November 1996 Program to Study School Improvement
in Rural Alaska
School improvement efforts in seven rural Alaska school districts will be evaluated for their effects on children, young people, and the communities where they are raised.
The Rural Alaska School Improvement Case Studies Project will focus on a key question in educational reform efforts: What can we learn from reform activity that will help Alaska communities better educate young people? The project will assess the impact of NWREL's Alaska Onward to Excellence (AOTE) school improvement effort in seven districts representing 27 schools. AOTE is a research-based school improvement process that involves school districts working closely with village schools and communities to establish student outcomes and develop school-community partnerships.
A major study issue will be to look closely at AOTE school- community partnerships and document how they actually change the learning environment to create higher levels of student success. "Documentation," notes Dr. Bob Blum, Project Coordinator and Director of NWREL's School Improvement Program, "means learning what has happened in these places to better serve children and young people now and into the next century."
The three-year study will involve local residents trained in data collection and other research activities. The local study teams will work with researchers from NWREL and the University of Alaska to document school/community changes and impacts.
The districts involved in the project are: Southwest Region School District (Dillingham), Yupiit School District (Akiachak), Chugach School District (Anchorage), Lower Kuskokwim School District (Bethel), Yukon-Koyukuk School District (Fairbanks), Klawock City School District (Klawock), and Kuspuk School District (Aniak). The case studies are funded by a three-year OERI grant for $300,000 a
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