INTRODUCTION

In November 2000, the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory published the results of its annual regional needs assessment. Demographic trends were identified that are likely to have a profound effect on teaching and learning in Northwest schools. Two of the most significant trends are a rapidly increasing diversity in the student population and the uneven distribution and concentrations of poverty (Barnett & Greenough, 2000).

Researchers have devoted considerable attention to how diversity and poverty affect student achievement. Research-based school reform efforts have focused specifically on improving results for low-performing schools with large concentrations of high-poverty students. This research has shown that ad hoc, piecemeal approaches to school reform often fail to provide sustained, schoolwide improvement for these students. In contrast, comprehensive school reform strategies help create high-performing learning communities that raise student achievement.

A survey of recent school reform literature (listed in Resources and References) shows that researchers generally agree on what has turned around low-performing schools. Studies vary in emphasis and scope, and researchers may organize or articulate their conclusions in different ways. Despite these variations, researchers typically cite similar conditions occurring in these schools, including:

• Shared vision of excellence and equity
• Students and staff engaged in learning
• Positive, safe school climate
• Effective, collaborative school leadership
• Adequate resources
• Decisionmaking based on data and research
• Parent and community involvement

In broad strokes, these conditions outline what works to improve achievement results. Educators wanting to put research into practice are also looking for guidance on how to do what works in their schools. In particular, educators want models of successful schools that mirror their own populations and reflect the challenges facing their local communities. Much can be learned from once low-performing schools that have made progress in their comprehensive school reform efforts, especially if their stories are told in a way that resonates with other schools.

To obtain a Northwest perspective on school reform that is informed by both research and practice, NWREL's Comprehensive Center and the educational resources staff combined efforts to showcase Title I schools (schools with above average percentages of low-income students) that have made significant progress toward improving student achievement. Our goal is to spotlight and celebrate the schools' successful comprehensive school reform efforts and share those efforts with other schools that may be facing similar challenges. In doing so, we also hope to add practical insights to the existing school reform literature, providing a regional perspective to school improvement.

We selected the schools by asking state department of education staff members from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming to recommend Title I schools (both schoolwide and targeted assistance) that have made significant progress in improving student achievement and performance during the last three years. While these schools vary in size, grade configuration, low-income percentage, diversity, location, rate of improvement and method of improvement, they all have in common a structure and direction for their school improvements efforts that have been crucial to their success.

Laboratory staff members contacted school administrators at each site to ask what their school community has done to achieve success. Although our questions were shaped by previous research on what works in turning schools around, our goal was not to confirm previous research but to build on it. Thus, we also looked for any approaches or strategies that may be uniquely suited to the Northwest region. We asked to see schoolwide plans, goal statements, achievement data, and any other information that would give us a broader picture of each school. Our staff members were able to visit some of the schools to interview administrators, teachers, parents, and students. Thus, some of the profiles also include observations and comments gathered during site visits.

After the profiles, we discuss seven strategies for school reform that we discovered during our investigation of successful Title I schools in the Northwest region. Not surprisingly, many of these strategies relate to what previous researchers have concluded about the conditions commonly found in high-performing, high-poverty schools. Our discussion uses specific examples and practical insights from Northwest schools to illustrate how these strategies have been used. Implications for policymakers to support these efforts conclude this booklet.

We hope that educators, parents, community members, and policymakers will benefit from these schools' experiences to learn how they can focus efforts to achieve similar successes.