This ground-breaking text gathers the foremost researchers, scholars, and practitioners to describe and define the new and burgeoning field of improvement-focused educational research and practice. The handbook represents the breadth and depth of improvement-focused educational research and the diversity of improvement efforts underway, covering the historical and theoretical foundations of improvement, the varied contexts of and approaches to improvement, and the designs, strategies, and tools of continuous improvement.

This ground-breaking text gathers the foremost researchers, scholars, and practitioners to describe and define the new and burgeoning field of improvement-focused educational research and practice. The handbook represents the breadth and depth of improvement-focused educational research and the diversity of improvement efforts underway, covering the historical and theoretical foundations of improvement, the varied contexts of and approaches to improvement, and the designs, strategies, and tools of continuous improvement.

One of the great challenges now facing education reformers in the United States is how to devise a consistent and intelligent framework for instruction that will work across the nation's notoriously fragmented and politically conflicted school systems. Various programs have tried to do that, but only a few have succeeded. Improvement by Design looks at three different programs, seeking to understand why two of them - America's Choice and Success for All - worked, and why the third - Accelerated Schools Project - did not. The authors identify four critical puzzles that the successful programs were able to solve: design, implementation, improvement, and sustainability. Pinpointing the specific solutions that clearly improved instruction, they identify the key elements that all successful reform programs share. Offering urgently needed guidance for state and local school systems as they attempt to respond to future reform proposals, Improvement by Design gets America one step closer to truly successful education systems.

One of the great challenges now facing education reformers in the United States is how to devise a consistent and intelligent framework for instruction that will work across the nation's notoriously fragmented and politically conflicted school systems. Various programs have tried to do that, but only a few have succeeded. Improvement by Design looks at three different programs, seeking to understand why two of them - America's Choice and Success for All - worked, and why the third-Accelerated Schools Project - did not. The authors identify four critical puzzles that the successful programs were able to solve: design, implementation, improvement, and sustainability. Pinpointing the specific solutions that clearly improved instruction, they identify the key elements that all successful reform programs share. Offering urgently needed guidance for state and local school systems as they attempt to respond to future reform proposals, Improvement by Design gets America one step closer to truly successful education systems.