First Things First seeks to increase student
and teacher engagement and boost academic achievement in low-performing
schools by transforming the school environment through comprehensive
changes in school structure, instruction, and governance.
The program model, which is grounded in both research and
the best practices of schools serving high-risk youth, was
developed by the Institute for Research and Reform in Education
(IRRE) and was initially mounted in the Kansas City, Kansas,
school system. Promising early results led the Office of Educational
Research and Improvement in the U.S. Department of Education
to support the initiative's expansion into 19 middle and high
schools - six additional schools in Kansas City; eight in
Houston, Texas; three in suburban St. Louis County; and two
in the Mississippi Delta communities of Greenville and Shaw,
Mississippi. All these schools are characterized by large
percentages of nonwhite students and students at high risk
of academic failure. The new schools are being phased in over
two years, in two groups.
MDRC is evaluating the implementation and effects of the
intervention Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas sites. This
report covers the first 22 months of the Scaling Up First
Things First project (November 1999-August 2001), a period
that included the selection of these sites and the planning
year for the first group of schools. The report draws on a
combination of quantitative data from staff surveys and qualitative
findings from interviews and observations. Its principal findings
are these:
- Setting up a whole-school reform initiative in multiple
locations required a great deal of the program developers.
Site selection, the provision of technical assistance, the
preparation of background materials, and general troubleshooting
stretched the capacities of IRRE staff and consultants.
- Whether developers should be prescriptive about important
matters or give teachers the freedom to make their own choices
is a difficult decision. But the worst option may be to try
to do both at once. As part of the planning process, IRRE
allowed teachers in the first group of schools phasing in
First Things First to make their own decisions about school
structure. Yet this was a subject about which IRRE held strong
convictions, and it voiced these so powerfully that the teachers
became resentful, feeling that their only real "choice"
was to adopt IRRE's recommendations. Recognizing that it had
made a major mistake, IRRE changed its strategy: For the second
group of phase-in schools, it will specify the schools' structure
in advance; although staff will have choices about other matters,
this will not be one of them.
- As expected, survey findings indicate
that commitment to First Things First was stronger among
teachers who had less experience, teachers who perceived
their principal as being responsive to their concerns, and
teachers who felt that they had played an important role
in decision-making. An unexpected finding was that nonwhite
teachers generally felt more positive about the initiative
than their white counterparts.
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