Is installing a "whole school" reform model the best way to turn around a struggling school? Since 1997, Uncle Sam has given U.S. public schools over $480 million to put school-wide reform designs in place through the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program (also known as Obey-Porter). Billions in additional federal funds flow through the Title I program for poverty-impacted schools to implement these models. Today, thousands of schools are using them as their chief reform strategy. But how well does whole-school reform actually work? Where did it come from and just how different are those schools? On January 23, the Fordham Foundation and the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings co-sponsored a forum on whole school reform. Panelists were Gene Bottoms (Southern Regional Education Board), Anne McClellan (Center for Reform of School Systems), Jeff Mirel (University of Michigan), and Mary Anne Schmitt (New American Schools). The complete transcript and video of that event are now available on the website of the Brown Center. Surf to http://www.brookings.edu/Comm/transcripts/20020123brown.htm. An Education Week article describing the event, "Experts Debate Effect of Whole School Reform," is available at http://www.edweek.org/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=20whole.h21. The report that launched it all, Evolution of the New American Schools: From Revolution to Mainstream, by Professor Mirel, published by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in 2001, is available at www.edexcellence.net.
