| Unlocking the 11 Components - Introduction |
Over the past ten years, the standards and accountability movement has become a major
force for school improvement. As states have adopted content standards and developed
tests to measure students' mastery of those standards, schools and districts have
had to write new curricula, assist teachers in creating new lessons and revise
their schedules to accommodate extensive student testing. In January 2002, The
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act was signed into law. While the new legislation
retained the basic standards and assessment regulations of the prior law, NCLB
has increased accountability for states, districts and schools. As schools
struggle to implement changes that will help all students succeed in the context
of NCLB, many educators are realizing that, if students are to have a real
opportunity to meet these standards, their schools will need to completely
rethink their educational and management practices. Comprehensive school
reform (CSR) is a way to both implement standards and ensure that everything
happening in the school is designed to help students meet the standards.
More than yet another program, CSR is
- A systematic approach to schoolwide improvement that incorporates every aspect of a school — from curriculum and instruction to school management.
- A program and a process that is designed to enable all students to meet challenging academic content and performance goals.
- A framework for using research to move from multiple, fragmented educational programs to a unified plan with a single focus — academic achievement.
- A product of the long-term, collaborative efforts of school staff, parents and district staff.
In brief, CSR is a change strategy and a framework that helps schools plan and implement reform to improve the achievement levels of all students. Described in the federal CSR Program Guidance as a program “built on the premise that unified, coherent, and integrated strategies for improvement, knitted together into a comprehensive design, will work better than the same strategies implemented in isolation from each other,” the CSR approach is clearly different than past reform efforts. CSR demands time and commitment on the part of the school faculty, staff and community, but also holds the promise of transforming schools into places where all students can learn.
In the following pages of Unlocking the 11 Components of CSR, NCCSR partitions the federal CSR program and its components into chapters complete with advice and resources to help practitioners find success as they implement comprehensive school reform in their schools.
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