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Moving Toward a Comprehensive System of Learning Supports:
The Next Evolutionary Stage in School Improvement Policy and Practice
School improvement policies, planning, and practices have not been effective in dealing with
factors leading to and maintaining students' problems, especially in schools where large proportions
of students are not doing well. With growing concern about reducing dropouts, closing the achievement
gap, and ensuring all students have an equal opportunity for success at school, pressure is increasing
for expanding the nature and scope of school improvement efforts.
The complexity of factors interfering with learning, development, and teaching underscore the need not
only to coalesce current efforts but to transform them by ensuring school improvement plans encompass
the development of a comprehensive system of learning supports as primary and essential in addressing
the variety of factors that interfere with a school accomplishing its mission.
Evidence from institutional indicators and pioneering work on moving in new directions to enhance student
and learning supports all herald a paradigm shift supporting development of a comprehensive and systemic approach.
At: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/briefs/paradigmshift.pdf
Community Schools:
Working Toward Institutional Transformation
If all youngsters are to have an equal opportunity to succeed at school and in life, schools must move significantly beyond prevailing approaches to school improvement. Needed is fundamental institutional transformation that promotes effective collaboration among schools, families, and communities. Such a transformation is essential to enhancing achievement for all, closing the achievement gap, reducing dropouts, and increasing the opportunity for schools to be valued as treasures in their neighborhood.
Institutional transformation, of course, involves major systemic changes. And, when one of the institutions is public education, the complications stemming from the scale of schooling in the U.S.A. can feel daunting to say the least.
Currently, a number of initiatives are pursuing the goal of addressing what’s missing in prevailing school improvement efforts. One of these initiatives is the Community School movement.
Over the years, Community Schools have sprouted in a rather dramatic and ad hoc manner and now the term has become popular enough that it is being used by more and more sites. With a view to moving forward, it is time to clarify the concept, place it into the context of school improvement and institutional transformation, and do some analyses of what has developed.
At: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/csinstitutionaltrans.pdf
Transforming School Improvement to Develop a Comprehensive System of Learning Supports: What District Superintendents Say They Need to Move Forward
This report stems from our continuing efforts to work with districts across the country to transform how schools (working with families and communities) address barriers to learning and teaching.
We begin by highlighting the importance of adopting a unifying concept for the work and the necessity of reframing how current interventions can be woven together to develop a comprehensive system of learning supports. Then, we report what district superintendents tell us about what would help them in developing a comprehensive system for addressing barriers to learning and teaching at every school. And, as a beginning response to their needs, we highlight a range of resources that have been developed specifically to enhance school improvement policy and practice to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school.
Our intent is to use this report as the beginning of a superintendents’initiative across the country designed to stimulate discussion,sharing, learning, and systemic changes related to new directions for addressing barriers to learning and teaching.
At: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/superintendentssay.pdf
Preparing All Education Personnel to
Address Barriers to Learning & Teaching
As schools, districts, and state departments around the country grapple to prevent and ameliorate the many barriers to effective learning and teaching, there is a growing need to transform policy and practice related to school improvement and personnel development. In this context, a frequently asked question is:
How are pre-service preparation programs for teachers, support staff, and administrators focusing on addressing barriers to learning and teaching?
This new report is designed both to provide a general conceptual overview and a snapshot of practice considerations and concerns. It begins by reiterating the case for why it is essential to fundamentally and systemically transform how schools (working with families and communities) address barriers to learning and teaching. This is followed by a discussion of the general challenges confronting personnel development for education. Then, a synthesis is provided of findings gleaned from the Leadership Institute our Center conducted in June 2008 for representatives from university departments of education. Throughout, the report offers major implications for transforming personnel preparation for teachers, student support staff, administrators, and other stakeholders involved in addressing barriers to learning and teaching. The report is the kickoff for a higher education initiative by the National Initiative: New Directions for Student Support.
At: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/preparingall.pdf
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