and whites at a faster rate than two anonymous comparison districts. Although Houston, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Sacra-mento, and New York City districts were met with a common set of challenges and contextual factors specific to all urban districts, the wide range of strategies or preconditions these four shared made for a strong foundation on which to conduct whole-system reform. These elements ultimately led to a larger and more successful impact on student performance than in comparison districts. The two comparison districts focused on one or few strategies and/or displayed various obstacles that prevented similar results. Authors suggest three broad priorities for districts to focus on and for researchers to explore: building a foundation for school reform, developing instructional coherence, and supporting data-driven decisions. Authors also highlight the importance of urban districts as a unit of analysis for research and as a level of intervention for reform.
> Executive summary and links to summary report and full report [234 p., 2.4 MB]

Argues that state and federal policy should pay more attention to the role of districts. District leaders can undermine state policy-makers' efforts with their own local policy making and influence state policy-makers' efforts to broadcast their message of instructional reform to school practitioners. Competing messages from state and local leaders can affect the coherence of the guidance being provided to local practitioners.

In this paper the authors argue that the notion of local capacity needs to be rethought in light of the extraordinary demands for learning imposed upon local educators by the current wave of instructional reforms. Confining their discussion to the Local Education Agency (LEA), the authors argue that LEAs' capacity to support ambitious instruction consists to a large degree of LEA leaders' ability to learn new ideas from external policy and professional sources and to help others within the district learn these ideas. Drawing on a study of nine school districts, they identify three interrelated dimensions of this capacity – human capital, social capital, and financial resources. (Adapted from abstract.)

This article examines how the local school district's non-monolithic character undermines state-level efforts to create more coherent guidance for instruction of teachers. It explores two school districts' responses to a state reading policy and suggests that what the school district does by way of enacting state policy is not always internally homogeneous. The image of the school district that emerged is one of a non-monolithic agency of instructional guidance. Attempting to unravel and explain the internal variation in the school district's response to state policy, the author considers the school district's organizational arrangements as well as the professional specialization and associations of district staff. (Adapted from article.)

This paper examines state and local government relations in education by considering the influence of one state's standards-based reform initiatives on policy making in the Local Education Agency (LEA), using data from nine school districts. While state standards initiatives prompted all nine LEAs to ensure that the topics covered in their policies matched the state's standards, the author shows that the influence of standards on LEA policy making was much weaker and was inconsistent when it came to the more substantive and complex content and pedagogical changes advanced by state standards. Based on this analysis, the author argues that the local capacity and local will for complex instructional reform need to be understood in interaction. Further, the author considers how the tension between state policy instruments as played out in LEAs, coupled with instability in state politics, undermined the influence of state standards on LEA policy making. (Adapted from abstract.)

Categorizes district leaders into three groups, based on their beliefs about teacher learning. Spillane argues that the large majority of district leaders have a quasi-behaviorist perspective about teacher learning, that is, that professional development is generally about transmitting knowledge — teachers are passive recipients of knowledge from experts. A few show other learning philosophies. He shows how district structures encourage the quasi-behaviorist learning perspective.
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Analyzing the ideas about instruction that district leaders construct from the mathematics reforms, the author identifies dominant patterns in their understandings. Focusing on the forms of the mathematics reforms rather than their epistemological and pedagogical functions, district leaders' understandings tended to focus on piecemeal changes that often missed the disciplinary particulars of the reforms. The author argues for the inclusion in models of the implementation process of implementers' interpretation of the reform message, along with the more conventional variables that dominate in the literature, such as local resistance to reform and limited local capacity to carry out reform proposals. (Adapted from abstract.)

The paper identifies prominent patterns in district policy-makers' understandings of the science reforms. The authors argue that a cause of implementation failure rarely examined in the literature has to do with the ways in which local implementers miss or misconstrue the intent of policy proposals. (Adapted from abstract.)
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This paper examines district officials' theories about teacher learning and change, identifying and elaborating three perspectives — behaviorist, situated, and cognitive — based on a study of nine school districts. The behaviorist perspective on teacher learning dominated among the district officials in the study. The author also considers whether the prominence of the behaviorist perspective on teacher learning among district officials may be cause for concern when it comes to the classroom implementation of the sort that will produce fundamental changes in instruction pressed by state and national standards. (Adapted from abstract.)

Springboard Schools analyzed three years of test scores in CA districts with high percentages of students in poverty and high numbers of ELL. Case studies were then done on three high performing districts — Elk Grove (near Sacramento), Rowland (LA), and Oak Grove (south San Jose). The case studies identified that successful districts have leaders that "ensure that student testing does not stand alone but is part of a larger continuous improvement process," "place a premium on professional development," find "a clear and workable balance between centralized and decentralized strategies," and endorse, but don't "blindly" follow, the standards-based reform process (standards-curriculum alignment, assess student progress, and create intervention programs for struggling students. The authors suggest district leaders 1) be explicit about student learning goals and strategies for achieving those goals, 2) Invest in and use multiple assessments on student learning, 3) build human and organizational capacity through structures and processes that allow for shared learning, 4) create a constituency for focus by reporting regularly to staff and the public on goals and progress towards goals, and 5) "mind the gap" by owning the challenge of English-language learners.
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This special issue focuses on themes in "scaling up" promising school restructuring and improvement designs in urban schools. Examines two within-district and state efforts in implementing or support-ing externally developed and multiple-reform designs. A wide variety of school designs have demon-strated that they can result in academic and other socially desirable student gains in individual schools or small numbers of carefully selected schools. However, over the past twenty-five years, relatively few designs have clearly demonstrated the ability to have educationally significant effects when implemented in large numbers of schools. A variety of studies have suggested that replicating the successes from a limited sample to a large sample of schools is possible but often difficult. (Adapted from abstract.)

Urban districts in Cleveland, Chicago, and Detroit that were implementing standards-based reforms in their schools were investigated to identify features of their accountability systems. Authors sought to understand the role of standards within each context and to understand the influence of state policy on school and classroom practices. Results indicated that districts vary in their interpretation of the standards depending on their uniquely politicized environment. In turn these conditions determine teachers' awareness of standards and influence their perceptions of how well they are implemented. While, in general, teachers indicated that they were aware of the standards, they claimed not to use them as instructional guides. The authors conclude that, in these particular districts, standards were not the driving force behind school practices and that the intention of standards-based reforms to improve teaching and learning continues to have an unclear outcome.

Authors studied elementary and middle school reading, writing and mathematics results from the spring of 1999 to the spring of 2002 on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in Duval County, relative to seven other counties in Florida. Results indicate positive effects in Duval County elementary schools, yet indistinguishing differences or negative effects in middle schools. These findings support the authors' hypothesis that DuvalÍs efforts to systemically change the practices of teachers and school leaders across its system are improving the achievement of its elementary schools at a faster rate than in other comparable districts, and to date, growth in middle school performance has been comparable to that in other countries. (Adapted from abstract)
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The report outlines lessons from five districts that were selected based on their ability to exhibit at least three years of improvement in student achievement in mathematics and/or reading across multiple grades and across all races and ethnicities. They include: Aldine Independent School District in Houston, Texas; Chula Vista Elementary School District in Chula Vista, California; Kent County Public Schools in Maryland; Minneapolis Public Schools; and Providence Public Schools. Findings reveal that the districts: Had the courage to acknowledge poor student performance and the will to seek effective solutions; Recognized that to raise student achievement they had to focus more intensively on improving instruction and put in place a coordinated set of strategies to support this work; Significantly shifted teacher and principal professional development from single-workshop approaches to comprehensive research-based strategies to improve teacher and principal skills; Based decisions on good data, not instinct - using multiple measures of student and school performance to guide decision making. Recognized that no one group could carry the reform alone and engaged everyone - parents, principals, universities, teachers, school board members, unions, central office staff and the community - to improve results for students; Recognized that there were no quick fixes and showed the patience, hard work, consistency and long-term support necessary for improvement.
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While many districts share the goal of helping all students achieve at high levels, few qualify as high-performance systems. Vander Ark outlines the strategic choices that district leaders must face as they attempt to steer their systems toward success. Names the Annenberg Institute as one of two organizations researching the issue of scale — "the most important question in American education" (p. 6). (Adapted from abstract.)
> Online article

The authors conducted a meta-analysis of research on the influence of school district leaders on school performance. They found a statistically significant relationship (24) between district leadership and student achievement. They also identified five district-level leadership responsibilities that were significantly correlated with student achievement – collaborative goal-setting, non-negotiable goals for achievement and instruction, board alignment and support of district goals, monitoring goals for achievement and instruction, and the use of resources to support achievement and instrution goals. Additionally, superintendent tenure was positively correlated with student achievement (19). Finally, effective superintendents "may provide prinicpals with 'defined autonomy.' That is, they may set clear, non-negotiable goals for learning and instruction, yet provide school leadership teams with the responsibility and authority for determining how to meet those goals." (p. 4)
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Three-year study examined how four school districts (two American and two Canadian) organized, managed and pushed for professional development as a broader district level reform strategy to improve teaching and learning. Reportedly, level of success and sustainability of district efforts were dependent on the following factors or issues: fragmentation and coherence; individual and collective capacity; the influence of leadership (particularly the superintendency); the state/provincial policy context; and the management of turbulence. Concludes with a discussion on the possibilities and limitations of professional development as a lever for reform noting, "Professional learning opportunities, however effective and available, will not add up to system reform unless they are embedded in a coherent organizational context." A literature review on the role of the district in educational reform, an outline of the methodology and case profiles of the four districts are included.

This article draws on data from an evaluation of the Annenberg Challenge in Los Angeles, a reform effort that experimented with school networks as a vehicle for improving schools. Data revealed that when school networks created structures that decentralized power and distributed organizational resources throughout the network, they also enhanced school capacity for reform.

Mayoral takeover of school districts is an increasing phenomenon in large, urban districts. This conference paper asks: What are the consequences when mayors lead urban districts? Wong and Shen use data from the Annual Survey of Government Finances and the Common Core of Data to "examine the relationship between mayoral takeover and fiscal and staffing indicators" (p. 2). They also examine student achievement data in five districts that have used mayoral takeover for more than four years (Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit). Overall, mayoral control is associated with greater per-pupil expenditure in core areas, such as instruction, but not strongly related to fiscal health or district debt levels. The evidence on student achievement is mixed. In three of the five districts, elementary reading and math scores rose. Gains were also noted in high schools. Also, the gap in achievement across schools in Chicago, Boston, and Cleveland decreased after mayoral takeover. Wong and Shen suggest that future studies develop cross-district achievement measures and determine additional political measures of takeover (i.e., the range of mayoral influence on districts).

By examining previous research, this article examines the effects on different aspects of school capacity of several recent reforms related to professional development. The reforms include teacher networks in California, the use of consultants and intervisitation in New York City's District 2, student assessments in Kentucky and Maryland, and school improvement plans in South Carolina. Each program was found to strengthen teacher's knowledge, skills, and dispositions; however, they had varying effects on other dimensions of school capacity, such as promoting professional com-munity and program coherence. Conclusions from the review include the following: professional development activities should promote collaboration among teachers from the same schools to strengthen within-school professional community; teachers' involvement in establishing shared goals and making decisions about school operations is influenced by the conception of teacher leadership underlying professional development activities, district policy, and the nature of principal leadership; high-stakes assessment systems may cause professional development activities to be narrowly focused on introducing teachers to new assessments; and professional development strategies must achieve a balance between promoting coherence within and providing autonomy to individual schools.

Documents Los Angeles Unified School District's efforts to improve systems of health and social services (including psychological, nursing, and mental health services, etc.) by following the progress of three of the system's seventeen "Organization Facilitators" (OFs). Beginning in 1995, the OFs were responsible for implementing the district's restructuring plan for health and human services. The authors conclude that each OF they studied succeeded in starting restructuring efforts, but each also approached the task differently, based on the local context and their personal vision. Their work was facilitated when they had the support of the cluster leader, but the administrative structure of the position created tension between the OF and the cluster leader, sometimes hampering that facilitation.