School Reform

Comprehensive school reform (CSR) is a schoolimprovement approach, especially for low-performing, high-poverty schools, which involves changes in key aspects of a school, from classroom instruction and management to school governance. Rather than adopt strategies to bring about change in individual components (e.g., implementing an innovative reading program, providing a professional development seminar to teachers, adding a computer lab), CSR is an attempt to move toward an overarching framework that guides curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development, discipline, and other school elements in an integrated fashion (Traub, 1999). The U.S. Department of Education defines CSR on the basis of 11 components (Table 1). A critical feature of CSR (component 11) is the implementation of practices that have been proved to be effective through scientifically based research; that is, the academic performance of students in schools who participate in CSR programs is significantly higher than that of students in nonparticipating schools. The six components of scientifically based research are:

• 1.
  Empirical methods
• 2.
  Rigorous and adequate data analysis
• 3.
  Measurements or observations that provide valid and reliable data
• 4.
  Experimental or quasiexperimental evaluation design, in which schools are assigned randomly to experimental or control conditions and the researcher systematically varies procedures implemented in each school
• 5.
  Replicability
• 6.
  Evaluation by independent expert reviewers