Some school districts that serve large numbers of children from poor families have made substantial gains in student achievement during the past five years. What do these districts have in common?
That question was the focus of a study conducted by Gordon Cawelti, senior research associate for the Educational Research Service (ERS) in Arlington, Va. Before joining ERS, Cawelti was ASCD's executive director for 19 years.
Gordon Cawelti
In his study, Cawelti examined six high-achieving districts with large numbers of disadvantaged students. Among the districts were El Paso and Brazosport in Texas, Twin Falls in Idaho, and an Appalachian district in West Virginia.
One element that these districts share is decentralization. "Site budgeting, site management, working in teams, tying results to people, setting goals, planning for improvement—all that goes right down to the building level," Cawelti said. "And it's not ambiguous."
But a more important common element is alignment between curriculum and assessment. The central finding of his study, Cawelti said, was that all of these high-achieving districts carefully analyze both what topics are taught and how students perform on the tests used to measure what is taught.
"This is maybe the key finding of all of my research," he said. "I didn't find any districts or schools where they weren't quite clear on what was on the test and how the students did on the items on the test."
Educators in these districts examine disaggregated testing data and do item analyses, he noted. "I don't consider that teaching to the test. It's just getting clear on what's to be taught."
Districts that want all students to succeed must also find some way to help students who initially fail to master content, Cawelti added. "I remember my old days of teaching physiology," he recalled. "I'd get to the end of the respiratory system and give a test, and then on Monday we'd start on the circulatory system. I didn't do anything for the kids who still didn't understand the respiratory system." To achieve good results for all students, he said, educators need a daily process by which to meet the needs of students who are at risk of falling behind. (For more information on Cawelti's research, visit ERS at http://www.ers.org.)