School Improvement Efforts Emanating From a Research-Practice Partnership in Rural Schools

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: Critically Reexamining School-Community Relationships in Rural America

Abstract

This presentation describes an ongoing Research Practice Partnership designed to launch an ambitious process of school improvement in two rural districts. A small foundation was striving to fund school improvement that is measurable and sustainable. Knowing the complexity of identifying policies and programs to achieve this goal, the foundation reached out to university partners to guide the process. The university partners sought to understand the experiences of education stakeholders by conducting comprehensive surveys of teachers, administrators, students, and families. Findings revealed some mismatch in the perspectives of stakeholders with respect to the family-school relationship and norms for achievement, as well as challenges related to program commitment. The university partners made recommendations for school change based on the survey data.

Authors

• Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman, University of Virginia

• Lia Elaine Sandilos, Temple University