Research and scholarship into educational effectiveness research (EER) is comprehensively reviewed from the UK, The Netherlands, the US, Cyprus, Belgium, Sweden, France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, and other societies, dating from the field's origins in the 1970s. Issues include its history, methodological and theoretical advances,…

Over the last 4 decades, the school effectiveness and school improvement research bases have gained prominence and recognition on the international stage. In both a theoretical and empirical sense, they have matured through a wide range of well-documented projects, interventions, and innovations across a range of countries, describing how efforts…

The authors describe a reform effort in which characteristics derived from High Reliability Organization research were used to shape whole school reform. Longitudinal analyses of outcome data from 12 Welsh secondary schools indicated that 4 years after the effort was initiated, student outcomes at the sites were strongly positive. Additional…

Examines the effectiveness and mobility of two academic year cohorts (1995-96 and 1996-97) of teachers in 37 restructured elementary schools in Memphis, Tennessee, compared with those in 63 nonrestructured schools. Finds significantly greater gains in teacher effectiveness for only one restructured schools cohort (1995-96) compared with the…

Presents the results of a study of student achievement, using a value-added testing technique, after 3 years of Memphis Restructuring Initiative. Findings show positive achievement gains in reform schools compared to demographically similar control schools, though strength of gains varied by type of reform and community poverty levels. (Contains…

Of the four guides to schoolwide reform models (by Herman and others, Northwest Regional Education Laboratory, Robert Slavin, and Margaret Wang and associates), Herman's volume provides the most detailed, scholarly review. Practical information abounds, but more well-controlled and designed longitudinal studies are essential. (Contains 32…

At the 10th International Congress for School Effectiveness and School Improvement, participants noted progress in effectiveness research regarding development of outcome measures, size effects, measures of educational processes, and variables contributing to effectiveness. School-improvement research has focused on schools' status changes,…

This special issue provides diverse data sets on a school-improvement initiative in Memphis, Tennessee. The effort seems unusually promising because of top-down district support for eight separate site-based reform designs, planners' reliance on New American Schools and other familiar designs, long-term data-collection opportunities, accessible…

The Memphis Restructuring Initiative's first-year data-gathering efforts have yielded implications for policy and practice. This article discusses findings and implications in seven areas: opportunity to choose, goals and directions, professional development, "constructivist" teaching and learning, authentic assessment, disjunctures between most…

United States has shown considerable development within the school effectiveness and improvement fields. U.S. effectiveness research is contextually sensitive, small in quantity, and increasingly conducted within a "mixed methods" tradition. There is progress in describing and analyzing teacher and school effects and devising improvement-oriented…

Explores the reasons why this generation's educational reform period is lasting much longer than previous reform periods. Examines several promising programs for improving students' learning. Argues for valid teaching methods and programs and for highly reliable implementation methods. In a high-reliability organization, schooling designed by…