The Effect of Comprehensive School Reform On Middle School Achievement

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Introduction Schools with high dropout rates are categorized as underperforming schools. Since a majority of our children, who drop out of school, do so in middle school or the first year of high school and their ages range between 12 and 16 years (Cohen & Smerdon, 2009). It is the inability of many middle school kids to make the transition to high school that contributes to an increase in dropout rates. In order to address under performing schools and the high dropout rates, school reform programs were initiated by federal, local, state governments and many independent organizations. School reform programs were a means to improve student performance in the classroom and show a measured increase in student achievement (Brandlow, 2001) (Erb, 2006) (National Middle School Association, 2003). This Research looks at brief amount of data related to Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) and its effects in a multicultural environment on middle school achievement. The research is intended to assist the reader in determining if CSR effectively contributed more to advance middle school achievement in multicultural and low-income environments than in none multicultural high-income environments. History Any and all attempts to reform our schools require significant funding. Over the years the federal government funded comprehensive reform via various government programs. The 1994 Title 1 reauthorization created the "Title 1 School wide" and that was followed by the 1998 Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program. The most current and now widely known program is "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001. The department of education issued guidance in August of 2002 that defined CSR. It was the belief of the department of education that ... ... middle of paper ... ... A., Ross, S. M., & McDonald, A. J. (2007). Comprehensive School Reform in Middle Schools: The Effects of Different Ways of Knowing on Student Achievement in a Large Urban District. Journal Of Education For Students Placed At Risk, 12(2), 167-183. doi:10.1080/10824660701261128 National Middle School Association. (2003). This we believe: Successful schools for young adolescents. Westerville, OH: Author Shippen, M. E., Houchins, D. E., Steventon, C., & Sartor, D. (2005).A comparison of two direct instruction reading programs for urban middle school students. Remedial and Special Education, 26(3), 175-175-182 Zhang, Y., Fashola, O., Shkolnik, J., & Boyle, A. (2006). Implementation of Comprehensive School Reform and Its Impact on Increases in Student Achievement. Journal Of Education For Students Placed At Risk, 11(3/4), 309-329. doi:10.1207/s10824669espr110304_6

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