In 2008, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) launched a differentiated accountability pilot to allow states to distinguish between those schools identified for improvement in need of substantial help and those closer to meeting achievement goals. In July 2008 and January 2009, the Department approved waivers to give nine states the…

This paper provides information about strategies that high poverty urban elementary schools have used to initiate major reforms in their processes and structures and to share the process used to elicit information from these schools. A research study analyzed the experiences of six high poverty urban elementary schools in Massachusetts, New York,…

In 1987, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 2020, the School Improvement and Professional Development Program. Designed to encourage innovation and professional development in a select number of Oregon schools, this act was intended to upgrade educational quality and create models for other state schools. Rather than evaluating program…

This evaluation of the first-year elementary school implementation of Boston's pilot "controlled choice" student assignment plan found that very little had been accomplished in planning for school improvement and that future desegregation compliance hinges on key decisions about secondary and bilingual education, and the empowerment of…

Three programs sponsored by the Seattle (Washington) public schools' Office of Academic Achievement were evaluated: the Academic Achievement Project, Early Childhood Model (ECM) Schools, and Pilot Projects. Academic Achievement projects were designed to increase the academic achievement of at-risk learners and to decrease disproportionality. The…

In 1989, a long-term partnership began between International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation and the Austin Independent School District (AISD) to form Project A+ (later named the A+ Coalition), a program designed to be a catalyst for educational improvement by identifying fundamental changes needed to enhance education and to marshal community…

An ethnographic study was conducted of the first year of implementation of the Accelerated Schools Project in a pilot middle school. The interaction between intervention and the existing school culture is studied through multiple interviews with teachers, support staff, administrators, students, and parents as well as observation and review of…