Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago

✍ Scribed by Anthony S. Bryk, Penny Bender Sebring, Elaine Allensworth, John Q. Easton, Stuart Luppescu

• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 328
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

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 of Organizing Schools for Improvement collected a wealth of data on elementary schools in Chicago. Over a seven-year period they identified one hundred elementary schools that had substantially improved—and 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.

✦ Table of Contents

CONTENTS......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 8
Prologue: A Tale of Two Schools......Page 12
Introduction: A Rare Opportunity to Learn about School Improvement......Page 23
1 DEVELOPING APPROPRIATE OUTCOME INDICATORS......Page 40
2 A FRAMEWORK OF ESSENTIAL SUPPORTS......Page 53
3 TESTING THE FRAMEWORK OF THE ESSENTIAL SUPPORTS......Page 90
4 PROBING DEEPER: ORGANIZATIONAL MECHANISMS......Page 108
5 TRUST, SIZE, AND STABILITY: KEY ENABLERS......Page 148
6 THE INFLUENCES OF COMMUNITY CONTEXT......Page 169
Summary and Conclusions......Page 208
Appendix A: Socioeconomic Status Factor......Page 234
Appendix B: A Value-Added Indicator: A School’s Academic Productivity Profile......Page 236
Appendix C: Overview of the Fourteen Indicators for the Five Essential Supports......Page 242
Appendix D: Probability Experiment to Evaluate Results Presented in Figure 3.3......Page 253
Appendix E: Interview Questions from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods......Page 256
Appendix F: Coeffi cients from Analyses of Leadership in Chapter 4......Page 257
Appendix G: Value-Added Replication Results for 1997 through 2005......Page 261
Appendix H: Efforts of the Consortium on Chicago School Research to Build More Productive Ties between Research, Practice, and Policy to Improve Practice......Page 263
Notes......Page 268
References......Page 296
Index......Page 308