Selecting and Implementing Whole School Improvement Models: A District and School Administrator Perspective

As a growing number of schools and districts are found to be underperforming under the requirements of NCLB, school and district administrators are increasingly searching for research-based whole school improvement programs, including comprehensive school reform (CSR) models and education service providers (ESPs), in order to create dramatic changes and improvements within schools. Limited available research on the effectiveness of these models constrains what education consumers know about how a model will meet the unique needs of a particular school. This article reviews the experience of practitioners who have been through the selection and implementation process of whole school improvement models in order to identify emerging themes that education consumers embarking on this process should consider. During the qualitative data collection process for three Comprehensive School Reform Quality (CSRQ) Center reports, CSRQ staff held phone conversations with school and district administrators. The researchers analyzed 86 of these conversations and grouped them into similar topic areas. Common themes emerged for both the selection process and the implementation of whole school improvement models.