Study explores successful urban districts

Urban school districts are more likely to have successful school reform if they take a comprehensive, systemwide approach, a recently released report concludes.

The report, "Foundations for Success: Case Studies of How Urban School Systems Improve Student Achievement," looked at four rapidly improving urban school systems to uncover what they were doing that others were not to raise overall academic performance and reduce the achievement gap.

The districts selected were the Houston Independent School District, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.) School District, the Sacramento (Calif.) City Unified School District and the Chancellor's District in New York City. In each instance, these school districts were improving more rapidly than their respective states, and each district showed trends of improved overall student achievement over at least three years.

The data reveal that these districts made the most progress among younger students, and this progress had begun to reduce racial disparities in student performance on standardized tests.

"Urban school districts serve a large proportion of children in the United States yet face the biggest challenges," says U.S. secretary of education Rod Paige. "This report provides great promise for helping children in city schools and beyond get the education they need to succeed in life."

In addition to a systemwide approach to reform, political and organizational stability and consensus on reform strategies are considered necessary prerequisites for improvement, according to the report from the Council of the Great City Schools and the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, a nonprofit public policy research organization.

The report identified a number of overarching similarities among all the districts that experienced improvement in academic performance. They include:

• measurable goals for the district and its individual schools with timetables for performance;

• accountability systems starting at the top that hold staff responsible for results;

• districtwide professional development for teachers and staff on implementing the curriculum;

• systems for monitoring the implementation of reforms in the classroom;

• regular testing and detailed data to measure progress, assess weaknesses and intervene before students fall behind;

• initiation of reforms in the elementary grades, working up to the middle and high schools; and

• focus on the district's lowest-performing schools and groups.

The Council of the Great City Schools will share its findings with other urban school districts to help them create their own strategies for improving student achievement. A copy of the report is available at www.cgcs.org/reports/ Foundations.html or by contacting the council at 202/293-3427.

Opportunity to visit schools in Japan

The 2003 Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program (FMF) competition is under way. This year, the program will give another 600 U.S. primary and secondary school teachers and administrators the opportunity to travel to Japan and study the Japanese culture and education system. Participants attend seminars hosted by government and educational leaders, tour cultural sites and visit local schools and teachers' colleges to meet with teachers and students. Sponsored by the government of Japan, FMF has thus far enabled 3,100 educators to take part in a fully funded three-week study visit to Japan. In addition to overall professional qualifications, a primary factor in selecting program participants is the applicants' ability to share what they have learned about Japan with students and colleagues upon returning to the United States. Interested individuals may apply online at www.iie.org/pgms/fmf or request an application packet by calling the Institute of International Education at 888/527-2636. The application deadline is Dec. 10, 2002.

Copyright by the American Federation of Teachers, AFL•CIO. All rights reserved. Photographs
and illustrations, as well as text, cannot be used without permission from the AFT.