The Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program was a program administered by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The purpose of comprehensive school reform was "to provide financial incentives for schools to develop comprehensive school reforms, based upon scientifically based research and effective practices that include an emphasis on basic academics and parental involvement so that all children can meet challenging state academic content and academic achievement standards." [1]
The CSR program made its last award in 2005, although it continued to appropriate funds to one school in 2006–2008. [2]
According to CSR standards, a successful reform program is one that includes all of the following elements in a cohesive way: [3]
In order to begin the school-wide reform, in 1977 Congress implemented the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration which reached out to schools that had at least 50 percent student disadvantage and gave them the opportunity to improve to receive program grants. [4] Some of the elements that the CSRD provided were: Professional development for teachers and staff; Greater parental and community involvement in school improvement activities; Identification of resources to sustain the reform effort; measurable goals for student achievement; and annual evaluation of both implementation and student-achievement results. [5]
The four pillars of the No Child Left Behind bill include accountability, flexibility, research-based evidence, and parental options. This bill also requires each state to have standards, and perform state testing under federal requirements.
Created in 1987, the Success for All (SFA) reading intensive curriculum has been adopted by about 1,500 schools. It "includes assessment every eight weeks, cooperative-learning activities among students, tutoring for those in need of extra help, and a family-support team that works to increase parental involvement." [5] This model has also been proven to help students read at an above average rate, at younger ages.
Direct Instruction was developed in 1968. This model consists of "field-tested reading, language arts, and math curricula, scripted instructional strategies, extensive training, and schoolwide analysis of student performance data". [5] Through research, this model has been proven to increase both vocabulary and oral readings.[ citation needed ]
New American Schools is a non profit organization that develops models to be implemented by low performing schools. Their ideas are comprehensive of the whole school system; i.e., rather than raising up just one educator, all educators come together to create a stronger school unit. [6]
Through the Education Performance Network, there are two sets of services: 1. State and District Services, and 2. New School Services. Together they apply four basic components: needs assessment, strategic planning, implementation assistance, and quality assurance and feedback. [6]
Success for All has been implemented in schools in 48 states and 4 other countries (SFAF) and Direct Instruction has been implemented in schools in 22 states, Guam, and Australia. Success with these programs can mostly be seen in elementary and younger grade schools. [7]
Outcome-based education or outcomes-based education (OBE) is an educational theory that bases each part of an educational system around goals (outcomes). By the end of the educational experience, each student should have achieved the goal. There is no single specified style of teaching or assessment in OBE; instead, classes, opportunities, and assessments should all help students achieve the specified outcomes. The role of the faculty adapts into instructor, trainer, facilitator, and/or mentor based on the outcomes targeted.
Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing to beginners. To use phonics is to teach the relationship between the sounds of the spoken language (phonemes), and the letters (graphemes) or groups of letters or syllables of the written language. Phonics is also known as the alphabetic principle or the alphabetic code. It can be used with any writing system that is alphabetic, such as that of English, Russian, and most other languages. Phonics is also sometimes used as part of the process of teaching Chinese people to read and write Chinese characters, which are not alphabetic, using pinyin, which is.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a U.S. Act of Congress promoted by the Presidency of George W. Bush. It reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. It mandated standards-based education reform based on the premise that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals could improve individual outcomes in education. To receive federal school funding, states had to create and give assessments to all students at select grade levels.
Founded in 1920, The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is a professional organization for schoolteachers of mathematics in the United States. One of its goals is to improve the standards of mathematics in education. NCTM holds annual national and regional conferences for teachers and publishes five journals.
In education, Response to Intervention is an academic approach used to provide early, systematic, and appropriately intensive supplemental instruction and support to children who are currently or may be at risk of performing below grade or age level standards. However, to better reflect the transition toward a more comprehensive approach to intervention, there has been a shift in recent years from the terminology referring to RTI to MTSS, which stands for "multi-tiered system of supports". MTSS represents the latest intervention framework that is being implemented to systematically meet the wider needs which influence student learning and performance.
Family literacy is a method of education. Relatively new, family literacy is being put into practice in the United States, Canada, and South Africa.
Inclusion in education refers to all students being able to access and gain equal opportunities to education and learning. It arose in the context of special education with an individualized education program or 504 plan, and is built on the notion that it is more effective for students with special needs to have the said mixed experience for them to be more successful in social interactions leading to further success in life. The philosophy behind the implementation of the inclusion model does not prioritize, but still provides for the utilization of special classrooms and special schools for the education of students with disabilities. Inclusive education models are brought into force by educational administrators with the intention of moving away from seclusion models of special education to the fullest extent practical, the idea being that it is to the social benefit of general education students and special education students alike, with the more able students serving as peer models and those less able serving as motivation for general education students to learn empathy.
Follow Through was the largest and most expensive experimental project in education funded by the U.S. federal government that has ever been conducted. The most extensive evaluation of Follow Through data covers the years 1968–1977; however, the program continued to receive funding from the government until 1995. Follow Through was originally intended to be an extension of the federal Head Start program, which delivered educational, health, and social services to typically disadvantaged preschool children and their families. The function of Follow Through, therefore, was to provide a continuation of these services to students in their early elementary years.
The National Educational Goals, also known as the Goals 2000Act were set by the U.S. Congress in the 1990s to set goals for standards-based education reform. The intent was for certain criteria to be met by the millennium (2000). Many of these goals were based on the principles of outcomes-based education, and not all of the goals were attained by the year 2000 as intended. Many see this as the predecessor to the No Child Left Behind program, which mandated measurable improvement in student achievement across all groups. Goals 2000 established a framework in which to identify world-class academic standards, to measure student progress, and to provide the support that students may need to help meet the standards.
Education reform in the United States since the 1980s has been largely driven by the setting of academic standards for what students should know and be able to do. These standards can then be used to guide all other system components. The SBE reform movement calls for clear, measurable standards for all school students. Rather than norm-referenced rankings, a standards-based system measures each student against the concrete standard. Curriculum, assessments, and professional development are aligned to the standards.
Adolescent literacy refers to the ability of adolescents to read and write. Adolescence is a period of rapid psychological and neurological development, during which children develop morally, cognitively, and socially. All of these three types of development have influence—to varying degrees—on the development of literacy skills.
Inquiry-based learning is a form of active learning that starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios. It contrasts with traditional education, which generally relies on the teacher presenting facts and their knowledge about the subject. Inquiry-based learning is often assisted by a facilitator rather than a lecturer. Inquirers will identify and research issues and questions to develop knowledge or solutions. Inquiry-based learning includes problem-based learning, and is generally used in small-scale investigations and projects, as well as research. The inquiry-based instruction is principally very closely related to the development and practice of thinking and problem-solving skills.
Direct instruction (DI) is the explicit teaching of a skill set using lectures or demonstrations of the material to students. A particular subset, denoted by capitalization as Direct Instruction, refers to the approach developed by Siegfried Engelmann and Wesley C. Becker that was first implemented in the 1960s. DI teaches by explicit instruction, in contrast to exploratory models such as inquiry-based learning. DI includes tutorials, participatory laboratory classes, discussions, recitation, seminars, workshops, observation, active learning, practicum, or internships. Model includes "I do" (instructor), "We do", "You do".
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
Evidence-based education (EBE) is the principle that education practices should be based on the best available scientific evidence, with randomised trials as the gold standard of evidence, rather than tradition, personal judgement, or other influences. Evidence-based education is related to evidence-based teaching, evidence-based learning, and school effectiveness research.
School Improvement Grants (SIGs) are grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to state education agencies (SEAs) under Section 1003(g) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The SEAs, in turn, award subgrants to local educational agencies for the purpose of supporting focused school improvement efforts. In 2009, the Obama administration, and specifically U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, challenged the education community to make the lowest-achieving schools its highest priority.
As an educational reform goal, class size reduction (CSR) aims to increase the number of individualized student-teacher interactions intended to improve student learning. A reform long holding theoretical attraction to many constituencies, some have claimed CSR as the most studied educational reform of the last century. Until recently, interpretations of these studies have often been contentious. Some educational groups like the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association are in favor of reducing class sizes. Others argue that class size reduction has little effect on student achievement. Many are concerned about the costs of reducing class sizes.
Positive education is an approach to education that draws on positive psychology's emphasis of individual strengths and personal motivation to promote learning. Unlike traditional school approaches, positive schooling teachers use techniques that focus on the well-being of individual students. Teachers use methods such as developing tailored goals for each student to engender learning and working with them to develop the plans and motivation to reach their goals. Rather than pushing students to achieve at a set grade level, seen through the emphasis of standardized testing, this approach attempts to customize learning goals to individual students' levels. Instead of setting students to compete against one another, learning is viewed as a cooperative process where teachers learn to respect their students and each student's input is valued.
Positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) is a set of ideas and tools used in schools to improve students' behavior. PBIS uses evidence and data-based programs, practices, and strategies to frame behavioral improvement relating to student growth in academic performance, safety, behavior, and establishing and maintaining positive school culture. PBIS tries to address the behavioral needs of at-risk students and the multi-leveled needs of all students, in an effort to create an environment that promotes effective teaching and learning in schools. Educational researchers such as Robert H. Horner believe that PBIS enhances the school staff's time for delivering effective instructions and lessons to all students.
Data-driven instruction is an educational approach that relies on information to inform teaching and learning. The idea refers to a method teachers use to improve instruction by looking at the information they have about their students. It takes place within the classroom, compared to data-driven decision making. Data-driven instruction works on two levels. One, it provides teachers the ability to be more responsive to students’ needs, and two, it allows students to be in charge of their own learning. Data-driven instruction can be understood through examination of its history, how it is used in the classroom, its attributes, and examples from teachers using this process.