Implementation In A Longitudinal Sample Of New American Schools: Four Years Into Scaleup,New

About the Author SHEILA NATARAJ KIRBY (Ph.D., Economics, George Washington University) is a senior economist at RAND in Washington DC. Mark Berends (Ph.D., University of WisconsinMadison) is a social scientist at RAND whose areas of expertise include the sociology of education, stratification, organizations, and school reform. CHARLES SCOTT NAFTEL (Ph.D. Program, Political Science, George Washington University) is a research programmer analyst at RAND in Washington DC. Product Description This study sets forth the RAND statistical analyses determining both the areas of significant progress in the New American Schools scaleup of implementation of its wholeschool reform designs, and various other areas in need of additional attention. From the Publisher As a private nonprofit corporation, New American Schools (NAS)began in 1991 to fund the development of designs aimed at transformingentire schools at the elementary and secondary levels. Aftercompetition and development phases, NAS currently is scaling up itsdesigns to form a critical mass of schools within partnering districts.During this phase, RAND's research activities include monitoring theprogress of a sample of NAS schools in seven partnering jurisdictionsthrough the 19992000 school year.This is one in a series of reports aimed at those who want to betterunderstand the burgeoning area of wholeschool or comprehensiveschool reform, and is one of two reports focusing on trends in implementationin a longitudinal sample of NAS schools. This report isthe followon report to M. Berends, S. N. Kirby, S. Naftel, and C.McKelvey, Implementation and performance in New AmericanSchools: Three years into scaleup (2001). This earlier report alsoprovided a look at performance in these NAS schools.Other RAND reports and articles about NAS include:New American Schools' concept of break the mold designs: Howdesigns evolved over time and why, by Susan Bodilly, 2001(MR1288NAS).Implementation and performance in New American Schools: Threeyears into scaleup, by Mark Berends, Sheila Nataraj Kirby, ScottNaftel, and Christopher McKelvey, 2001 (MR1145EDU).'Teacherreported effects of New American Schools' designs:Exploring relationships to teacher background and schoolcontex,' by Mark Berends, Educational evaluation and policyanalysis, 2000, 22(1), pp. 6582.'Necessary district support for comprehensive school reform' bySusan J. Bodilly and Mark Berends. In Gary Orfield and ElizabethH. DeBray (eds.), Hard work for good schools: Facts not fads inTitle I reform. Boston: Civil Rights Project, Harvard University,1999, pp. 111119.Assessing the progress of New American Schools: A status report, byMark Berends, 1999 (MR1085ED).Lessons from New American Schools' scaleup phase: Prospects forbringing designs to multiple schools, by Susan J. Bodilly, 1998(MR942NAS).New American Schools after six years, by Thomas K. Glennan, Jr.,1998 (MR945NAS).Funding comprehensive school reform, by Brent R. Keltner, 1998(IP175EDU).Reforming America's schools: Observations on implementing 'wholeschool designs,' by Susan J. Bodilly and Thomas K. Glennan, 1998(RB8016EDU).Lessons from New American Schools Development Corporation'sdemonstration phase, by Susan J. Bodilly, 1996 (MR729NASDC).Reforming and conforming: NASDC principals discuss school accountabilitysystems, by Karen Mitchell, 1996 (MR716NASDC).'Lessons learned from RAND's Formative Assessment of NASDC'sPhase 2 Demonstration effort,' by Susan J. Bodilly. In SamStringfield, Steven Ross, and Lana Smith (eds.), Bold Plans forSchool Restructuring: The New American Schools Designs.Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996, pp. 289324.Designing New American Schools: Baseline observations on ninedesign teams, by Susan J. Bodilly, Susanna Purnell, KimberlyRamsey, and Christina Smith, 1995 (MR598NASDC).Funding for this research was provided under a contract with NASand was supported by the Ford Foundation and another d