Restructuring High Schools for Equity and Excellence

by Lee, Valerie E.; Smith, Julia B.

• ISBN13: 9780807740545
• ISBN10: 0807740543
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-03-01
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

This distinctive volume is the first to explore these questions using data from a large (over 800 private and public schools) national survey. Demonstrating empirical links to achievement, this book investigates how restructuring relates to such organizational and structural properties of schools as their size, the curriculum, instruction, their teachers' attitudes toward students, and how they press their students to work hard and succeed. Going beyond any existing work on this topic, Restructuring High Schools for Equity and Excellencedemystifies the statistical analyses to draw implications and make recommendations for school reform and school policy.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Anthony S. Bryk
Preface	xi
Part I. Context for the Study	1	(32)
Examing School Reform	3	(12)
What Is School Restructuring?	4	(2)
Grounding for Our Study	6	(2)
Embedding Restructuring in Organizational Theory	8	(3)
The Structure of Our Study	11	(2)
Overview of This Book	13	(2)
Who Goes Where? Characteristics of Students and Schools	15	(18)
Selection of Samples	15	(1)
Information About Students	16	(3)
Information About Schools	19	(12)
Summary of Sample Characteristics	31	(2)
Part II. A Focus on School Restructuring	33	(46)
Restructuring in the Middle Grades	35	(21)
Understanding Restructured Practices	36	(4)
Examining the Characteristics of Students and Schools	40	(5)
What Did the Eighth-grade Study Reveal?	45	(9)
Implications for Middle-Grade Schooling	54	(2)
Restructuring in the Early Years of High School	56	(23)
Reforming the American High School	57	(1)
Introducing the 10th-grade Study	57	(9)
The Effects of School Restructuring on Student Development	66	(9)
Implications for High School Restructuring	75	(4)
Part III. School Social Organization and Restructuring	79	(66)
The Organization of Teachers' Work Lives	81	(21)
Studying Teachers' Work Lives	82	(4)
Examining Collective Responsibility for Learning	86	(5)
The Effects of Professional Community on Student Learning	91	(8)
Changing the Social Organization of Schools	99	(3)
Cumulative Effects of Restructuring	102	(24)
Reviewing School Organization	103	(2)
Investigating the Relationship Between School Organization and Student Learning	105	(10)
The Effects of School Restructuring in the Presence of School Organization	115	(4)
A Focus on School Organization	119	(4)
Drawing Implications for Optimal High School Organization	123	(3)
A Focus on One Structural Feature: School Size	126	(19)
Considering School Size	127	(3)
Refocusing the Question of School Size	130	(5)
The Effects of School Size on Student Learning	135	(6)
Some Policy Recommendations	141	(2)
How Do We Change High School Size?	143	(2)
Part IV. Implications from the Study	145	(18)
The Larger Meaning of School Restructuring for American High Schools	147	(16)
What Is ``Restructuring'' Meant to Change About Schools?	147	(1)
How Is Choice Involved in Restructuring?	148	(2)
Why Might Students Learn More in Restructured Schools?	150	(2)
How Is School Organization Related to Restructuring?	152	(4)
Why Does School Size Make Such a Difference?	156	(1)
Why Are There So Few Restructured High Schools?	157	(1)
Could Restructuring Effects Be Even Stronger?	158	(3)
Why Are High School So Difficult to Change?	161	(2)
Notes	163	(6)
References	169	(12)
Appendix A. Details of Construction of All Variables	181	(18)
Appendix B. A Brief Description of Some Hierarchical Linear Models	199	(3)
Index	202	(8)
About the Authors	210