In an effort to improve student achievement, thousands of US schools have adopted school reform models devised externally by universities and other organizations. Such models have been successful in improving individual schools or groups of schools, but what happens when educational reform attempts to extend from one school to many? Through qualitative data from several studies, this book explores what happens when school reform 'goes to scale'. Topics covered include: *why and how schools are adopting reforms *the influence of the local context and wider constraints on the implementation of reform *teachers and principals as change agents in schools *the evolution of reform design teams *the implementation, sustainability and expiration of reform, and its impact on educational change Each chapter concludes with guidelines for policy and practice. This book will be of interest to educational leaders and staff developers, educational researchers and policy makers, in the US and internationally.

Success for All is a comprehensive reform model for elementary school that combines state-of-the-art curriculum, research-based instructional methods, assessments, and professional development with one-to-one tutoring, extensive family support services, and other strategies to ensure that every child is successful in the early grades and then builds on that success throughout the elementary years. Started in 1987, it is the most widely used of all reform designs. It is currently in about 1800 schools serving more than a million U.S. children, mostly in high-poverty schools. It is also the most extensively researched comprehensive reform program, with two dozen evaluations carried out in eight research institutions. Success for All: Research and Reform in Elementary Education is the first edited volume presenting research on Success for All in the U.S. and in five other countries for which the program has been adapted. This book presents a description of Success for All, an overall summary of all achievement studies, reviews of research, original presentations of new research, and discussions of the impacts and the implications of this research and dissemination for educational policy and practice in many arenas.

The Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC) is arguably the most comprehensive, fundamental and controversial attempt to promote systemic curriculum reform in Hong Kong. It aimed at a radical change in the nature of knowledge, pedagogy and assessment in schools. After an initial phase of confusion and criticism, this ambitious reform was revamped and vigorously promoted, but within a few years, it totally lost momentum as other educational issues attracted the attention of policy-makers. This book traces the career of TOC and studies the impact of the reform on the education system, subjects, schools and teachers. Drawing on a four-year multi-level research project, the chapters provide a deep understanding of the complex nature of educational reform and how a new curriculum is interpreted, developed and implemented. Besides providing a fascinating portrayal of the experiences of the TOC reform, this book offers lessons for future curriculum change in Hong Kong and elsewhere. 'This', writes Ivor Goodson in the Foreword, 'is curriculum research at its best.'

We have entitled the fourth book in the series Rural School Turnaround and Reform: It’s Hard Work! Overall, the body of scholarly work and research that examines school turnaround and reform in rural areas is slim; as such, this volume adds to the body of work and contributes to new knowledge in a much-needed area. In this volume, we present chapters that speak to the challenges, successes, and opportunities to improve low-performing rural schools. Chapters range from conceptual arguments to policy analyses or research findings, as well as some combination of these or other ways to consider rural school turnaround and reform.

Challenging policymakers, educators, reformers, and citizens to replace piecemeal reforms with fundamental redesign, First Things First! calls for a different way of organizing the American primary school. Ruby Takanishi outlines a new framework for integrating early education with primary education (pre-K–5), including both short- and long-term strategies, that starts with 3- and 4-year-olds. Featuring portraits of primary schools that have successfully integrated pre–K, the book includes resources on dual-language learners, dual-generation family engagement, effective philanthropy, rethinking advocacy, and more. The book centers on four basic questions: Why should the United States design a new primary school as children’s first, widely shared educational experience? How can the educators of the new primary school use new knowledge about how children learn to improve their practice? What will it take to create a new primary school that educates all children well? How can the design of the new primary school reflect demographic, social, linguistic, and cultural changes and adapt to the requirements of a global economy? First Things First! reframes the basic structure of traditional primary education, challenging us to get the early years of a 21st-century public education system off to a new and stronger start. “The vision of a new primary school model in this book should be studied by all workers in the fields of education, human development, and social policy. The scholarship in this book is impeccable and the arguments advanced by this leading scholar are most convincing. Further, the book is beautifully written.” —Edward Zigler, Sterling Professor of Psychology Emeritus, Yale University “Takanishi makes a compelling case that enabling all American children to achieve their potential requires both expansion of high-quality preschool and fundamental changes in how our public elementary schools serve young students.” —Sara Mead, Bellwether Education Partners “Dr. Takanishi has laid out a vision and approach to schooling that is comprehensive, forward-looking, and versed in strong evidence. This is must-reading for educators, leaders, policymakers, and researchers.” —Arthur Reynolds, University of Minnesota