| Unlocking the 11 Components - Strategies that Improve Academic Achievement |
According to NCLB, a school’s CSR program — the combination of all the strategies and practices employed to address each federal component — must raise student achievement. To be eligible for CSR funds, a school must demonstrate in its application that there is scientifically based evidence that its planned CSR program will transform school practices in a way that will significantly improve student achievement. Thus, scientific evidence is given priority among the criteria for practices (as discussed in the previous section) as well as the school’s comprehensive program. In the absence of scientifically based evidence, schools and districts must provide strong evidence that their comprehensive reform programs will influence achievement.
It is considerably difficult to find research that has demonstrated that particular components work together to impact student achievement. While the interplay of components is an under-researched area of CSR, there is some evidence to support the adoption of a whole-school approach.
Resources
The studies referenced below suggest that a whole-school approach is better than individual attempts at school reform. Similarly, schools should look for such evidence in support of their CSR programs.
- Federal Policy Options for Improving the Education of Low-Income Students (1993) by RAND invited commentaries by 91 policymakers, researchers, and educators, and encouraged the federal government to expand funding to include schoolwide rather than selective programs. After evaluating Title I (then called Chapter 1), RAND researchers concluded that Title I's impact on education in low-income communities would be greatly increased through schoolwide reform. The report made the argument that "extra" services for those schools and students qualifying were fragmented and not effective. Schoolwide reform, on the other hand, would bring an end to fragmentation and would encourage comprehensive change, resulting in better opportunities for Title I-targeted districts, schools, and students.
http://www.rand.org/publications/randreview/issues/
RRR.winter94.5.education/Recent_Education.html
- Hope for Urban Education: A Study of Nine High-Performing, High-Poverty, Urban Elementary Schools (1999) by the U.S. Department of Education shares the practices of nine high-poverty schools that attained higher levels of achievement than most schools in their states or the nation. The schools used federal Title I dollars to support com-prehensive school improvement efforts.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/urbanhope/index.html
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