Organizing Schools for Improvement

by Bryk, Anthony S.

• ISBN13: 9780226077994
• ISBN10: 0226077993
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-01-14
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

In 1988, the Chicago public school system decentralized, granting parents and communities significant resources and authority to reform their schools in dramatic ways. To track the effects of this bold experiment, the authors ofOrganizing Schools for Improvementcollected a wealth of data on elementary schools in Chicago. Over a seven-year period they identified one hundred elementary schools that had substantially improvedand one hundred that had not. What did the successful schools do to accelerate student learning? The authors of this illuminating book identify a comprehensive set of practices and conditions that were key factors for improvement, including school leadership, the professional capacity of the faculty and staff, and a student-centered learning climate. In addition, they analyze the impact of social dynamics, including crime, critically examining the inextricable link between schools and their communities. Putting their data onto a more human scale, they also chronicle the stories of two neighboring schools with very different trajectories. The lessons gleaned from this groundbreaking study will be invaluable for anyone involved with urban education.

Author Biography

Anthony S. Bryk is president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Penny Bender Sebring is founding codirector of the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) at the Urban Education Institute at the University of Chicago. Elaine Allensworth is codirector for statistical analysis at CCSR. Stuart Luppescu is chief psychometrician at CCSR. John Q. Easton is executive director at CCSR.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Prologue: A Tale of Two Schools	p. 1
Introduction: A Rare Opportunity to Learn about School Improvement	p. 12
Developing Appropriate Outcome Indicators	p. 29
A Framework of Essential Supports	p. 42
Testing the Framework of the Essential Supports	p. 79
Probing Deeper: Organizational Mechanisms	p. 97
Trust, Size, and Stability: Key Enablers	p. 137
The Influences of Community Context	p. 158
Summary and Conclusions	p. 197
Socioeconomic Status Factor	p. 223
A Value-Added Indicator: A School's Academic Productivity Profile	p. 225
Overview of the Fourteen Indicators for the Five Essential Supports	p. 231
Probability Experiment to Evaluate Results Presented in Figure 3.3	p. 242
Interview Questions from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods	p. 245
Coefficients from Analyses of Leadership in Chapter 4	p. 246
Value-Added Replication Results for 1997 through 2005	p. 250
Efforts of the Consortium on Chicago School Research to Build More Productive Ties between Research, Practice, and Policy to Improve Practice	p. 252
Notes	p. 257
References	p. 285
Index	p. 297
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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