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The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of the Arts for Learning (A4L) Lessons Project on the literacy and life skills of students in grades 3, 4, and 5. A4L Lessons is a supplementary literacy curriculum designed to blend the creativity and discipline of the arts with learning science to raise student achievement in reading and writing, as well as to develop literacy and life skills. A cluster-randomized trial was employed, randomly assigning 32 elementary schools in the Beaverton School District in Oregon to receive the A4L intervention or the status-quo control condition. Participants included approximately 5,700 students in the 16 intervention schools and approximately 6,100 students in the 16 control schools. Nearly 40% of the participants qualified for free/reduced-price lunch, approximately 17% were English language learners, and nearly 50% were racial/ethnic minorities. Achievement on the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (OAKS) Reading/Literature test (i.e., the state reading test) were compared for the two groups. Achievement on the Comprehensive Cross Unit (CCU) Assessments (i.e., tests designed specifically to measure the impact of the A4L Lessons Project on literacy and life skills) were compared for a subset of six intervention and six control schools. Results from confirmatory analyses revealed no statistically significant impacts of the A4L Lessons Project on students' achievement on the OAKS Reading/Literature test. The effect sizes based on differences between the treatment and control students on the OAKS Reading/Literature test after one, two, and three years of program participation were very small, ranging from -0.03 to 0.05. Results from exploratory analyses revealed that treatment students in grade 4 scored significantly higher than control students on the CCU Assessment, indicating a positive impact of the A4L Lessons Project on student literacy and life skills. The effect sizes indexing the differences ranged from 0.30 to 0.36 across study years. Results from exploratory analyses using the CCU Assessments with students in grades 3 and 5 did not reach statistical significance, indicating that the A4L Lessons Project did not produce a positive impact on student literacy and life skills in these grades. Further research relying on more dependently sensitive assessments may be needed to better determine the impact of the A4L Lessons on students' literacy achievement. Tables are appended.

This exploratory study describes approaches to improving schools through retrospective, in-depth qualitative case studies. To select schools to be examined, the authors sought to identify Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) schools demonstrating two distinctive patterns of improved student achievement between 2000 and 2005, rapid-improvement (i.e., schools that made quick and dramatic improvements in student achievement over a one or two year time period) as well as slow-and-steady (i.e., schools that made noteworthy student achievement improvements but over a four or five year timeframe). This process led the authors to study 11 schools. This report provides examples of how some schools appear to be achieving noteworthy gains in student outcomes; while achieving these gains appears to be relatively rare, there also appears to be multiple ways to do so. This study points to the dynamic settings in which many low-performing schools operate and the need for ongoing investigation of how schools can achieve impressive results and sustain them in constantly changing environments. Researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in recent years have paid much attention to the scientific search for "what works" to improve schools and turn them around. This study's findings draw attention to the fact that turning schools around is not just about adopting a set of effective or promising practices. It is about recognizing that "one best system" does not exist--that no single approach can guarantee improvement in a particular school. It is also about implementing practices well, while at the same time navigating and adapting to a constantly changing landscape. Appended are: (1) Detailed Methodology; (2) Data Collection Instruments; and (3) Site Abstracts. (Contains 56 exhibits and 32 footnotes.)

Programs serving children and families are funded through countless federal, state, and local governmental channels, as well as through private sources. Every one of these programs contains a unique set of standard rules and requirements about how funds may be used and who is eligible to receive them. Increasingly, policymakers, educators, professional service providers, and advocates have begun to recognize the limitations of such fragmented approaches to the delivery of children's services and have begun to outline new systems of children's support that integrate programs across service sectors into comprehensive, community-based support systems (CCBSS) characterized by a focus on prevention-oriented services and supports, flexibility in supporting the needs of children within the context of their families and communities, a strong community role in program design, implementation, and governance, and a focus on accountability for outcomes. This report is made up of three sections. The first section provides background on the current financing of children's services and supports, discussing the magnitude of public expenditures and public funding mechanisms. The second section, which discusses innovations in financing integrated services, includes private expenditures public financing strategies, decategorization methods, refinancing, fund redeployment, and investments in inter-professional development. The final section discusses the challenges ahead in the areas of management systems, external grant mechanism, and professional development activities. (Contains 25 references.) (ET)

This paper describes some major issues facing federal and local administrators in their efforts to build local capacity in bilingual education through the Title VII grants program. The discussion is developed in three parts: (1) the legislative history of the capacity building mandate in Title VII and the federal statutory provisions shaping this mandate's implementation; (2) findings of earlier studies by the Rand Corporation and the NTS Research Corporation on efforts to institutionalize educational improvements through federal programs; and (3) the issue of capacity building within the specific context of the Title VII program. On the issue of capacity building, the study considers key issues which should be addressed by a department in designing and implementing procedures for application approval, technical assistance, monitoring, and evaluation. It discusses concerns related to building effective local bilingual programs and the programs. Finally, some suggestions from research on institutionalizing educational change are given to provide guidance on fostering legitimacy in local bilingual programming. (AMH)