Evaluation of the Comprehensive School Reform Program Implementation and Outcomes: The Fifth-Year Report
Abstract
"Begun as a demonstration project in 1998 and subsequently authorized as a full program under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the U.S. Department of Education's Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program directed grant funds, through states, to qualifying high-poverty, low-achieving schools. The aim was to help these schools increase the pace and effectiveness of their reform efforts. To qualify for a CSR grant, schools agreed to address 11 CSR components, or requirements. Chief among the requirements was that schools employ a scientifically proven school improvement model shown to have been effective in multiple settings.While nearly 7,000 schools received CSR grants between 1998 and 2006, as documented in this final report of a five-year study of CSR program implementation and student outcomes, just a third of the grantees followed through in using a scientifically based reform model. In fact, as a group, CSR schools were no more likely than comparable non-CSR schools to have implemented the CSR components. Nor did CSR-funded schools demonstrate larger achievement growth than their comparison schools. The report includes recommendations for federal policy and for additional research."
Related Report: Achieving Dramatic School Improvement: An Exploratory Study