Naida C. Tushnet et al., WestEd
December 2004
WestEd won the federal contract for a longitudinal evaluation of the "comprehensive school reform" (CSR) program as it re-emerged in the No Child Left Behind Act, though the program's antecedents date to 1998, when "Obey-Porter" funds began to flow, and, arguably, back to the creation of the New American Schools Development Corporation in 1991, when "whole-school reform" reached the national agenda (See here and here). The current program channels money to states to support "comprehensive reform" of selected schools, mainly Title I schools, and sets forth eleven ostensibly research-based elements that these reformed schools are supposed to incorporate. The longitudinal evaluation that Congress mandated is to last three years, so it's unsurprising that the first-year report doesn't say much. In 66 pages, it mainly finds, as expected, that CSR schools are "more likely to include adoption of models and other activities closely associated with research-based models" and that CSR funds are "strongly targeted" to low-performing, high-poverty schools. Mostly, though, the authors say their findings "raise interesting questions." In other words, stay tuned and we'll see whether the WestEd authors have the moxie to answer them - if indeed the program survives at all, it being one of the Bush administration's leading candidates for obliteration in the 2006 budget. Meanwhile you can learn about some differences between CSR and non-CSR schools from this report, which can be found here.
