|
The LSS Urban Education Enhancement Program
The LSS is involved in a program of development, applied research, and
dissemination to significantly improve this nation's capacity to foster
development and education of children and youth in urban communities. This
capacity-building program for enhancing student success in urban America
represents an intensified focus designed to: (a) put into practice what we
know from research and practical know-how in coherent and practical ways to
significantly improve the education of children and youth in urban
communities; and (b) assist urban communities throughout the country in
scaling up systemic urban reform to ensure high standards of achievement for
every child. In our view, the "next steps" that can significantly impact the
educational success of children and youth in urban environments include
fostering educational resilience, implementing practices that are responsive
to student diversity and resilience development, and forging school
connections with family and community.
Three major projects have been initiated in the area of urban education:
Systemic Reform Led by Local Schools
The systemic reform program consists of four field-based collaborative
projects on the design and study of systemic reforms led by local schools.
The ultimate goal is a systematic database on how to put in place a broadly
framed systemic reform program that is research based and locally initiated
to significantly impact the learning outcomes of children and youth in
disadvantaged circumstances. The program is expected to contribute to a
sustained local capacity for continuous improvement, with the LSS
researchers serving as mentor-disseminators of effective implementation of
proven practices that work for local schools.
Project 7.1.1
The Philadelphia Case Study: Community for Learning Framework: A Systemic
Approach to Creating Coherent and Caring Learning Environments
Principal Investigators: Margaret C. Wang and Rose Shambourger
The Philadelphia Case Study is a collaboration with McMichael School, a
K-8 school located in West Philadelphia and serving about 800 children.
Ninety-five percent of the students are from low-income families.
Implementation of the Community for Learning (CFL) project is a joint
venture of the LSS, McMichael School, and the Community Leadership
Council, which includes representatives from the Mayor's Cabinet on
Children and Families, the Philadelphia Housing Authority, the
Philadelphia Zoo, and various community groups. CF L serves as a framework
for creating coherent learning environments that connect schools to family
and community resources and educational values, based on the CFL
coordinated approach to forging coherent and comprehensive service
delivery. The overall g oal of CFL is the development and implementation
of a family-school-community collaborative improvement effort that brings
people and resources together to achieve a high standard of educational
outcomes for all students. Project 7.1.2
The Penn Hills Case Study: Community for Learning Framework:
A Systemic
Approach to Creating Coherent and Caring Learning Environments
Principal Investigators: Patricia Gennari and Joseph Saeli
Building on the accomplishments of the Penn Hills School District, the LSS
Extension Services located at Penn Hills will collaborate with the LSS
Extension Services at CRHDE in using the Community for Learning framework
as a guide for implementing the systemic reform agenda of Penn Hills. The
general plan to be carried out by the Penn Hills Case Study will closely
mirror that of the Philadelphia Case Study.
Project 7.1.3
The Rural Cluster Case Study: Say YES to a Youngster's Future
Principal Investigators: Ramona Edelin and Kathleen Lins
The Rural Cluster Case Study will consist of a demonstration mathematics
and science program, Say YES to a Youngster's Future (Say YES), to be
conducted in Dorchester County, a rural and largely poor community on the
Eastern Shore of Maryland. The Say Y ES program was developed and
field-tested by the National Urban Coalition in cities across a widespread
geographic region. The Dorchester demonstration provides the opportunity
to examine the differences in requirements, if any, in implementing the
progr am--which was originally developed and has proven successful for
urban children--in isolated rural communities with high concentrations of
children and youth from economically disadvantaged families. The Say YES
program is based on the premise that the l ack of quality mathematics and
science instruction for students of color and poverty is an issue of
foremost importance in public education. The weakness is most acute at the
lower grades (K-6), where capturing the interests and imagination of
youngsters is so crucial. The Say YES curricula are designed to be
inquiry-based, hands-on, cooperative, self-paced activities. Thus, the
overall goal of the proposed project is to test the feasibility of
implementing the Say YES program and to determine what is required for
scaled-up implementations. Project 7.1.4
Professional Development Schools: Communities of Learners, Centers for
Inquiry, Models of Collaboration
Principal Investigator: Brenda Leake
For the past several years, educational reform efforts have called for
extensive and meaningful reform of both teacher preparation and
professional practice. The Professional Development Schools project will
integrate a preservice and inservice delivery system that applies research
that is particularly beneficial to educators working in poor rural and
urban mid-Atlantic communities. Full implementation of the project will
improve the nature of school-based experiences for preservice teachers and
admini strators. The project will provide participating faculty the
opportunity to engage in the following activities: (a) developing
collaborative team structures to permit interactive planning; (b) focusing
on preservice program components to establish the ef ficacy of the teams;
(c) working with staffs to integrate preservice students into collegial
arrangements; (d) encouraging the development of collegial classroom
observation and feedback; (e) providing training efforts characterized by
long-term involveme nt of trainers and opportunities for demonstration and
practice; (f) integrating additional instructional change models with
teacher abilities, preferences, and skills; and (g) evaluating program
components and disseminating information.
Organizing Urban Communities for Systemic Educational Reform
Principal Investigator: David Bartelt
A wealth of previous research tells us that educational outcomes are
embedded in the human ecology of families, schools, and communities--the
latter of which refers to the economic, political, and social dynamics
that accompany access to resources and th e social networks that impact on
schooling success. This program will apply these lessons to the diffusion
of systemic reform efforts, establishing field-based efforts that apply an
ecological perspective to the issue of school change. Key to such a pro
cess is the community education organizer, whose primary responsibility is
to canvass potentially participating communities to help articulate
existing support and needs for a community involved in the school reform
process. The role of the community org anizer is one of mobilization and
organization building, including activities such as assessing existing
community organizations, developing a needs assessment, generating a
formal statement of needs and interests, and establishing links to
institutional sources of support for proposed educational changes.
The Urban Fellows Program
Program Director: William Stull
The Urban Fellows Program is designed to meet three general goals centered
around more specific regional needs. First, the program will further
facilitate interaction and communication within the entire mid-Atlantic
region; second, it will foster connection between the academic community
and practitioners at the grassroots levels; and third, the active presence
of Fellows in the LSS activities will infuse ongoing research into their
institutions and communities, thus expanding the resources available to
the region. Ove rall, the program aims to assist early-career academics to
develop expertise in designing and implementing research-based systemic
reform. To achieve this goal, Fellows will participate in LSS activities
that will increase their knowledge of the critical design features and
implementation requirements of effective school-based programs. There will
be several Urban Fellows during each academic year, to be chosen mainly on
the basis of candidates' proposed plans of study.
|
