Comprehensive School Reform

Report

Evidence from the Talent Development High School Model

May, 2005
James J. Kemple, Corinne Herlihy, Thomas J. Smith

Talent Development, a high school reform initiative, produced substantial positive effects on attendance, academic course credits earned, tenth-grade promotion, and algebra pass rates for students in very low-performing schools in Philadelphia.

Report

Creating the Conditions and Capacity for Community-Wide Reform in an Urban School District

November, 2002
Michelle Alberti Gambone, Adena M. Klem, William P. Moore, Jean Ann Summers

Take a look inside the Kansas City, Kansas (KCK) public schools and you will find challenges facing any urban district: insufficient funding, large numbers of at-risk students, declining enrollment and teacher shortages. You will also see teachers working in teams and staying with their students for more than one year, lower ratios of students to teachers in key classes and extra time built into the day for professional development.

Report

Implications for High School Reform
A Commentary from Chicago

April, 2006
Melissa Roderick

In this paper, prepared for MDRC’s 2005 high school reform conference, Melissa Roderick, Co-Director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, contends that the primary goal of high school reform should be to close the gap between the high aspirations of minority and low-income public high school students — most of whom want to go to college — and the low numbers who graduate with the skills they need.

Report

The Effect of Project GRAD on Elementary School
Student Outcomes in Four Urban Districts

July, 2006
Jason Snipes, Glee Ivory Holton, Fred Doolittle

This report describes the effects of Project GRAD, an ambitious education reform that targets high schools and the elementary and middle schools that feed into them, on student test scores in elementary schools in Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; and Newark, New Jersey.

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