The authors conducted a third-party study of the student achievement effects of Struggling Schools, a user-generated approach to Comprehensive School Reform (CSR). The design was a quasiexperimental, pre-post matched sample (N = 180) with school as unit of analysis, drawing on 3 years of achievement data from standardized external assessments.…

We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of Struggling Schools, a user-generated approach to Comprehensive School Reform implemented in 100 low achieving schools serving disadvantaged students in a Canadian province. The results show that while Struggling Schools had a statistically significant positive effect on Grade 3 Reading achievement, d = 0.48…

External diagnosis is recommended when schools lack the capacity to assess their needs. This qualitative study of one Ontario district compared 33 elementary schools that conducted external diagnosis with 47 schools that used internal diagnosis. External diagnosis created pressure for change, helped schools develop a plan that included previously…

We examined how much agreement there was between scores from large-scale mandated assessments and report-card grades for 14,776 students in grades 3, 6, and 9 of a district in which conditions were conducive to alignment of assessments. We found significant mean differences between internal and external assessments: effect sizes were 0.29 to 0.63…

Recent research on effective schools (e.g., Pressley et al., 2001) identified consistent associations between students' literacy achievement and teacher practice. In this study, the author extended those correlational findings by conducting a controlled experiment to test the claims about 1 practice recommended by recent effective schools…

A review of 154 research studies found that mathematics education reform contributed to higher student achievement only when there was substantial implementation of reform. The main obstacle to implementation was teacher beliefs about mathematics teaching. The best method for increasing implementation is sustained inservice teacher education that…

A 4-year study of 9 Ontario secondary schools examined their capacity for change. Change capacity consisted of liberation from structures that inhibit innovation, honoring cognitive dissonance, and forging new relationships. Imposing new organizational structures was less likely to perpetuate change capacity than was a commitment improvement…

This case study of three primary grade teachers investigated how access to computers and math teaching software influenced mathematics education reform. Discusses technology as a strategy for reducing barriers to implementation and reports results that showed technology's impact on helping teachers expand the scope of their programs and promoting…

A case study of district-level factors that enabled eight Ontario secondary schools to assume added administrative responsibilities found that after two years, district-level factors contributing to change were the actions of a steering committee, emerging professionalism in the teacher union, district history, individual personalities, and a…

Investigates the effect of selected personal, school, and district factors on K-3 teachers' confidence in their ability to implement computer-based instruction before and after an infusion of Information Technology (IT). Increased IT resources changed the strength and structure of teachers' confidence. The strongest predictors of confidence were…

Two field experiments were conducted to compare the effects of a cooperative learning group method to a whole-class method on acquisition of selected social-environmental studies problem-solving skills by 342 fourth graders. Both methods outperformed the control, but the cooperative strategy was less effective than was the whole-class method. (TJH)

Meta analysis techniques were used to synthesize research on teaching students how to control variables when designing an experiment. The review included 65 controlled studies. Findings are reported in terms of the influence on effect sizes of characteristics of the study, instruments used, treatments applied, and results' utilities. (SLD)

This study examined the impact of explanation seeking on the achievement and attitudes of students in grades 7-10 learning to solve correlational reasoning problems in a cooperative learning setting. Results provided little support for explanation seeking as an achievement strategy due to students' inability to recognize when they needed help and…

The attempt to integrate school curricula with social concerns is a recurring motif in North American education. Impediments to integration can be reduced by incorporating a cognitive approach to social issues analysis. The approach was tested with 4seven9 grade 7-10 students in two Ontario, Canada, school systems with positive results. (MM)

Data from test instruments developed to measure student progress in a decision-making approach to values education suggest that either current methods of decision-making instruction are ineffective or that the adolescent years are a stagnant period for growth in this domain. (Author/CM)