This mixed-method study examines Michigan's Partnership policy for school turnaround, which positions the district and superintendents as key policy implementation actors. We first interviewed 21 of 35 Partnership superintendents/leaders across Michigan and surveyed teachers to understand the initial response to the turnaround policy and the…

The recent Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to identify and turn around their lowest performing schools, but it breaks somewhat from prior policies by granting states significant autonomy over how they identify and turn around these schools. This mixed-methods study, which draws on administrative, qualitative, and survey data,…

Most community college students are referred to developmental education courses to build basic skills. These students often struggle in these courses and college more broadly. CUNY Start is a prematriculation program for students assessed as having significant remedial needs. CUNY Start students delay matriculation for one semester and receive…

The research on professional development (PD) consists mostly of studies utilizing cross-sectional data. We examined effects of change in school-level PD on change in teachers' practice longitudinally. Using survey reports from 1,722 teachers in 31 schools implementing a popular comprehensive school reform (America's Choice), we found that…

Theory and empirical work suggest that teachers' social capital influences school improvement efforts. Social ties are prerequisite for social capital, yet little causal evidence exists on how malleable factors, such as instructional management approaches, affect teachers' ties. In this cluster-randomized trial, we apply a decision-making…

Discusses a framework for integrating the macroworld of the policymakers with the microworld of the individuals who implement those policies. Analyzes policy directed change. (RB)

Studied the views of Israeli principals about school decentralization and restructuring policy. Findings from a survey of 50 principals shed light on the potential of the reforms, the hardships principals face implementing them, and the complexity of implementing decentralization policies. (SLD)

Calls for focusing attention on the political obstacles to large-scale school reform rather than thinking of the problem mainly as one of disseminating information and helping individuals work through their fears about change. The natural outcome of urban politics is likely to be partial implementation of many programs rather than full-scale…

Implementation of the Illinois Educational Reform Act of 1985 in local school districts during the year before and the two years after its passage was studied through an analysis of school board meeting minutes. Policy questions about the place of school boards in the educational reform movement are raised. (SLD)

This article examines some of the reasons attempts to tighten the couplings between legislative and judicial intent and site level implementation have remained problematic. Specifically, this article argues that the assumption that program evaluation can force program implementation is faulty. (Author/BW)

This paper focuses on the National Sex Equity Demonstration Project, a joint effort of the University of Miami and the Broward County School Board funded by the Women's Educational Equity Act Program. The author concludes that the project made a modest, but important, contribution to the definition of educational equity. (Author/DWH)

The study examines relationships among variations in the implementation of participative decision making, instructional improvement, and student learning in 1 school district of about 3,300 students over 5 years. Findings support the conclusion that teacher participation in decision making is related to instructional improvement and better student…

Using multilevel methods to analyze data from 710 household heads in 45 Detroit (Michigan) area school districts, results show that minority and disadvantaged respondents, especially from the city, favor parental school choice. Potential effects of an interdistrict choice plan are discussed, suggesting that choice might favor inequities. (SLD)

Explores the role of Chicago's (Illinois) philanthropic foundations in the development, passage, and early implementation of the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988. Although foundations played a small role in passage of the act, they became vital to its implementation. Proposes principles for foundations involved in education reform policy. (SLD)

Based on intensive case studies of two school districts, this study compared two teacher work reforms: merit pay and job enlargement. Interviews with 64 teachers and 53 administrators, supplemented by over 1,300 survey responses, indicate the efficacy of each approach and the potential advantages of job enlargement. (SLD)