Teacher Attitudes

To broaden the scope of effective schools research by including change processes and a wider unit of study, this project investigated three Georgia school districts demonstrating improvements in student achievement for three consecutive years. Research identified these elements: (1) the sequence and influence of events, factorS, and people contributing to improvement; (2) commonalities among districts; and (3) factors unique to individual systems. Selection was based on improved scores on state reading and mathematics criterion-referenced tests by fourth and eighth graders. Researchers interviewed 30 administrators, teachers, and office personnel in each district for 1 hour. Questions concerned opinions about student gains, key events, influential people, school changes, and informants ' changes. Eight categories, reported as common findings, revealed districts ' commonalities: awareness and alignment