This article takes its point of departure from recent developments in design-based school reform: design competition, authoritative lists of presumably research-based projects, and forced choice of comprehensive designs, especially by low-performing schools. Data from the implementation reality of four reform projects in 35 schools, as well as other studies, suggest that perhaps expectations of comprehensiveness, robustness, and fidelity, underlying recent developments, need to be reevaluated and synergy effects of design repertoires more consciously used. The authors contend that design cooperation, rather than design competition, may be a more promising leitmotif for design-based educational reform.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bodilly, S.
(1996). Lessons learned. In S. Stringfield, S. Ross, & L. Smith (Eds.), Bold plans for school restructuring (pp. 289-324). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
2.
Bodilly, S.
(1998). Lessons from New American Schools' scale-up phase: Prospects for bringing designs to multiple sites. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.
3.
Chicago Public Schools
. (1997). School probation information packet. Chicago: Office of Accountability.
4.
Clune, W.
(1993). The best path to systemic educational policy: Standards/centralized or differentiated/decentralized?Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 15(3), 233-254.
5.
Comer, J. P.
, Haynes, N. M., Joyner, E. T., & Ben-Avie, M. (Eds.). (1996). Rallying the whole village: The Comer process for reforming education. New York: Teachers College Press.
6.
Consortium for Policy Research in Education
. (1998, May). States and districts and comprehensive school reform. CPRE Policy Briefs, p. 1-1 1.
7.
Elmore, R.
, Abelmann, C., & Fuhrman, S. (1996). The new accountability in state education reform: From process to performance. In H. Ladd (Ed.), Holding schools accountable: Performance-based reform in education (pp. 65-98). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
8.
Elmore, R.
, & Associates. (1990). Restructuring schools: The next generation of educational reform. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
9.
Elmore, R.
, Peterson, P., & McCarthey, S. (1996). Restructuring in the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
10.
Fashola, O.
, & Slavin, R. (1997). Promising programs for elementary and middle schools: Evidence of effectiveness and replicability. Journal of Education for Students Placed At-Risk, 2(3), 251-307.
11.
Fuhrman, S.
(1993). Designing coherent educational policy: Improving the system. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
12.
Hanushek, E.
(1994). Making schools work: Improving performance and controlling costs. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
13.
Hatch, T.
(1998). The differences in theory that matter in the practice of school improvement. American Educational Research Journal, 35(1), 3-31.
14.
Levin, H.
(1998). Accelerated schools: A decade of evolution. In A. Hargreaves, A. Lieberman, M. Fullan, & D. Hopkins (Eds.), International handbook of educational change (pp. 807-830). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer.
15.
Little, J.
, & McLaughlin, M. (1993) Teachers 'work. Individuals, colleagues, and contexts. New York: Teachers College Press.
16.
McLaughlin, M.
(1987). Learning from experience: Lessons from policy implementation. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 9(2), 171-178.
17.
McLaughlin, M.
, & Talbert, J. (1993). Contexts that matter for teaching and learning (Unpublished report). Stanford, CA: Center for Research on the Context of Secondary School Teaching.
18.
Mintrop, H.
(2000). Towards an understanding of school reconstitution as a strategy to educate children placed at risk. In M. Sanders (Ed.), Schooling students placed at risk: Research, policy, and practice in the education of poor and minority adolescents. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
19.
Muncey, D.
, & McQuillan, P. (1996). Reform and resistance in schools and classrooms: An ethnographic view of the coalition of essential schools. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
20.
O'Day, J.
, & Smith, M. (1993). Systemic reform and educational opportunity. In S. Fuhrman (Ed.), Designing coherent education policy: Improving the system (pp. 250-312). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
21.
Olson, L.
(1994a, November 2). Growing pains. Education Week, pp. 28-29.
22.
Olson, L.
(1994b, November 2). Learning their lessons. Education Week, pp. 32-33.
23.
Rosenholtz, S.
(1991). Teachers' workplace: The social organization of schools. New York: Teachers' College Press.
24.
Slavin, R.
(1997). Design competitions: A proposal for a new federal role in educational research and development. Educational Researcher, 26(1), 22-28.
25.
Slavin, R.
, Madden, N., Dolan, L., Wasik, B., Ross, S., & Smith, L. (1994, April). "Whenever and wherever we choose": The replication of "success for all."Phi Delta Kappan, 75, 639-647.
26.
Spillane, J.
, & Thompson, C. (1997). Reconstructing conceptions of local capacity: The local educational agency's capacity for ambitious instructional reform. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 19(2), 185-203.
27.
Stokes, L.
, Sato, N., McLaughlin, M, & Talbert, J. (1997). Theory-based reform and problems of change: Contexts that matter for teachers' learning and community. Stanford, CA: Center for Research on the Context of Secondary Teaching.
28.
Stringfield, S.
, Ross, S., & Smith, L. (Eds.). (1996). Bold plans for school restructuring. The New American School designs. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
29.
Timar, T.
, & Kirp, D. (1988). Managing educational excellence. New York: Falher.
30.
Viadero, D.
(1999, January 20). Who's in, who's out. Education Week on the Web, pp. 1, 12-13.
31.
Wechsler, M.
, & Friedrich, L. (1997). The role of mediating organizations for school reform: Independent agents or district dependents. Journal of Education Policy, 12(5), 385-402.
32.
Wong, K.
, Anagnostopoulos, D., & Rutledge, S. (1998, October). Accommodation and conflict: The implementation of Chicago's probation and reconstitution policies. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, New York.
33.
Yonezawa, S.
, & Datnow, A. (1999). Supporting multiple reform designs in a culturally and linguistically diverse school district. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 4(1), 101-125.
