Doubling Student Performance: . . . And Finding the Resources to Do It

by Allan R. Odden (Editor), Sarah J. Archibald (Editor)

Overview

"In my work, I see the power of good schools to change young lives for the better almost every day. This book takes us behind the doors of unusually high-performing high-poverty schools to show us how they do it and where they get the funding. The book is a valuable tool for educators who want to improve their results and a reminder to parents and policy makers that we should never expect less."
—Kati Haycock, President
The Education Trust

Radically reform your school and improve academic achievement using readily accessible resources!

At a time when the United States is struggling with far-reaching educational reform, school leaders need a blueprint for dramatically improving student success and supporting those efforts by effectively reallocating and managing available resources.

Doubling Student Performance combines the latest research with the authors′ national study of diverse schools that were able to significantly boost student achievement. Strategies focus on reducing class size, promoting professional development, locating necessary funding, and providing academic support to struggling students. School leaders will find:

• Examples and case studies that include high-minority and high-poverty schools
• 10 key strategies for dramatically increasing student achievement, such as setting ambitious goals and emphasizing a collaborative culture
• Clear steps and specific tools to successfully reallocate resources

This book is a valuable tool for educators and policy makers who understand that reform is only possible when schools have the human and financial resources to do it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452273358
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	01/12/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	184
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Allan Odden is Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; he also is Co-Director of the Strategic Management of Human Capital (SMHC) in public education and Co-Director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE). CPRE is a consortium of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Pennsylvania, Harvard, Michigan, Northwestern, Teachers College-Columbia University, and Stanford Universities. He is an international expert on education finance, effective resource allocation and use, resource reallocation, the strategic management of human capital in education, teacher compensation, school-based management, and educational policy development and implementation. He consults regularly with states and districts on these issues.

His most recent books include School Finance: A Policy Perspective (McGraw Hill, 2008, 4th edition), with Lawrence O. Picus and How to Create World Class Teacher Compensation (Freeload Press, 2007) with Marc Wallace. Other books include Paying Teachers for What They Know and Do: New and Smarter Compensation Strategies to Improve Schools (Corwin Press, 1997, 2^nd Edition, 2002) with Carolyn Kelley; Reallocating Resources: How to Boost Student Achievement Without Spending More (Corwin, 2001) with Sarah Archibald; School Finance: A Policy Perspective (McGraw Hill, 1992, 2^nd Edition, 2000, 3^rd Edition 2004) co-authored with Lawrence Picus; School-Based Finance (Corwin Press, 1999), edited with Margaret Goertz; Financing Schools for High Performance: Strategies for Improving the Use of Educational Resources (Jossey Bass, 1998) with Carolyn Busch; Educational Leadership for America’s Schools (McGraw Hill, 1995); Rethinking School Finance: An Agenda for the 1990s (Jossey-Bass, 1992); Education Policy Implementation (State University of New York Press, 1991); and School Finance and School Improvement: Linkages for the 1980s (Ballinger, 1983).

He was a mathematics teacher and curriculum developer in New York City’s East Harlem for five years. He received his PhD and MA degrees from Columbia University, a Masters of Divinity from the Union Theological Seminary and his BS in aerospace engineering from Brown University.

Sarah Archibald is a school finance researcher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. She has a PhD in educational leadership in policy analysis (ELPA) from the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently holds an appointment as a lecturer in the ELPA department. Her career at the University of Wisconsin began as an undergraduate in political science; she received her BA in 1993. Next, she received a master′s degree in policy analysis from the La Follette Institute of Public Affairs in 1998, and shortly thereafter became a researcher at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at UW-Madison (CPRE). During the past ten years at CPRE, she has studied and assisted in district- and school-level reform, district- and school-level resource reallocation, educational adequacy, professional development, teacher compensation, and most recently, the strategic management of human capital. She helped develop two frameworks for collecting micro-level data, both published in the Journal of Education Finance: a school-level expenditure structure, and a framework for capturing professional development costs at the district and school level. She is the coauthor of the previous edition of Reallocating Resources: How to Boost Student Achievement Without Asking For More, and the author or coauthor of numerous articles on these subjects. Archibald′s passion is participating in research that informs policy. Among other projects, she is now a researcher with IRIS (Integrated Resource Information System), a project funded by IES (Institute of Education Sciences). The goal of IRIS is to help Milwaukee Public Schools create a system for tracking resource data down to the school level so that district leaders can answer questions about what works and use district resources strategically to support higher levels of achievement for urban schoolchildren.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Places That Have Doubled Student Performance
Rural Districts and Schools that have Doubled Perfo
Rosalia, Washington
Abbotsford, Wisconsin
Doubling Student Performance at the Advanced Level: Monroe, Wisconsin
Monroe school district improvement process
Other Rural Examples
Medium Sized Districts
The Madison, Wisconsin Story
Kennewick, Washington
LaCrosse, Wisconsin
Columbus School in Appleton, Wisconsin
Doubling Performance in High Minority, High Poverty Schools
2. The Stimulus for Change and the Educational Change Process
Pressure from Multiple Sources to Improve Student Achievement
Pressure from State-Standards Based Reform
Pressure from District Administrators
Pressure from Within the School
Pressure from the Federal Government
The Large-Scale Organizational Change Process
Laying the Foundation for Change
Creating a New Educational Strategy
Implementation, Monitoring and Continuous Improvement
3. Ten Steps to Double Student Performance
Step 1: Understanding the Performance Problem and Challenge
Step 2: Set Ambitious Goals
Step 3: Change the Curriculum Program and Create a New Instructional Vision
Step 4: Formative Assessments and Data-Based Decision-Making
Step 5: Ongoing, Intensive Professional Development
Step 6: Using Time Efficiently and Effectively
Step 7: Extending Learning Time for Struggling Students
Step 8: Collaborative, Professional Culture
Step 9: Widespread and Distributed Instructional Leadership
Step 10: Professional and Best Practices
Summary and Conclusions
4. Reducing Class Size
Resources at School Sites
Reallocating Resources to Reduce Elementary Class Size
School-Wide Strategies to Reduce Class Sizes
A District wide Strategy to Reduce Class Size in Early Elementary Grades
Summary
5. Finding Resources for Professional Development
Resources Needed for an Effective Professional Development Program
A Professional Development Fiscal and Program Audit
Doubling Performance Districts
Using Extant Professional Development Days Effectively
Planning and Professional Development Time
Summary
6. Funding Extra-Help Strategies
Individual and Small-Group Tutoring for Struggling Students
Extended Time for Struggling Students to Learn the Core Curriculum
Summer School Program Focused on Core Instruction
7. Linking Resources Needed to Double Performance
Finance Adequacy
Approaches to School Finance Adequacy
Evidence-Based Approach to School Finance Adequacy
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"In my work, I see evidence of the power of good schools to change young lives for the better almost every day. This book takes us behind the doors of unusually high-performing, high-poverty schools to show us how they do that, and where they get the funding to support their programs. The book is a valuable tool for educators who want to improve their results and a reminder to parents and policy makers that we should never expect less. "

Kati Haycock

"The authors strike a balance between research-based practices and evidence from real schools. The chapter outlining the 10 steps was especially useful because it allows the reader to take a mental inventory of what he or she already has under way and what may come next. Three additional chapters—on smaller class size, professional development and extra help for students—serve as case studies with the key concept that funding possibilities are endless when you look for them. "

The School Administrator

"This is a must-read book for state, district, and school leaders. It reaffirms the good work that is happening in many, many places in our country and describes the strategies and use of resources that make a significant difference in student achievement. "

Paul Rosier

"This book provides examples of urban, suburban, and rural schools and districts that have doubled student performance. These district and school best practices are chronicled throughout this book and accompanied by a series of ten steps to doubling student performance. The authors detail how the reallocation of time and resources contributed to the doubling of student performance. "

Gerald N. Tirozzi