Recent Publications by Jolley Bruce Christman
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Making the Most of Interim Assessment Data: Lessons from Philadelphia – Executive Summary
This is the executive summary of RFA’s report, Making the Most of Interim Assessment Data: Lessons from Philadelphia. Under No Child Left Behind, urban school districts have increasingly turned to interim assessments, administered at regular…
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Making A Difference: Year Two Report of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative – Executive Summary
The Executive Summary to the Making a Difference: Year Two Report of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative. This report examines the implementation of the second year of three for the Pennsylvania High School Coaching…
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Promising InRoads: Year One of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative – Executive Summary
Executive summary to the report that examines the implementation of the first year of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative. Funded by the Annenberg Foundation, it is an on-site professional development initiative that employs instructional…
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Capitalizing on MicroSociety: How Students Profit from Real-World Learning
MicroSociety, Inc. (MSI), founded in 1991, has developed a unique and ambitious approach to the learning and development of elementary and middle grades students. It aims to nurture higher order thinking skills, in large part…
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Communicating Evaluation Findings as a Process: The Case for Delayed Gratification
This chapter discusses two aspects of ethnographic evaluation essential to establishing an evaluation process which engages program stakeholders in considering what they are doing and why they are doing it. The authors use a case…
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Blurring the Boundaries: A Case Study of Private Sector Involvement in Philadelphia Public Schools
This article describes the private sector involvement in Philadelphia public schools under the state takeover. This is a case study that focuses on the political and institutional context in which Philadelphia’s Diverse Provider Model has…
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The Five School Study: Restructuring Philadelphia’s Comprehensive High Schools
A study of restructuring efforts implemented in Philadelphia’s comprehensive high schools from 1988 to 1995 as part of the Philadelphia Schools Collaborative funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. These efforts focused on two principal components:…
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Establishing a Strong Foundation: District and School Supports for Classroom Implementation of the LDC Framework
In 2010-11, the LDC framework was piloted in six districts, a teacher network, and a network of schools. In most cases, school districts applied for and received grants to implement LDC; in others, regional intermediaries…
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Developing Communities of Instructional Practice: Lessons from Cincinnati and Philadelphia
Education reformers have increasingly invested in the development of communities wihtin schools as a central strategy to improve teaching and student learning. Two assumptions underlie the push for more intimate learning environments: teachers will get…
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Parent Education in an Urban Neighborhood: An Evaluation of the McKinley Family Center for Child Development
The McKinley Family Center for Child Development, located in a poor multicultural urban neighborhood, is one of several programs in the Philadelphia School District designed to help parents be their child’s first teacher. This report…
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Making A Difference: Year Two Report of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative
This report examines the implementation of the second year of three for the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative (PAHSCI). Funded by the Annenberg Foundation, this initiative focuses on literacy and math coaches providing support to…
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Growing Smaller: Three Tasks in Restructuring Urban High Schools
In this article from Urban Education, the authors offer a framework, derived from five years of research in Philadelphia high schools, to illuminate the vision and labor necessary to make urban high school reform both…
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Establishing a Strong Foundation: District and School Supports for Classroom Implementation of the MDC Framework
In 2010-11, the Mathematics Design Collaborative (MDC) was piloted in four districts and two networks of schools. In most cases, school districts applied for and received grants to implement MDC; in others, national networks were…
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Preparing our Students for the Big Test: Sustaining Test Score Gains Requires Good Teaching, Not Skill and Drill
In this Guest Opinion piece the author addresses a nationwide concern that increased emphasis on high-stakes testing often leads to ‘an impoverished educational program…of skill and drill.’ She points out that in addition to this…
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Supporting Teen Parents and Their Children: Second Year Evaluation Report of Philadelphia Parents as Teachers
A second-year evaluation of Philadelphia Parents as Teachers (PPAT), a support and education program for adolescent parents at two Philadelphia high schools. This report builds on a previous evaluation of PPAT looks at characteristics of…
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State Takeover, School Restructuring, Private Management, and Student Achievement in Philadelphia
Following a state takeover of the Philadelphia public schools in 2002, 45 schools were turned over to private managers, making Philadelphia the site of the nation’s largest experiment in the private management of public schools.…
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Reforming Alone: Barriers to Organizational Learning in Urban School Change Initiatives
A review and synthesis of findings from evaluations of nine separate professional development initiatives implemented in urban schools. This article identifies school and district policies and structures that have the unintended effect of depleting or…
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Capitalizing on Microsociety: How Students Profit from Real World Learning – Executive Summary
The executive summary to the report which evaluated MicroSociety programs in 14 schools around the country. Using both qualitative and quantitative measures, the authors present findings primarily from the third year of their evaluation, while…
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‘I’m No Longer Afraid to Say I Don’t Know:’ Becoming Scientists/Becoming Leaders
An evaluation of the Teachers Leadership Collaborative, a project of the Franklin Institute. Describes how urban teachers undertake an inquiry, hands-on to science instruction and position themselves as teacher leaders to promote and facilitate investigative…
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Student Achievement in Privately Managed and District-Managed Schools in Philadelphia Since the State Takeover
Following a state takeover of the Philadelphia public schools in 2002, 45 schools were turned over to private managers, making Philadelphia the site of the nation’s largest experiment in the private management of public schools.…
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Critical Literacy and School Reform: So Much to Do in So Little Time
Student voices have largely been absent from the development of school reform efforts. This essay argues for the inclusion of these voices, noting that youths often have important insights into efforts to improve their schools.…
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Locating Local Education Funds: A Conceptual Framework for Describing LEF’s Contribution to Public Education
This report presents the findings of RFA’s intitial literature review of research and other writings and documentation on local education funds as well as other education reform nonprofits working within communities at the local level.…
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Learning in the Afternoon: When Teacher Inquiry Meets School Reform
This article, published in Chartering Urban School Reform (Michelle Fine, ed., Teachers’ College Press, 1994) describes the Seminar in Teaching and Learning, a researching community of approximately 35 teachers from Philadelphia high schools who meet…
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Studying Micro-Processes of School-Based Educators’ Use of Data in Cross-School Qualitative Research
This paper was presented at the American Education Research Association’s 2007 annual conference. While there is a great deal of enthusiasm for collection and use of student data by educators, little is known about how…
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The Science Learning Network: An Experiment in Technology, Museum-School Partnerships and Educational Reform
This report is an evaluation of the performance of the Science Learning Network (SLN) during the first three years of its existence, from 1995 to 1997. SLN was a collaboration of six science museums and…
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Schools Examine Test Data to Guide Plans for What to Teach
There is great enthusiasm in Philadelphia and in districts across the country now for ‘data driven decision-making’ – using the information from assessments of student learning to guide plans for what to teach and how…
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The Real Multicultural Curriculum: What Happens When Students Contest Community and Curriculum
This paper, presented at the 1994 Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, considers how the process of creating a student-driven, multicultural curriculum can help address issues of difference and be part of meaningful school reform.…
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Radical Privatization: The Role of School District Leaders as Policy Entrepreneurs
This book chapter focuses on the role of political leadership and entrepreneurship in establishing early legitimacy for and confidence in a reform agenda in Philadelphia’s public school system between 2001 and 2007. The reforms, led…
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Students, Teachers and High Standards Reforms: Negotiating Education Policy, Classroom Practice and Student Outcomes in Philadelphia Middle Schools
In this analytic essay, we argue for research on school reform that positions students at the center of policy and propose directions for future investigation. To date, research on high standards reforms has focused on…
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Crafting a Civic Stage for Public Education Reform: Understanding the Work and Accomplishments of Local Education Funds
This report is based on research focusing on understanding and assessing how Local Education Funds (LEFs)carryout their mission and demonstrate success. It offers a conceptual model for understanding the decisions that LEFs make as they…
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An Evaluation of the Science Resource Leaders Program
An evaluation of the Science Resource Leaders Program, which was funded by the National Science Foundation and administered jointly by the School District of Philadelphia and PATHS/PRISM. SRL sought to train a two-person team of…
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Capitalizing on Microsociety: Making the Most of Whole School Reform, Year Two Report
MicroSociety, Inc. (MSI), founded in 1991, has developed a unique and ambitious approach to the learning and development of elementary and middle grades students. It aims to nurture higher order thinking skills, in large part…
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Small Learning Communities that Actually Learn: Lessons for School Leaders
Collaborative communities of teachers have great potential for bringing about improvements in teaching and learning. However, the authors found in their studies in Cincinnati and Philadelphia that simply creating a community structure is not enough…
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Doing Eve’s Work: Women Principals Write About Their Practice
This article was written by an educational ethnographer and five middle-school principals who met regularly to discuss journal entries about their professional practice. In the article, each principal shares excerpts from her journal and reflects…
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Links to Learning and Sustainability: Year Three Report of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative
Research for Action’s third and final report completes a three-year evaluation study of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative (PAHSCI). This report presents lessons from the PAHSCI model of school-based instructional coaching and mentoring as…
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Privatization ‘Philly Style’: What Can Be Learned from Philadelphia’s Diverse Provider Model of School Management (Updated edition with important new information and findings)
This edition of Privatization ‘Philly Style’ updates the 2005 publication of the same name, providing important new information and findings. Philadelphia’s diverse provider model is an intervention aimed at persistently low-performing schools. It is the…
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Girls in the Middle: Working to Succeed in School
Middle schools are in a position to empower girls through educational reforms that directly address issues of gender equity. This study, commissioned by the American Association of University Women Education Foundation, reports on research in…
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Making the Most of Interim Assessment Data: Lessons from Philadelphia
Under No Child Left Behind, urban school districts have increasingly turned to interim assessments, administered at regular intervals, to help gauge student progress in advance of annual state exams. These assessments have spawned growing debate…
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Lessons from the Keystone Science Network: The Role of Networked Technology in Improving K-8 Science Education
In this report we present findings from three years of evaluation research conducted by Research for Action staff that accompanied implementation of the Keystone Science Network (KSN). During that period, three cohorts totaling 185 teachers…
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Promising InRoads: Year One Report of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative
This report examines the implementation of the first year of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative. Funded by the Annenberg Foundation, it is an on-site professional development initiative that employs instructional coaches using Penn Literacy…
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Taking Stock/Making Change: Stories of Collaboration in Local School Reform
This is a review of three years of collaborative work on embedding systemic assessment and reflection into reform efforts through the Taking Stock/Making Change initiative. TS/MC was a partnership between the Philadelphia School District and…
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CCSS Literacy and Math Tools: An Interim Report on Implementation and Sustainability during the Pilot Year
This document summarizes the findings from the initial round of research on the development and piloting of two types of instructional tools designed to support teachers’ integration of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in…
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The Limits and Contradictions of Systemic Reform: The Philadelphia Story
Evaluation directors Christman and Corcoran summarize the findings and lessons learned from the five-year evaluation of the Children Achieving Challenge reform in Philadelphia under the leadership of David Hornbeck, superintendent, with a particular emphasis on…
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The Role of District Leadership in Radical Reform: Philadelphia’s Experience under the State Takeover, 2001-2006
Clearly, leadership is key in the success of any reform, especially one as ambitious and complex as that in Philadelphia. ‘The case of Philadelphia is noteworthy as an examplar of the implementation of paradigm-breaking new…
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Taking Stock/Making Change: Communication is Key at the Guion Bluford Elementary School
Taking Stock/Making Change is a series of reports generated during a collaborative action research project in which self-study teams from five Philadelphia schools sought to connect self-assessment to school restructuring. The five case studies each…
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Establishing a Strong Foundation: Classroom Implementation of the LDC and MDC Frameworks Executive Summary
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested in the development and dissemination of high quality instructional and formative assessment tools to support teachers’ incorporation of the Core Common State Standards (CCSS) into their classroom…