Putting It All Together, Part 5
The Nine Components of Comprehensive Reform

The U.S. Department of Education's Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program requires schools to write a reform plan containing nine specific components. A reform plan is not the same as a reform model, though a model may address some of the components. The plan as a whole forms an umbrella for the model and the other components.

1. Effective research-based, replicable methods and strategies—"models"—are at the core of the CSRD program. Reform models should rest on research. For example, Success for All has an intense, schoolwide focus on early literacy. The rationale? Research shows that third-graders lagging in basic skills are more likely than others to drop out later. But a research foundation is not enough. Schools should look for models that can show results. For instance, studies have found that compared to students in control-group schools, those in Success for All schools improved significantly on certain measures of reading performance. Finally, a model should exist in more than theory or an experimental setting; it should be operating in schools like the one writing the plan.
2. The plan must have a comprehensive design with aligned components, not a grab bag of programs and strategies. Models and programs should be consistent with state- and district-level standards and objectives. The plan should show how instruction, assessment, classroom management, parent involvement, and other factors all fit together to support each other.
3. The plan, or the models in it, should provide high-quality professional development—trainings, workshops, and classroom observations that will help teachers improve and enlarge their repertoire of instructional practices.
4. The plan needs checkpoints—measurable goals and benchmarks. For instance, by a certain time a certain percentage of students will meet a specific level of achievement or show a specific degree of improvement in certain skills.
5. A plan is unlikely to succeed without support within the school. Does the staff support the plan? Does the principal have the necessary leadership qualities to implement it? Some developers of models require a particular level of staff approval before they will agree to work with a school.
6. Parent and community involvement contribute to children's success in school. The plan should contain strategies for explaining the reform effort to parents and involving them in their child's academic efforts.
7. Comprehensive school reform is a major undertaking. The school will need external technical support and assistance from outside entities such as the school district, the state department of education, regional educational laboratories, regional assistance centers, universities, or developers of reform models.
8. Is reform occurring as intended? Evaluation strategies will differ depending on which component of the plan is under scrutiny. Methods could include teacher and parent surveys and interviews, classroom observations, focus groups, data from the measurable goals and benchmarks component, review of documents, and rubrics for gauging the quality and degree of implementation.
9. CSRD funds are not enough to pay for school reform and are not intended to do so. The plan must demonstrate coordination of resources—federal, state, and district funds, and private contributions—in support of the CSRD program.

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