A Framework for Assessing the Growth of the Capacity of a School District for Implementing Elementary Science Education Reform

Authors

Mark St. John, Inverness Research Inc.

Purpose

This framework was developed for the Center for Urban Science Education Reform (CUSER). This framework is intended to provide a set of questions that will review the degree to which and the ways in which a school district is developing the capacities and policies that are necessary to develop and sustain a standards-based elementary science education program. The Framework also:

• Can be used to assess capacity in areas others than elementary science.
  Details the conditions that most influence the probability that a elementary science reform effort will succeed.
• Can be used by outside evaluators to monitor the degree to which a district is making progress toward a standards-based program, or it can also be used by the district itself, as a self-assessment tool and, perhaps more importantly, as a means to promote a dialogue within the district about the status of its current efforts to improve the elementary science program.
• Can also be used to provide a longitudinal view of how the district's capacities for reform are changing over time.

Intended Audience

Evaluators, Elementary Science Reform Leaders, District Administration, Funders, and general public.

Disclaimer

Any and all errors are claimed by the authors of this document, Inverness Research

Date published

October, 1999

Distribution Policy

Inverness Research Inc. grants permission to print and distribute copies.

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