District wide reform: one school's view of the language arts implementation process

District Wide Reform, One school's View of the Language Arts\ud Implementation Process attempted to determine if an education reform actually\ud provided opportunities for improvement and leadership. Sixty percent of participants\ud at the elementary school site studied felt this reform has positively affected them as\ud professionals and 45% expressed confidence that, as a result of the reform, their\ud students were developing increased skill and use of English language arts: listening,\ud speaking, reading, and writing. Seventy-two percent of participants felt they\ud understood and valued the role of their literacy coach, a colleague whose\ud interdependent relationship helps them build bridges to better learning.\ud Improvement, rather than just more change, is occurring at the site level and\ud for individual and grade level groups of students and their teachers. Out of this\ud movement, the school site is developing teacher leaders of its own. The school is\ud analyzing student work and evaluating if teaching practices are working. The school\ud as a whole and student learning are improving in measurable and incremental ways.\ud This study gleans insight into this process of improving student learning and provides\ud recommendations to the district and principals for ameliorating the negative effects of\ud the reform implementation process