This Off the Record commentary addresses some of the issues raised by the articles included in this special issue of Teachers College Record. In particular, it explores the relationship of the goals of personalism and academic press in small schools serving urban students.

Background/Context: The role of the principal, and especially the role of the principal in promoting school reform to increase student achievement, is a topic with a long and evolving history. Principals are believed to play a critical role in school reform because they have the potential to impact all aspects of school policy, from time allocated…

Background/Context: Elementary school teachers regularly arrange students in small groups for learning activities. A rich literature discusses various types of small-group learning formats and how those formats affect achievement. Few studies, however, have examined students' perceptions of small-group learning experiences. Our work extends the…

Using the "story constellations" version of narrative inquiry, I tell of two schools--Cochrane Academy and Hardy Academy--that evolved from a shared social narrative history and that were given stories of school and stories of reform that had many features in common. I detail how the founding principals' narratives informed the teachers' knowledge…

Background/Context: Research in the self-determination theoretical (SDT) tradition indicates that teachers' autonomy-supportive behaviors result in students' greater perceived academic competence, better academic performance, and increased achievement. This study describes autonomy-supportive teacher behaviors in schools participating in…

Background/Context: In 2000, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation began an ambitious initiative intended to catalyze the fundamental transformation of American high schools. This article summarizes the results of a 5-year national evaluation of the first stage of the foundation's initiative. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This…

Background/Context: Student motivation typically has been studied as it relates to extrinsic (e.g., reinforcement) and intrinsic (e.g., choice) sources of influence. Our observation of Grades 3-5 classrooms engaged in Comprehensive School Reform (CSR), however, unexpectedly indicated that opportunities for both rewards and choice were scarce. This…

Background/Context: The U.S. federal government has been interested in improving the performance of students who come from low-income homes since the time of Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" initiatives in the 1960s. The current administration strongly supports the belief that good schools can be created and has funded the Comprehensive…

Background/Context: The achievement effects of Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) programs have been studied through the use of input-output models, in which type of CSR program is the input and student achievement is the output. Although specific programs have been found to be more effective and evaluated more than others, teaching practices in…

Background/Context: The question of the influence of Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) on achievement is an important one because many policy makers use achievement scores as the measure of success for schools, classrooms, and students. Research has demonstrated that high-poverty schools have less experienced teachers and access to fewer resources…

Background/Context: The U.S. federal government has been interested in improving the performance of students who come from low-income homes since the time of Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" initiatives in the 1960s. The current administration strongly supports the belief that good schools can be created and has funded the Comprehensive…

Examines data collected from 36 California schools over three years to investigate individual and schoolwide influences shaping teachers' relationships to particular school reform efforts (thereby leading teachers to mediate the reforms in individual ways). (Contains references.) (SM)

In recent years a research literature has developed which increasingly problematizes the project to construct professional community in schools. This case-based literature explores the messy complexities of teacher cooperation and collaboration. It points to the human, cultural, and political dimensions in schools that prevent changes in the…

Background/Context: Working theories about student goal orientation, understanding of intelligence, and affective mediation of task engagement inform current beliefs about students and learning and motivation. Much research has focused on identifying effective teaching strategies to raise the achievement of disadvantaged students; however, less is…

This paper describes an instance of a disadvantaged (urban) Australian government school that realized it had little alternative but to try new approaches; "old ways" were not working. The paper describes an ensemble of school reform practices, philosophies and strategies that give young adolescents genuine ownership of their learning.…