This 2011 policy forum proceedings paper highlights the findings from an evaluation of the federal Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program and its implications for school reform policy. Convened by WestEd with the Knowledge Alliance Center for Knowledge Use, the forum specifically focused on how the CSR evaluation findings could inform and improve the federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) program.

Martin Orland, Director of Evaluation and Policy Research at WestEd, presented the findings with four panelists responding: N. Gerry House, a former Memphis superintendent with considerable CSR experience; Christopher J. Steinhauser, Superintendent of Long Beach Unified School District, California’s third largest school district; Frederick M. Hess, resident scholar and education policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute; and Cheryl L. Smith, with Kaplan Inc., and previously a Congressional staff member who had advised Congressman David R. Obey on the creation of the CSR legislation.

Mike Bowler, former Baltimore Sun education reporter and Institute of Education Sciences Information Director, wrote the forum proceedings for WestEd. Discussed during the proceedings were WestEd-commissioned case studies that described what Australia, Canada, England, and New Zealand were doing to improve their own low-performing schools.

Download the full case studies:

• Strategies to Challenge and Support School Performance in the United Kingdom
• Supporting Low-Performing Schools in Ontario, Canada
• Achieving an Education Revolution Through New Federalism in Australia
• Challenges Around Capability Improvements in a System of Self-Managed Schools in New Zealand