| Unlocking the 11 Components - Goals and Benchmarks |
Successfully implementing comprehensive school reform relies on establishing clear, measurable goals and benchmarks for achieving those goals. The CSR legislation specifies that schools awarded CSR grants must have goals for student performance. As explained by Hugh Burkett of the U.S. Department of Education, a school’s CSR program should have “measurable goals for student performance tied to state content and performance standards.” Benchmarks should be established to guide student progress toward realization of the goals.
The challenge of aligning reform goals for student performance with state content and performance standards is being met with mixed results. In 1995, RAND conducted interviews about accountability systems with principals whose schools were implementing New American Schools' designs. On the positive side, they found that “85 percent of the respondents in jurisdictions with performance-based accountability tests talked about the close alignment between reform goals and state’s assessments." Principals thought using authentic assessments helped reform-oriented teachers internalize standards and adjust to performance testing.
However, many principals “said their teachers ‘stepped out of the design’ to prepare students for mandated tests by reviewing skills and content likely to be on the test, practicing test taking skills, and working with practice tests and test preparation materials.” RAND’s 1996 report, Reforming and Conforming: NASDC Principals Discuss School Accountability Systems, is available at
http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR716/index.html.
In 2002 RAND issued another report, Challenges of Conflicting School Reforms: Effects of New American Schools in a High-Poverty District (http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1483/), confirming that little progress has been made to remedy such practices. In the study, RAND tracked the progress of New American Schools designs in a school district in San Antonio, Texas. They found that district accountability measures and standards either directly conflicted with or simply created confusion around school CSR program requirements. They note that teachers in the Texas schools admitted in interviews that they often coped “with the multiple demands on their time by putting aside other activities to focus almost exclusively on TAAS [the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills] as the test dates grew closer” (p. xxii).
Goals and Benchmarks for Model Implementation
In addition to goals and benchmarks for student achievement, schools that choose to implement a model should also consider laying out goals and benchmarks for the model’s implementation. Although the ultimate goal of many CSR models is to increase student achievement, progress with student achievement and progress with implementing a model are not one and the same.
While most model developers specify goals that address the central focus of their designs, many are now laying out benchmarks to help schools meet those goals. Benchmarks help schools keep model implementation on track by clearly defining intermediate objectives and actions. As several model developers explained at a meeting hosted by the U.S. Department of Education in November 1999, benchmarks are what the model is about. They can be written with stages such that schools know whether each component of the model is being implemented minimally, adequately or, in an exemplary manner. Benchmarks set short-term objectives to make the model easier to understand and implementation less overwhelming. They also provide frequent opportunities for the staff to have a sense of accomplishment and early warning when there is a need for readjustment. Tracking school progress against benchmarks contributes to staff buy-in and helps keep motivation high. Moreover, well-designed benchmarks for model implementation and student achievement can guide a school through the change process by specifying expectations and facilitating the measurement of progress.
Resources
- The Initial School Self-Evaluation Instrument by the North CentralRegional Educational Laboratory is an assessment instrument designedfor use at the school-building level by a school improvement team. The instrument helps schools examine and benchmark four areas: learning and teaching; governance and management; school improvement and professional development; and parent and community involvement.
http://www.ncrel.org/csri/respub/initial.pdf
- Making Good Choices (2002) by the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory is a tool for planning and implementing schoo reform that helps schools select an externally developed reform model that meets their school needs. Starting on page 21 is Appendix A-The Self Evaluation Process, an instrument designed to help a school evaluate its common practices, organization and governance. This self-evaluation process continues in Appendix B
http://www.ncrel.org/csri/choices/makegood/mgc.pdf
- At Your Fingertips: Using Everyday Data to Improve Schools (1998) by MPR Associates is a workbook designed to help school staff use various school data to improve schools. The guide presents a simple six-step approach to selecting, analyzing and reporting key information. The steps direct schools on how to (1) establish goals; (2) identify specific outcomes and related practices; (3) determine data sources and indicators; (4) analyze the data; (5) set performance targets; and (6) monitor performance over time. This workbook costs $39.95. It can be ordered online at
http://www.mprinc.com/ps/ayf/index.html.
- Implementing Schoolwide Programs: An Idea Book on Planning (1998) by the U.S. Department of Education outlines six steps for school reform planning that lead to clear goal setting: establishing a planning team; conducting a comprehensive needs assessment; clarifying needs and finding research-based strategies; setting schoolwide program goals; writing the schoolwide plan; and finalizing the schoolwide plan. Each section includes checklists and examples to help schools carry out the process of planning.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Idea_Planning/index.html
- Advice from the U.S. Department of Education can be found in a short chapter on goals in its report, Fitting the Pieces: Studies of Education Reform. The chapter discusses the process of setting goals and provides several vignettes to describe the process at individual schools.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/SER/FTP/lesson2.html
|
