America's Choice School Design Model (ACSD)
ATLAS Communities Model
Child Development Project Model
Community for Learning Model
Co-nect Model
Different Ways of Knowing Model
Effective Schools Model
The Literacy Collaborative Model
Modern Red Schoolhouse Model
Onward to Excellence II (OTE II) Model
QuESt-Quality Educational Systems: Tools for Transformation Model
School Development Program Model
Success for All/Roots and Wings Model
Talent Development Model
Whole School Change Model

AMERICA'S CHOICE SCHOOL DESIGN MODEL (ACSD)

Grantee: National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), One Thomas Circle, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 2005
Project Director: Mary Anne Mays, 202-783-3668, mamays@ncee.org
Total Funding: $2,992,974 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: Based on ACSD-developed performance standards and assessments and math and English/language arts curricula that match the standards, which all students are expected to meet
Population Served: K-12
Model Essential Components:

• Unique standards and assessments
• Intensive professional development for teachers that focuses on concrete classroom applications of general ideas and collaboration

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: Maintain high quality while ensuring that ACSD's burgeoning staff gets the orientation and training it needs to increase the model's capacity for growth

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Create a national staff college at NCEE's Washington, DC headquarters to train new staff who will be working out of new regional offices
• Develop formal certification for NCEE trainers
• Develop course materials and a delivery system for this training
• Assess the model's implementation success in schools and determine ways to improve it

Third-Party Evaluator: Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE)
Number of Sites: 91 schools, a large proportion in New York City; Rochester, New York; Washington, DC; Hawaii, and Jacksonville, Florida (as of Fall, 2000)
Scaling Up: Add 100-150 schools to the ACSD network

ATLAS COMMUNITIES MODEL

Grantee: Education Development Center, 55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA 02458
Project Director: Linda Gerstle, 617-969-7100, lgerstle@edc.org
Total Funding: $2,999,955 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: Internally driven transformation and community building fueled by changes in beliefs, behaviors and relationships and by the Teaching for Understanding framework
Population Served: Pre-K-12
Model Essential Components:

• Teacher study groups dedicated to improving instructional practice
• Curriculum and instruction designed around a teaching for understanding framework
• Variety of student assessments that address rigorous standards
• Strong connections between parents and the professionals who teach their children
• PreK-12 leadership teams equipped to sustain long-term school transformation
• PreK-12 Pathway (feeder pattern) provides coherent experience for each student

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: Improve communication of the ATLAS core philosophy and tenets, evaluate implementation success more clearly and consistently, and create a system that provides ATLAS with feedback on the quality and effectiveness of its services

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Develop materials that help teachers link the curriculum framework with math, science, and social studies around a common set of standards
• Design, pilot and refine a continuous improvement system that includes a data collection and feedback system to better enable grantee and the schools that are using the model to track their progress in implementing the program
• Design regional Teaching for Understanding Institutes and follow-up activities

Third-Party Evaluator: Rosenblum Brigham Associates
Number of Sites: Nearly 100 schools in 13 states across the country (as of Fall, 2000)
Scaling Up: Add 80 schools with regional dissemination strategy

CHILD DEVELOPMENT PROJECT MODEL

Grantee: Development Studies Center (DSC), 2000 Embarcadero, Suite 305, Oakland, CA 94606
Project Director: Eric Schaps, 510-533-0213, eric_schaps@devstu.org
Total Funding: $2,798,800 for 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: A comprehensive, multifaceted school change program that supports students' academic achievement and fosters their social and ethical development
Population Served: K-6
Model Essential Components:

• K-6 literature based comprehension and character building program
• Cooperative learning activities
• Schoolwide and classroom community building activities, including parenting skills
• Problem-solving approach to discipline and classroom management
• Elementary decoding skills program

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: To strengthen the literacy component of the model and build the Development Studies Center's capacity to disseminate the model effectively to greater numbers of schools

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Complete the revision of the K-6 literacy curriculum, enhance the program's ability to serve English language learners, link the program to state standards, pilot the revised program, and conduct a formal outcome evaluation
• Create data collection and feedback systems to better enable the grantee and the schools that are implementing the model to track their progress in implementing the program
• Develop and implement an improved approach to dissemination so that DCS can provide high-quality professional development services and introduce the model to more and more schools

Third-Party Evaluator: John W. Thomas
Number of Sites: 28 schools in 4 states (as of Fall, 2000)
Scaling Up: Add 35-50 schools and prepare to add another 35-50 schools

COMMUNITY FOR LEARNING MODEL

Grantee: Temple University Center for Research in Human Development and Education, 1301 Cecil B. Moore Avenue, 933 Ritter Annex, Philadelphia, PA 19122
Project Director: JoAnn Manning, 215-204-3001, jmanning@nimbus.temple.edu
Total Funding: $2,353,755 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: Unites people and resources to improve teaching and learning, with a focus on urban and rural schools with a high concentration of disadvantaged students
Population Served: Pre-K-12
Model Essential Components

• Holds all students to high standards
• Connected with learning opportunities in varied environments, including the school and community
• Prepares all students for citizenship, careers, and lifelong learning
• Emphasizes safe, disciplined, and drug-free schools
• Professional development support at the school and classroom levels

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: Incorporate advances in research and practical applications to effectively respond to diverse student populations and enhance technical assistance offered to schools

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Recruit and train model implementation specialists
• Upgrade professional development for facilitators and principals
• Train teachers to use coaching and mentoring techniques
• Establish professional development demonstration sites
• Expand technology-based implementation support system
• Refine process used to align curriculum with state standards
• Create a "prescription bank," or information clearinghouse, for teachers to share their activities and approaches to helping students with special needs

Third-Party Evaluators: Kenneth Wong of the University of Chicago and Barbara McCombs of the University of Denver
Number of Sites: 136 schools (as of Fall, 2000)
Scaling Up: Add 6 regional demonstration-professional development centers

CO-NECT MODEL

Grantee: Co-nect, Inc., 1770 Massachusetts Ave., No. 301, Cambridge, MA 02140
Project Director: Bruce Goldberg, 617-995-3151, bgoldberg@co-nect.net
Total Funding: $2,256,729 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Population Served: K-12
Model Essential Components:

• Shared accountability for results
• Project-based learning
• Comprehensive assessment
• Team-based school organization
• Technology integrated into the curriculum

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: Increase the number of rural and isolated schools served, strengthen literacy and mathematics components of curriculum, develop and implement a process to continually assess and improve the model

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Augment technological capacity and infrastructure to increase online services, including the addition of standards for 10 new states and school districts
• Deepen resources provided through online exchange, including diagnostic tools and videos of best practices
• Build two Web sites dedicated to literacy and mathematics
• Employ new data management resources and tools and two outside evaluators

Third-Party Evaluators: University of Memphis Center for Research, Rockman et al
Number of Sites: 135 schools in more than 60 districts in 27 states and the District of Columbia (as of Fall, 2000)
Scaling Up: Add 175 schools

DIFFERENT WAYS OF KNOWING MODEL

Grantee: The Galef Institute, 5670 Wilshire Blvd, 20th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90036-5623
Project Director: Susan Galletti, 800-473-8883 ext. 143, susan@galef.com
Total Funding: $2,997,347 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: Arts-infused, integrated curriculum that is aligned to standards and follows a four-phase model
Population Served: Elementary and middle schools
Model Essential Components:

• Professional development and curriculum tools to help teachers differentiate instruction across a wide range of learning needs
• Expansion and promotion of after-school and summer school programs
• Systemic professional development that is created with the needs of the specific school and teachers in mind and linked to pre-service and new teacher training

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: Develop a data-collection and feedback system, develop processes and materials designed to help staff address the needs of lowest-performing schools, track effectiveness of materials and model

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Create a diagnostic tool to assess school's readiness
• Collect baseline data on attitudes/perceptions, demographics, implementation of the model, and student learning outcomes
• Provide strategies and materials to develop more coaches to serve more schools
• Develop tools and training to meet schools' demand for standards-aligned curriculum
• Create more technological applications for coaches and schools

Third-Party Evaluator: James S. Catterall, UCLA
Number of Sites: 197 schools across the country (as of Fall, 2000)
Scaling Up: Assist 80 new partnerships and 39 others in various stages of development with upgraded technical assistance

EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS MODEL

Grantee: National Indian School Board Association, P.O. Box 790, Polson, MT 59860
Project Director: Carmen Cornelius Taylor, 406-883-3603, carmen_taylor@skc.edu
Total Funding: $1,978,115 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: Provides a framework, aligned with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, that includes a common language and common goals for improvement of Indian schools
Population Served: Tribal schools on Indian reservations
Model Essential Components:

• On-site support
• Continuous training for Effective Schools improvement teams
• Data gathering and feedback

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: Refine and build capacity to use a continuous improvement process, strengthen curriculum and instruction, develop processes to support the lowest-performing schools, develop processes to serve special populations of students, and expand to serve more schools

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Strengthen the curriculum and instruction provided by the model
• Develop processes and materials to better support the lowest-performing schools
• Develop processes and materials to serve special populations of students

Third-Party Evaluator: John Tippeconnic of Pennsylvania State University
Number of Sites: 17 schools in 7 states
Scaling Up: Add 17 schools

THE LITERACY COLLABORATIVE MODEL

Grantee: Lesley College, The Center for Reading Recovery, 1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140
Project Director: Irene Fountas, 617-349-8406, ifountas@lesley.edu
Total Funding: $2,967,690 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: Provides long-term professional development and systemic support for teachers who are helping children learn effective literacy skills
Population Served: Grades K-6
Model Essential Components:

• Literacy as a central focus of schooling
• Long-term professional development
• Schoolwide approach to literacy instruction
• Continuous research and evaluation

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: Expand the current K-2 Literacy Collaborative model to include an intermediate (grade 3-6) component, and develop a district-based model for training primary and intermediate-level literacy coordinators

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Design a research-based Intermediate Literacy Collaborative Framework
• Select and/or develop appropriate materials for intermediate program implementation
• Design and implement a training program for intermediate-level coordinators
• Disseminate the practices and materials developed to other Literacy Collaborative training sites across the country
• Isolate the most essential elements of each phase of the existing literacy coordinator training model
• Develop literacy coordinator training materials to support delivery by district-based personnel
• Train and support, over the course of 3 years, a total of 12 primary-level district-based trainers and 8 intermediate-level district-based trainers

Third-Party Evaluator: Program Evaluation and Research Group
Number of Sites: More than 250 schools and 100 districts (as of Fall, 2000)
Scaling Up: Add 20 schools

MODERN RED SCHOOLHOUSE MODEL

Grantee: Modern Red Schoolhouse Institute, 208 23rd Avenue North, Nashville, TN 37203
Project Director: Sally B. Kilgore, 615-320-8804, skilgore@mrsh.org
Total Funding: $951,998 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: Standards-driven instruction for high-poverty, low-performing schools
Population Served: K-12
Model Essential Components:

• Innovative leadership
• Technological support system
• Instruction geared to different learning styles
• Community and parent involvement

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: Develop a Web-based instructional support system for teachers

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Develop an online instructional support system that provides classroom-tested, standards-based components--assessments, rubrics, examples of strong student work, supporting activities, and content overviews for both teacher and parent
• Develop a full-scale continuous improvement process that will allow adjustments

Third-Party Evaluator: Center of Excellence for Research and Policy on Basic Skills
Number of Sites: 90 schools in 24 states (as of Fall, 2000)
Scaling Up: Add 34 sites

ONWARD TO EXCELLENCE II (OTE II) MODEL

Grantee: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 101 SW Main, Suite 500, Portland, OR 97204
Project Director: Robert E. Blum, 503-275-9615, blumb@nwrel.org
Total Funding: $2,646,458 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: Research-based model for high-poverty, low-performing schools served by a network of six centers
Population Served: K-12
Model Essential Components:

• 2 or more years of training and technical assistance for school leadership team
• A process for goal setting and continuous improvement
• Professional learning communities of teachers, parents, and community members

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: Create a system in which schools, trainers, and regional centers can chart implementation and progress of OTE II schools

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• More systematically track the model in growing number of low-performing schools by establishing implementation benchmarks and measuring progress
• Improve support for teachers, including additional resources to help English language learners
• Continue to invest in regional centers
• Establish a formal certification process for OTE II trainers
• Strengthen OTE II's ability to serve lowest-performing schools

Third-Party Evaluator:Dickson Corbett and Bruce Wilson
Number of sites: 48 schools in 14 states
Scaling Up: Add 29 sites

QuESt - QUALITY EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS: TOOLS FOR TRANSFORMATION

Grantee: Quality Educational Systems, 4 Office Park Circle, Suite 315, Birmingham, AL 35223
Project Director: Diane Rivers, 205-879-9161, sdrivers@aol.com
Total Funding: $930,000 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: Based on the philosophy and belief that school improvement starts with changes in process. The model is designed to improve all aspects of the school environment in an integrated fashion
Population Served: Middle schools
Model Essential Components:

• Total quality leadership
• Customer focus
• Continuous improvement of processes
• Data driven decision making
• Continuous learning environments
• Team leadership/Team membership

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: Increase student learning through curriculum mapping and alignment of language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies with state standards, best instructional practices, and state-level assessments

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Develop and expand MAP-IT's Web-enabled technology to help middle schools in 14 states eliminate knowledge gaps, align curriculum, and implement state standards
• Help schools manage the instructional process by embedding state standards into lesson plans and classroom assessments
• Help schools monitor and align curriculum and instructional practices with state-level, high-stakes assessments

Third-Party Evaluator: T. R. Carr, Southern Illinois University
Number of Sites: 45 schools in 3 states (as of Fall, 2000)
Scaling Up: Add 14 rural middle schools in 14 states

SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (COMER) MODEL

Grantee: Yale University, 53 College Street, New Haven, CT 06510-3208
Project Director: Edward Joyner, 203-737-1020, edward.joyner@yale.edu
Total Funding: $2,575,892 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: To help teachers, parents, and administrators bring about change in schools and districts in high-poverty and often isolating environments that put students at risk. It uses education to break the cycle of poverty and gives students a chance to enter the mainstream.
Population Served: K-12
Model Essential Components:

• Helping schools build trusting relationships among parents, school staff and students
• Promoting a positive school climate
• Enabling schools to focus their attention on improving learning, teaching and children's overall development

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: To strengthen and expand the model's instructional services and improve the effectiveness of program implementation

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Expand model to serve additional rural and isolated areas
• Strengthen the teaching and learning component of the School Development Program
• Refine evaluation systems to promote continuous improvement in the SDP model

Third-Party Evaluator: George Noblitt, William Malloy and Carol Malloy of University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Number of Sites: 400 schools in 21 states (as of Fall, 2000)
Scaling Up: Add 10 new rural school districts and 3 trainers and launch 3 Teaching and Learning Academies for 30 school districts

SUCCESS FOR ALL/ROOTS AND WINGS MODEL

Grantee: Success for All Foundation, 200 W. Towsontown Blvd., Baltimore, MD 21204
Project Director: Robert Slavin, 410-616-2310, rslavin@successforall.net
Total Funding: $2,982,434 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: Improving elementary student achievement in reading and mathematics especially in high-poverty schools
Population Served: K-6
Model Essential Components:

• Emphasis on prevention, early and intensive intervention, and tutoring for students with academic difficulties
• Incorporation of state-of-the-art curriculum and instructional methods
• Emphasis on the integration of phonics and meaning-focused instruction, cooperative learning, and curriculum-based assessments
• Extensive professional development

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: To implement a broad range of improvements in the model's materials and training, all designed to increase school performance on state accountability measures

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Align the model with state standards and assessments
• Develop new kindergarten program
• Improve upper-grade reading program
• Upgrade writing/language arts and mathematics programs
• Develop Leadership Academy program to build capacity of principles and central office staff to support reform
• Upgrade programs for English language learners
• Develop special education manual

Third-Party Evaluator: National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago
Number of Sites: 1,800 schools

TALENT DEVELOPMENT MODEL

Grantee: Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-3888
Project Director: James McPartland, 410-516-8803, jmcpartland@csos.jhu.edu
Total Funding: $2,995,434 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: Helping to turn around low-performing middle schools and high schools that have both high-poverty students and weak learning environments
Population Served: Grades 7-12, especially high-poverty students in urban and rural areas
Model Essential Components:

• Small learning environments with limits on the number of teachers per student and a number of different students per teacher
• Mentor-advising and "looping," where some teachers, or the entire team, remain with the same students for multiple years
• Increased academic time that provides students with a double period of reading, English, and language arts, and extra instruction in math
• Transition courses and extra support for students who are lagging in academics
• Professional development and implementation support strategies through organized planning times and at least 36 hours of curriculum and specific professional development per year

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objectives: Create smaller learning communities through such approaches as career academies; implement high-standards curricula and effective instruction; improve partnerships among schools, parents, and other community members; improve professional development for teachers and school staff

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Expand the Talent Development model's success in building close bonds and caring relationships between teachers, students and families by helping middle schools cope with discipline issues and enhancing high school teachers' efforts to keep troubled students in school
• Strengthen reading and math curricula for the most poorly prepared students
• Increase services to English language learners and special education students
• Investigate the addition of two regional centers for teacher professional development and explore other ways to improve teacher support in different regions

Third-Party Evaluators: Manpower Research Demonstration Corporation and H. Dickson Corbett and Bruce Wilson
Number of Sites: 47
Scaling Up: Add 12 to 16 new sites each year in large districts of several states, including Texas and New Jersey

WHOLE SCHOOL CHANGE MODEL

Grantee: The Boston Plan for Excellence in the Public Schools Foundation, 6 Beacon St., #615, Boston, MA 02108-3810
Project Director: Ellen C. Guiney, 617-227-8055, eguiney@bpe.org
Total Funding: $3,000,000 over 3 years, beginning September 30, 2000
Model Focus: Provides intensive, on-site professional development linked to district learning standards and specific needs of each school's students and has been credited by outside evaluators with changing teacher practice and improving student achievement
Population Served: K-12
Model Essential Components:

• Motivates and supports teachers in improving instruction
• Heavy emphasis on professional development

Capacity-Building Project Primary Objective: Establish a district-level focus for comprehensive school reform

Capacity-Building Project Description:

• Strengthen the curriculum and instruction provided by the model, particularly in math and reading
• Align the work of the central office with the supports called for in the CSR model

Third-Party Evaluator: Education Matters and Policy Studies Associates
Number of Sites: 122 schools (as of Fall, 2000)
Scaling Up: An additional 8 schools to encompass the entire Boston school district