A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

FOR RELEASE: October 17, 2000	Contact:         David Thomas (202) 401-1579

DEPARTMENT AWARDS $21 MILLION OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS TO
CONDUCT RESEARCH ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF
COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL REFORM MODELS

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley announced today the award of $21 million in grants to six respected research organizations to study the success of comprehensive school reform models.

Comprehensive school reform is focused on schoolwide improvements that affect all aspects of a school's operations, rather than using a piecemeal, fragmented approach to reform.

The studies are designed to provide a better understanding of school reform by examining the large-scale implementation of research-based comprehensive school reform models.

The studies will address one or more of the following research questions:

• How effective are specific externally developed, research-based comprehensive school reform models in improving the achievement of all students?

• How are model characteristics related to the success of model implementation and improvement in teaching and learning in specific types of settings and with specific types of students?; and

• What supporting conditions and strategies are necessary to effectively implement and sustain comprehensive school reform models in schools and school districts?

The following organizations received funding: American Institutes for Research/Pelavin Research Center, Washington, D.C.; Brown University, Providence, R.I.; Policy Studies Associates, Inc., Washington, D.C.; RAND, Santa Monica, Calif.; Success for All Foundation, Baltimore, Md.; and the University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.

The funding comes from fiscal year 2000 appropriations that Congress made to the department's Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Grant descriptions are attached.

American Institutes for Research/Pelavin Research Center
1000 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW, Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20007
Phone: (202) 944-5240
E-mail: daladjem@air.org
Contact: Dr. Daniel K. Aladjem
Total Funding: $7,517,910 over five years

National Longitudinal Evaluation of Comprehensive School Reform: American Institute Research/Pelavin Research Center (AIR); National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at University of Chicago; and David C. Anchin Center, University of South Florida will conduct a 5-year study consisting of two parts: a Core Study of 600 schools implementing comprehensive school reform models and a Focus Study of High and Low Performing Schools. The Core Study will: determine the effects of models on student reading and mathematics achievement; identify model components that are most effective; identify the situations and populations for which models are most effective; and note the contextual supports that contribute to effectiveness. The Core Study will involve longitudinal surveys of districts administrator, principals, and teachers over the course of 3 years, as well as collection of student record data. As part of the Core Study, AIR will conduct a meta-analysis of existing data from evaluations of comprehensive school reform models to ground the current study in the existing research.

The Education Alliance at Brown University
222 Richmond Street, Suite 300
Providence, R.I. 02903-4226
Phone: (401) 274-9548
E-mail: dcollins@brown.edu
Contact: Dr. Deborah Collins
Total Funding: $1,049,608 over three years

Implementing for Success: Analysis of Eight Comprehensive School Reform Models: This three-year project will study the third, fourth and fifth implementation years of eight comprehensive reform models, involving teacher and principal questionnaires, and site visits to 120 schools (15 per model). Quantitative and qualitative techniques will show how district, model, school and teacher-level variables affect model implementation success and school, teacher, and student outcomes. This proposal addresses many ongoing issues raised by observers and critics of school reform and focuses on the larger picture of implementation. It will also address other critical issues such as how model implementation efforts affect the practice (e.g., understandings and behaviors) of different categories of teachers and what factors affect implementation stability and durability.

Policy Studies Associates, Inc.
1718 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20009
Phone: (202) 939-5316
E-mail: anderson@policystudies.com
Contact: Dr. Leslie Anderson
Total Funding: $943,822 over five years

Effectiveness of District Strategies for Comprehensive School Reform: PSA will examine comprehensive school reform as a district-level strategy for school improvement. PSA will work with five school districts to study implementation and effects of comprehensive school reform over time through surveys, onsite interviews and classroom observations, and examination of student data. They will study "how-to" questions of pivotal importance in the comprehensive school reform movement: Across models, what crosscutting dimensions of comprehensive school reform are associated with changed teaching and improved achievement? For schools to implement those dimensions, what do they need from the supporting system closest to them, the school district? The study uses longitudinal methods and a comparison-group design. Findings will address the relationship between specific dimensions of comprehensive school reform and student achievement and identify strategies that support effective implementation of comprehensive school reform.

RAND
1700 Main Street
P.O. Box 2138
Santa Monica, Calif. 90407-2138
Phone: (310) 393-0411 x6211
E-mail: Georges_Vernez@rand.org
Contact: Dr. Georges Vernez
Total Funding: $4,631,892 over five years

RAND Evaluation of Comprehensive School Reforms: RAND and the Urban Institute will conduct a 5-year evaluation of comprehensive school reform models that seeks to understand the factors related to implementation and the effects of several major contrasting models implemented in Florida and Texas elementary schools. Using a comparative, longitudinal framework, the study will provide information on those factors related to implementation of core components of the models and the models' effects on school climate, classroom practices, and student achievement and other outcomes. It also will study the cost-effectiveness of the models.

Success for All Foundation
200 West Towsontown Blvd
Baltimore, Md. 21204
Phone: (410) 616-2310
E-mail: rslavin@successforall.net
Contact: Robert Slavin
Total Funding: $6,085,659 over five years

Randomized Evaluations of Success for All: This study will employ a random experimental design to evaluate the effects of Success for All (SFA) on student achievement and other outcomes. Forty schools whose staffs vote to participate will be randomly assigned to SFA or control for a four-year longitudinal study. Twenty matched schools will also be studied. Outcomes on individually administered and state accountability measures will be assigned. Implementation observations and independent observations of SFA and control schools, as well as district interviews, will provide data for use in process-product studies to find correlates of achievement gains. This definitive study will establish the effects of SFA, explanations for these effects, and school and district conditions in which effects are maximized.

University of Arizona
College of Education
P.O. Box 20069
Tucson, Ariz. 85722
Phone: (520) 621-7825
E-mail: tgood@mail.ed.arizona.edu
Contact: Dr. Thomas L. Good
Total Funding: $1,042,690,over three years

Theoretical Analysis and Implementation Study of Comprehensive School Reform Programs: The University of Arizona will conduct 3-year in-depth, extensive studies of the fourth grade window (grades 3-5) in Arizona schools--many of which will be located in rural areas--that are selected as the 2000-2001 school year sites for the federally-funded CSRD Program. They also will examine school reform in 15-20 comparison-site schools who apply for program inclusion but are not accepted. Given past patterns of successful applicants, it is likely that the intervention study will focus in particular on Success for All, Accelerated Schools Project, and the Coalition of Essential Schools.

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