Date of Award
2013
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Education
Abstract
There is a long history of educational reform efforts in the United States. Current literature on school reform suggests that a comprehensive approach that involves implementing instructional change across many instructional domains is more effective at producing the types of far-reaching improvement desired compared with mono-focal approaches focusing on a single new strategy. This study explored the impacts and outcomes of the Accelerated Schools Project (ASP), America’s Choice (AC), and Success for All (SFA) within the Study of Instructional Improvement (Ball, Cohen, & Rowan, 2010) schools to answer three primary questions: Are student outcomes on TerraNova mirrored by outcomes on Supera (the Spanish language TerraNova test)? How do the three CSR programs compare in terms of how they impact student growth over time based on TerraNova test scores? What are the effects of student- and school-level factors on the outcomes of these comprehensive school reform initiatives? To answer these questions the researcher first conducted a series of t-tests and then built a multi-level growth model. The analyses demonstrated that while it is clear that differences exist between students, the true impact of the CSR programs is more ambiguous. It may be the case that the student- and school-level characteristics, present from the outset, predict academic growth more than actual program participation.
Recommended Citation
Gorsky, Gabriella Silva, "Unpacking the Study of Instructional Improvement: Issues, Outcomes, and Implications of Three Comprehensive School Reform Efforts" (2013). Master's Theses. 1818.
https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/1818
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2013 Gabriella Silva Gorsky
