Explore What Works
The following information is taken directly from Donnelley and Lee Library Archives and re-worded here to help explain the EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS RESEARCH, first credited to Ron Edmonds, which identified schools:
► where students mastered the curriculum at a higher rate and to a higher level than would be predicted based on demographics.
► where students showed a steady increase in achievement over time, and the achievement gap between students from low socioeconomic and high socioeconomic backgrounds narrowed.
► where researchers originally found a set of five common characteristics, called "correlates."
Edmonds stated that all effective schools had:
• the leadership of the principal notable for substantial attention to the quality of instruction;
• a pervasive and broadly understood instructional focus;
• an orderly, safe climate conducive to teaching and learning;
• teacher behaviors that convey the expectation that all students are expected to obtain at least minimum mastery;
• the use of measures of pupil achievement as the basis for program evaluation.
Based on these original findings and the further research and experience of others with “effective schools” concepts, Gary Ratner and Monty Neill have put together the Common Elements of Successful Turnarounds. In my own words, they are:
1) Responsible and responsive leadership,
2) Instructional improvement,
3) A broad and challenging curriculum,
4) A school climate supportive of teaching and learning,
5) A system of educational support that is inclusive of family and community – a system that sees both as assets in a partnership to support students.
"We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us; we already know more than we need to do that; and Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven't so far." Ron Edmonds ( 1935-1983 )
► where students mastered the curriculum at a higher rate and to a higher level than would be predicted based on demographics.
► where students showed a steady increase in achievement over time, and the achievement gap between students from low socioeconomic and high socioeconomic backgrounds narrowed.
► where researchers originally found a set of five common characteristics, called "correlates."
Edmonds stated that all effective schools had:
• the leadership of the principal notable for substantial attention to the quality of instruction;
• a pervasive and broadly understood instructional focus;
• an orderly, safe climate conducive to teaching and learning;
• teacher behaviors that convey the expectation that all students are expected to obtain at least minimum mastery;
• the use of measures of pupil achievement as the basis for program evaluation.
Based on these original findings and the further research and experience of others with “effective schools” concepts, Gary Ratner and Monty Neill have put together the Common Elements of Successful Turnarounds. In my own words, they are:
1) Responsible and responsive leadership,
2) Instructional improvement,
3) A broad and challenging curriculum,
4) A school climate supportive of teaching and learning,
5) A system of educational support that is inclusive of family and community – a system that sees both as assets in a partnership to support students.
"We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us; we already know more than we need to do that; and Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven't so far." Ron Edmonds ( 1935-1983 )
