How Schools Sustain Success

Author: Chrisman, V.
Publisher: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
Publication Date: 2005, February
Journal Volume: 62(5)
Pages: 16-20
Available for purchase online at: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/feb05/vol62/num05/abstract.aspx#How_Schools_Sustain_Success

Abstract (written by WestEd)

In a study by Just and Boese (2002), only 83 of 430 schools that participated in California's Immediate Intervention Underperforming Schools Program met their students' test score growth targets for two consecutive years. This article analyzes the qualities of those schools that were able to sustain change over 2 years (successful schools) against those that were able to achieve growth only one of the two years (unsuccessful schools). It concludes that sustained student achievement seems to be a product of "how well a school operates and depends on the quality of leadership and the effectiveness of instructional programs." To identify what works, the report makes specific comparisons between the two types of schools in the areas of:

• Teacher leadership: For example, teachers in successful schools made teaching and learning decisions; engaged in informal action research; developed their own internal leadership structures; participated in policy and professional development decisions; and participated in weekly collaborative lesson planning.
  
• Principal leadership: Successful schools had the same principal for the last three years; principals of these schools created time and structured support for teachers to collaborate; and they were comfortable using data and making changes when student achievement had not risen.
  
• District office leadership: Unsuccessful schools did not have strong district leadership; successful schools received disaggregated assessment data by teacher and student at the beginning of each term, and their principals received training on data interpretation and usage; successful districts changed their methods of new principal placement and scheduled monthly cohort meetings with the principals of all its state improvement program schools.
  
• Programs and practices: ELL students and those below grade level at successful schools had vastly different experiences than comparable students at unsuccessful students.

Note: This article is available free of charge to members. For non-ASCD members, the full-text article is available for purchase from the ASCD website. Go to the above URL and click on "Buy the Article" (for non-members) or "Read the Article" (for members.)
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Huck Fitterer, Senior Project Director at WestEd comments, "Schools not only need to know how to create change; they need to know how to sustain the change they have created."