S A N D S , B R I C K S , A N D S E E D S : S C H O O L C H A N G E S T RAT E G I E S A N D R E F O R M

A N D R E A VA L L E J O

INTEGRATIVE PROJECT 2ACADEMIC FORUM 2

SCHOOL REFORM• Fundamental change in Practices of

elementary and secondary schools is needed • Time to become more sophisticated and

selective about how reforms are applied to schools • We must learn how to identify the needs of

schools and provide for these needs to result in the greatest good for children

THE PROBLEM OF SCALE

• Teachers must use better methods and materials every day• Change is difficult and expensive and

uncertain • Changes in personnel, funding, district,

state or national policies highly threaten any reform

STRATEGIES

•SYSTEMATIC REFORM•SCHOOL-BY-SCHOOL REFORM

SYSTEMATIC REFORM-

•Government stablishes broadly accepted standards of student performance, therefore rewards those who meet standards and punish those who don’t motivating them to improve and seek for better methods and materials because of the fear of closure if not qualified to compete in the market.

SCHOOL-BY-SCHOOL REFORM-

• designs ambitious models for school reforms and builds networks that offer technical assistance and support from school to school• Deals against the “problem of scale” as its

models can be replicated with international training

MODELS

• Organizational development models- school staffs are engaged in creating a vision and implementing it organized as a group.• Comprehensive Reform models- provide schools

with specific students and teacher materials focused on professional developments, and prescribed patterns of staff, governance ,assessment, and organization.• Single Subject Models- Programs focusing on a

single subject that are often a limited grade span

READINESS FOR REFORM

• The characteristics of reform depend on the characterizes of individual schools. Depending on the resources available some schools are considered as being more ready or less ready for change and most importantly some schools are ready for different kinds of change.

SCHOOL CATEGORIES

• Highly effective schools (SEEDS)- ideally envisioned by the organizational development models • Highly ineffective schools (SAND)- Most of

the time school´s staff feels as it has performed ok and done a good job and require fundamental changes before they can support any type of school change• Schools amenable to reform with help

(BRICK)- ideally envisioned by developers of both comprehensive reform models

• The probability and consequences of attempting the wrong kind of reform in a school vary because of the categories.• Through modest investigation it should be able

to determine the strategy to apply for a certain school

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• 1. Implement state-level reforms around standards and accountability • 2. Fund development and evaluations of well-

specified “bricks” models• 3. help schools make informed choices among a

variety of models • 4. Target funding to adoption of proven practices