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http://dspace.udel.edu:8080/dspace/handle/19716/3199
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| Title: | Strategies Used by Four Delaware Elementary Schools to Beat the Odds |
| Authors: | Buttram, Joan L. |
| Keywords: | DSTP
school performance |
| Issue Date: | 15-May-2008 |
| Series/Report no.: | T2008.02.01 |
| Abstract: | This study is the second report on the Beating the Odds Study funded by the Delaware State Board of Education. The study was designed to address two questions:
What Delaware schools are performing at a higher level on the Delaware State Testing Program (DSTP) than would be expected given their student demographic characteristics?
What actions do these schools take that contribute to their higher level of student performance?
The first report, Beating the Odds: A Study of Delaware Schools (Buttram, 2007), addressed the first question; 29 schools were identified from three clusters of schools that serve students from primarily low-, middle-, or high-SES families. This report addresses the second question. It examines the strategies of four schools identified as performing at higher levels than would be expected. All four are elementary schools. One school was drawn from the low-SES cluster, two from the middle-SES cluster, and one from the high-SES cluster. All four schools had impressive records of student performance.
Recent research reports on the practices of successful schools framed the data collection in these schools (EdSource, 2005a, 2006; Herbert, Murphy, Ramos, Vaden-Kiernan, & Buttram, 2006; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005). Particular attention was given to strategies in nine domains, including prioritizing student achievement, implementing a coherent, standards-based instructional program, using data to improve student achievement and instruction, encouraging teacher collaboration and professional development, ensuring availability of instructional resources, enforcing high expectations for student behavior, involving and supporting parents, providing school instructional leadership, and providing district leadership and support.
Eight strategies were identified across the four schools, including setting specific goals by grade level for student performance on the state test, building a common language and framework for instruction, requiring quarterly assessments across all schools, conducting quarterly promotion and review meetings with teachers, expecting principals to conduct weekly walk throughs in all classrooms, supporting professional learning communities at each grade, providing instructional interventions to support struggling students, and scheduling “Data Day” at the end of each school year. These strategies, most likely, could not have been taken without strong school and district leadership and support.
The four schools differed in the intensity or level of commitment to each strategy. Some schools invested more resources in particular strategies than others, reflecting differences in the mix of personnel, students, priorities, and resources assigned to each school. The relative importance of each strategy could not be determined from the data collected in this study; it is likely that the combination of strategies was more important than any single one in these schools’ success. Several of the strategies began at individual schools and spread; others were initiated and fostered by the district |
| URI: | http://dspace.udel.edu:8080/dspace/handle/19716/3199 |
| Appears in Collections: | DERDC Evaluations and Policy Studies
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