Having trouble viewing a PDF file? You may need to download the latest Adobe Reader available FREE from the following site.
Adobe Acrobat Reader Official Download
Comprehensive Whole School Reform
Students graduating in the 21st Century need knowledge and skills that the current factory model of schooling is simply not designed to deliver. Piecemeal, fragmented approaches to reform are not powerful enough to create and sustain high performing schools that meet the needs of all students. Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) models inspire and guide coherent improvements across all of the interconnected dimensions of school life that shape students’ learning experiences. Innovations in leadership, school organization, curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development provide educators with the tools and supports they need to identify student needs, close skill gaps, make learning engaging and relevant, and ensure all students are prepared for college and career. CSR also support meaningful involvement of family, community, and business leaders, extending educational supports and opportunities for students beyond the school walls. Schools can realize dramatic gains in student engagement, achievement, and advancement through strong implementation of comprehensive, evidence-based reforms.
Talent Development High Schools
Talent Development High Schools is a school wide reform model, developed for schools experiencing serious problems with student attendance and discipline, poor academic achievement and low graduation rates. Through organizational, instructional and curricular reforms, it aims to transform low-performing schools into nurturing learning communities.
Visit Talent Development High Schools online.
Talent Development Middle Grades
The Talent Development Middle Grades program provides research-based, standards-based instructional programs, extensive teacher support and professional development and innovative approaches to school organization and staffing that can greatly increase students’ efforts and teachers’ effectiveness.
Visit Talent Development Middle Grades online.
MDRC Report on Talent Development High Schools
MDRC, a nonpartisan, nonprofit education and social policy research organization, conducted
an independent, third-party evaluation of Talent Development. This rigorous evaluation
focuses on the first five high schools to begin using the model in the School District of Philadelphia.
The evaluation follows 20 cohorts of ninth-grade students for up to four years of high
school using a comparative interrupted time series research design.
Key Findings
• Talent Development produced substantial gains in attendance, academic
course credits earned, and promotion rates during students’ first year of high
school. These impacts emerged in the first year of implementation and were reproduced as the model was extended to other schools in the district and as subsequent
cohorts of students entered the ninth grade.
• Talent Development’s strong positive impacts during the first year of high
school are consistent with the model’s intensive initial focus on the ninth
grade and its emphasis on combining high-quality curricular and instructional enhancements
with pervasive structural reforms aimed at building supportive and
personalized learning environments.
• The improvements in credits earned and promotion rates for ninth-graders
were sustained as students moved through high school. Improvements in student
performance on the eleventh-grade state standards assessment began to
emerge for later cohorts of students as the most intensive components of the model
were extended beyond the ninth grade. There are also early indications that Talent
Development is improving graduation rates.
Download the full report (135pp PDF) here or view it online here.