Extending Educational Reform

by Amanda Datnow, Lea Hubbard, Hugh Mehan

In an effort to improve student achievement, thousands of US schools have adopted school reform models devised externally by universities and other organizations. Such models have been successful in improving individual schools or groups of schools, but what happens when educational reform attempts to extend from one school to many?
Through qualitative data from several studies, this book explores what happens when school reform 'goes to scale'. Topics covered
*why and how schools are adopting reforms
*the influence of the local context and wider constraints on the implementation of reform
*teachers and principals as change agents in schools
*the evolution of reform design teams
*the implementation, sustainability and expiration of reform, and its impact on educational change
Each chapter concludes with guidelines for policy and practice.
This book will be of interest to educational leaders and staff developers, educational researchers and policy makers, in the US and internationally.

344 pages, Paperback

First published March 14, 2002

Reviews

[Theresa Leone Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would probably only be interesting to educators, and if you are currently teaching and have been for at least the last seven years, you already know much of what is included, like the country's shift from No Child Left Behind to Race to the Top, the implementation of common core, etc. What the book did not do enough of is critically examine the non-educators who are convinced they know how to 'fix 'the schools, and the influence some of these people, like Bill Gates, have, and what their motives include.