An unprecedented amount of attention in recent years has been focused on turning around low-performing schools. Drawing on insights from Tyack and Cuban's (1995) "Tinkering Toward Utopia," the article analyzes the forces behind the school turnaround phenomenon and how they have evolved since passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. The article…

This article explores the research on turning around low performing schools to summarize what we know, what we don't know, and what this means for scaling school turnaround efforts. "School turnaround" is defined here as quick, dramatic gains in academic achievement for persistently low performing schools. The article first considers the case set…

In this qualitative study, we applied the concept of expert noticing to instructional leadership in high-performing urban schools that attained both excellent and equitable results for the various diverse populations they served. Unlike the overwhelming majority of urban schools in the United States, in the schools we studied, the academic…

Restructuring large schools into smaller, more personalized learning communities focused on developing students academically, socially, and emotionally has the potential to produce better outcomes for students. Although small school reform in large urban high schools has been the focus of the research literature on school reform in the last…

Past research demonstrates the critical role of the context of learning in the achievement of students. This body of work justifies research and development of more contextualized opportunity to learn (OTL) models. We expound on an OTL framework that represents contextual features that can enrich or constrain opportunities for English language…

The Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS) is one of the first urban districts in the country to undertake large-scale high school reform, phasing in small learning communities by opening new high schools and transforming large, comprehensive high schools into small high schools. With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a dozen…

In this article, we report kindergarten student and teacher outcomes from a quasi-experimental evaluation of The Superkids, a systematic, phonics-based, comprehensive K-2 reading program. We recruited 23 kindergarten teachers to implement The Superkids program from a diverse, yet predominantly ethnic minority, group of classrooms from across the…

Fluent oral reading is essential for success in elementary school. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of enhanced reading fluency instruction for struggling readers. The intervention was provided to small groups of students at risk for reading difficulties. Students were assessed on key early literacy skills. Second-grade students…

This study investigated the relationship between health conditions suffered over time and student scores on the Stanford Achievement Test 9 in Yuma County, Arizona, public grade schools. The majority of children in Yuma County were of Hispanic origin. The poverty and low income status of most of these children placed them at greater risk for…

This study examined the development of community involvement in a place-based high school program for at-risk youth. Teachers and community members founded the program to address concerns about low achievement and high dropout rates among Native Hawaiians. In addition to funding, community members provided program development, supervision of…

This research examined the impact of preservice teachers delivering individualized instruction of basic computer skills to at-risk, ethnic minority alternative high school students in an urban school district in South Texas. The alternative high school students' achievement of computer skills, motivation to use computers, and self-efficacy as…

This article provides an overview of the approach, methodology, and key findings from a theory-based evaluation of the district-led instructional reform effort in San Diego City Schools, under the leadership of Alan Bersin and Anthony Alvarado, that began in 1998. Beginning with an analysis of the achievement trends in San Diego relative to other…

As with many districtwide reform efforts, the San Diego reform sought to improve classroom instruction by focusing on building the capacity of teachers. This article examines practices of teacher professional development in the district and their impact on literacy instruction. Through examination of the literature on effective professional…

In a series of reforms started in 1998 and formalized with the 2000 introduction of the Blueprint for Student Success, the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) implemented a wide-ranging series of reforms designed to boost the literacy skills of students. This article provides an overview of the reforms, assesses the contributions made by the…

A core assumption of the San Diego City Schools (SDCS) reform effort was that improved instructional practices, aligned with a balanced literacy approach, would be effective in improving student outcomes. This article explores this hypothesis by presenting findings from an analysis of classroom instruction data collected in 101 classrooms in 9…