| Poor student achievement in American schools, as determined by international rankings in reading, mathematics, and science, and an ever increasing number of illiterate high school drop-outs nationwide, has resulted in tremendous political and public pressure to improve our educational system. With the current impetus for reforming our schools beginning at the federal and state levels, and given that individual school reform efforts have not been able to produce sustainable student improvement overtime, policymakers and scholars, through the examination of exemplary school systems, have come to view district-wide educational reform efforts as the key to large-scale systemic change to buttress America's faltering educational structure.; The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine how a California unified school district and the key instructional leaders within the system worked together to implement district-wide instructional innovation to improve teaching and learning for the students they served. Conceptual frameworks grounded in educational research and four data collection instruments were used to provide a structure for the analysis of data aligned to the five research questions. The study included an examination of the design and implementation of innovations, along with the factors that influenced these efforts, followed by an investigation into the extent of the implementation and the effectiveness of the district in implementing the reform strategy itself.; The practice of having a district-wide mission for "Extraordinary for ALL students while simultaneously closing the achievement gap" coupled with stated beliefs of high standards and expectations, and teacher responsibility for developing intelligence in students, allowed the district to define a common theory of action to achieve district goals. Joined with a philosophy that data would drive decision making, the public disclosure of student performance to set quantitative targets for achievement, and an acute focus on professional development, the district reform effort contained most of the elements defined in research as the components of effective change agents. |
