A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Introduction

A New Vision of Schoolwide Programs

Schoolwide programs are the centerpiece of a twenty-first century vision of education for students who attend schools in the nation's highest poverty communities. Using a schoolwide approach, schools serving high concentrations of students in poor communities can pursue ambitious educational reforms by combining resources from Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education and funds from other federal, state, and local education programs to implement comprehensive whole school reform(s).

While schoolwide programs have been part of ESEA since 1978, reauthorization under the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) vastly increased the flexibility for using federal funds in schools serving at least 50 percent of students in poverty. Now, as long as a schoolwide program meets the legislative intent and purposes of each combined federal program, it is no longer necessary to account for and use funds separately for specific school programs or groups of children. Significantly, the federal government no longer requires budget sources to be tracked by schoolwide programs for funds that are combined, thereby providing wide latitude for full collaboration across programs, irrespective of their funding source or sponsor.

Through whole school reforms, teachers in schoolwide programs adopt research-based instructional practices that offer all children high-quality learning opportunities.

In response to the opportunities provided by ESEA after 1994, states and districts have revised their curricula to provide students with the quality of education that will enable them to meet challenging, grade-level academic standards. In response, changes are occurring within schools as well. Teachers are taking the lead to renew and enhance their professional skills according to plans they define and in programs they coordinate. Using instructional practices based on current research, they are offering higher-quality teaching and learning. Upgraded and innovative technological resources are bringing the world outside of school into classrooms, providing students with tools for testing and demonstrating their thinking in new ways. Parents and community members are becoming teaching partners, assisting in classrooms, tutoring in before- and after-school programs, and supporting students who are making the transition from school to work.

Schools in high-poverty communities have responded to state initiatives and to ESEA by creating new blueprints for comprehensive improvement. Plans—designed over a year-long period by schoolwide teams—are the basis for restructuring teaching and learning so that every student benefits from using the varied resources in their schools. Over a several-year period, teaching becomes more collaborative and active; narrowly conceived tests for measuring academic progress are replaced by a combination of challenging traditional and open-ended assessments; and students demonstrate what they know and can do in a variety of new ways: through essays, stories, and poetry in student-written books; in individually- and group-conducted research activities; and with hand-built and computer-based mathematical and scientific experiments.

Schools in high-poverty communities have responded to state initiatives and to ESEA by creating new blueprints for comprehensive improvement.

How To Use This Volume

The schools profiled in this volume offer new images of how students in high-poverty communities can be educated. These profiles are designed to stimulate thinking, not to prescribe a particular practice or approach; they can be especially useful in promoting a dialogue about the possibilities for school change. Each profiled school took a different path to its successful schoolwide program implementation, and future schoolwide programs are encouraged to find their own paths as well. School teams are encouraged to read what is here, discuss the lessons shared, and select those that are most likely to be successful in their contexts. Contact these schools and talk with their school leaders and site-based management teams. Use the latitude available in ESEA to define the mix of programs and strategies that is right for the students your school serves. The planning strategies suggested in Volume I, together with the examples profiled here, offer a new vision of comprehensive school reform that fully embraces the wide-ranging human and fiscal resources available to support learning in high-poverty schools.

Additional information about the materials and strategies that the profiled schools used to upgrade their programs is available at the conclusion of Volume I, in the Tools and Resources sections. In addition, the faculties and leaders in the profiled schools welcome the opportunity to talk with others interested in their approach. Contact information for reaching the schools described in this volume is located at the end of this publication; additional school and district contact names are listed in Volume I.

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[ Acknowledgments ]

[ Promising Practices in Schoolwide Programs: A Summary ]