Strategies for School Change

In this page web address http://www.sedl.org/expertise/historical/siss.html we can know about SEDL which is a private, nonprofit education research, development, and dissemination (RD&D) corporation based in Austin, Texas.

SEDL worked directly with one low-performing school in each of SEDL’s five states to understand how schools engage in comprehensive school reform. This work focused on the entire school as an interrelated system of parts that impact each other, involved multiple technical assistance providers, and examined existing and proposed structures and practices on an ongoing basis to determine how they impact student learning.

SEDL worked with the school administrators, classroom teachers, and other staff members in these schools over a two-year period. SEDL assisted each school in assessing its strength and weaknesses, identifying a focus for our working together, and developing and implementing a plan for this work. Major components of the work involved examining student performance data, building staff consensus on the work's focus, researching alternatives to address problems in the school, and building shared leadership to carry out one or more of the alternatives. Five factors were identified that influenced school progress: (1) the focus of the improvement effort, (2) organizational structures, (3) personal and social dynamics, (4) contextual influences, and (5) leadership. Findings related to each of these factors are summarized below.

•All of the schools were strongly encouraged to focus their work on improving student performance. Lack of access to and understanding of student achievement data played a large role in the difficulties encountered as each school sought to define and maintain the focus of their improvement efforts.

•Problems that are rooted in leadership, context, and organizational structures almost always affect personal and social dynamics negatively. Similarly, advancement in any of the other four areas tends to support positive dynamics.

•While schools are the locations of improvement work, they are critically affected for better or worse by the contexts in which they exist. External change facilitators must have a wide and deep range of strategies and information to be ready to anticipate and address contextual issues during improvement efforts. Bringing all parties to the table, where possible, is the best strategy in addressing these issues. In all cases, more and better communication—and more and better understanding—mitigated the negative aspects of context, and allowed stakeholders to begin to imagine context as a strength of, and not a hindrance to, their school.

•Leadership plays a pivotal role in any school change effort. Comprehensive school reform efforts advance most effectively and smoothly in schools where principals are committed to high-quality instruction leading to success for every student. These schools also are adept at handling day-to-day operations as well as the crises, enjoy strong working relationships with district and school staff, and have the professional security and commitment to foster and use teacher leadership.

Ling