Further information about ordering “Minding the Gap: New Roles for School Districts in the Age of Accountability” is available from Sprinboard Schools.
School districts don’t have to be “intractable bureaucracies” that resist reform, because there are many examples of districts that are playing key roles in improving schools, concludes a study of California school districts conducted by Springboard Schools, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that focuses on raising student achievement.
The study included a survey of 115 principals as well as three case studies on individual districts. The results show that successful districts use testing as part of a process of continuous improvement, and those districts place a high priority on professional development. The study also found a balance between centralized and decentralized strategies, and explicit district plans about student learning goals and the strategies used to achieve those goals.
