Reform Programs Backed by Research Find Fewer Takers

By Debra Viadero

After Congress created a hefty grant program in 1997 designed to encourage some of the nation’s poorest schools to adopt comprehensive, research-proven improvement programs, Robert E. Slavin expected to be deluged with requests.

After all, Success for All, the reform model the Johns Hopkins University researcher had helped develop, had accumulated a long record of studies pointing to its effectiveness. Mr. Slavin figured the program was a prime candidate for program grants.

But the deluge never came for Success for All. Nor did it come, for that matter, for Direct Instruction or the Comer School Development Program or many other national school improvement models that are widely considered to have...