Susan Bodilly

Presents the findings of a literature review intended to identify and assess relevant issues concerning effective out-of-school-time programs. Presents the findings of a broad-ranging literature review intended to identify, frame, and assess relevant issues concerning effective out-of-school-time (OST) programs. Drawing on recent studies the authors identify and address the level of demand for OST services, the effectiveness of offerings, what constitutes quality in OST programs, how to encourage participation, and how to build further community capacity. They make recommendations for improving the information used in policy making.

After a decade of studies, this report draws together RAND's research on New American Schools, highlighting the organization's significant contribution to comprehensive school reform and noting the challenges that came with implementing whole-school designs. About a decade ago, New American Schools (NAS) set out to address the perceived lagging performance of American students and the lackluster results of school reform efforts. As a private nonprofit organization, NAS's mission was-and is-to help schools and districts raise student achievement levels by using whole-school designs and design team assistance during implementation. Since its inception, NAS has engaged in a development phase (1992-1993), a demonstration phase (1993-1995), and a scale-up phase (1995-present). Over the last ten years, RAND has been monitoring the progress of the NAS initiative. This book is a retrospective on NAS and draws together the findings from RAND research. The book underscores the significant contributions made by NAS to comprehensive school reform but also highlights the challenges of trying to reform schools through whole-school designs. Divided into sections on each research phase, the book concludes with an afterword by NAS updating its own strategy for the future. This book will interest those who want to better understand comprehensive school reform and its effects on teaching and learning within high-stakes accountability environments.

Business leaders created New American Schools, a private non-profit corporation, in 1991 to develop break-the-mould designs for schools serving grades K-12. This report documents the significant changes that have taken place in the designs and the reasons for those changes.

New American Schools was established in 1991 to help schools transform themselves into high-performing organizations. This report is a formative assessment of the first two years (1995-1997) of the scale-up phase, during which NAS partnered with 10 jurisdictions to implement design-based programs for improving student performance. A series of lessons emerged from this analysis: (1) The effort at school reform is complex because of the multiple actors involved. (2) Design teams do not accomplish implementation by themselves but only with the cooperation of schools and districts. (3) Teachers found stable school and district leadership and clear signals about the effort's priority to be important. Perhaps the most important lesson is that there still are no silver bullets for ensuring the implementation of reforms, but several districts have made significant progress in the two-year period.

How does one spread out a successful educational reform? The authors recount the scale-ups of a variety of programs, describing the challenges they faced and the lessons they drew from their experiences.

How has the Collaborating for Education Reform Initiative fared at the sites that have adopted it? 450-character abstract: The Ford Foundation developed the Col aborating for Education Reform Initiative, providing grants to collaboratives in urban settings to improve the quality of teaching. Eight sites signed on, and the Rand Corporation assessed their progress. The authors found that, while none had met final goals, the collaboratives had varying degrees of success and some offered promise. By adopting such techniques as clear communication of expectations and involvement of school staff, collabo ratives stand a better chance of success.