When the U.S. Department of Education launched the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program last year, Oregon's 130 lowest-performing schools were eligible for funds. Many, but not all, were Title I schools. Fewer than 40 completed the application developed by Title I Specialist Chris Rhines and her colleagues at the state Education Department. After a year of screening and winnowing, 20 schools made the final cut. Rhines, who oversees CSRD statewide and coordinated the search for suitable schools, talked with Northwest Education magazine Editor Lee Sherman about the challenge of making change on a schoolwide scale.

NW EDUCATION MAGAZINE: What traits were you looking for in schools as you narrowed down the field of applicants for CSRD?

Chris Rhines: We looked for things such as district support, leadership capacity in the building, and some kind of experience with change—some kind of evidence that they have even about making changes in the way they do things in their school.

NW: So they needed to have a certain level of readiness for change in place—to be part of the way along the journey, in a sense.

Rhines: Yes. Some were eliminated because they had no evidence of that at all. We felt that they needed to have such a strong foundation to be able to make CSRD work, and we couldn't spend the year getting people ready for that.

NW: The process of determining which schools can really make deep changes in the way they do things is kind of subjective, isn't it? You're not just looking at scores and objective measures. You're looking at readiness and willingness to change. How do you really get a handle on that?

Rhines: Yes, it was somewhat subjective. Our preapplications were sent to districts (rather than schools). Most district people will tell you, in a closed room, "Oh, yes, that school, that principal, that leadership team, they have the capacity to do it." But the thing we have to keep in mind is that if they had all those pieces in place, they probably wouldn't be consistently low-performing schools. So something was missing.

When we crafted the questions—we only had five questions—we hoped district people would answer them. That's not what happened. I think it's because districts got the application, and it said: "Please talk about the leadership qualities of this principal. What are some examples of leadership that principal has exhibited?" Most district people gave it to the principal and said, "Here, you write this." And they read like resumes, really.

That's why we did the site visit. We spent a half-day in each school we visited, interviewing the principal, talking about things like, "What would you see as the most pressing need for change in your school?" and, "How would you envision getting your staff there?" and "What do you think are the important things?" Really, we were just talking about all the things that we know from research are necessary.

When we met with the entire staff, we insisted that it be the entire staff, including classified staff and parents who were in leadership roles, too. Then we asked staff to do a survey that asked very pointed questions, like, "Does your principal have the leadership capacity?" "What are the strengths of your staff?" And then we scored them and made decisions about what constituted a positive survey and what was a negative. We had to feel that at least 80 percent of the staff were onboard and felt this was something they really wanted to do—and they were willing to work hard. If we didn't have 80 percent, they were eliminated.

There's one school that comes to mind that, when we read the application, the principal received a really high score. When we talked with the principal, we felt really good about it. But then we talked with teachers individually, asking very pointed questions, such as, "Do you think your principal has the leadership qualities to be able to make this happen?" And that's when things started coming out. Some people said, "No, the principal's way too negative and doesn't know how to bring us together" and "There's a lot of infighting on the staff, and the principal doesn't want to battle the thing."

In many schools, it was a new concept to have their instructional assistants involved in that level of discussion and planning. Yet those are the very people who are working with some of the neediest children. And those are the people who may have no idea what's going on in school reform, and they need it the most.

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