Western High School (pseudonym) educates over 2,000 students, 60% of whom qualify for free lunch. West is somewhat unique in that it is geographically isolated from any major city, but to educate the diverse student population with more than 40% of students are homeless and living in cars, tents, or on the street, 23% were identified as having a disability, a 93% were identified as Latino, African American, Asian / Pacific Islander, or Native American peoples. In the nearby town, people speak negatively about the school population, as is well known for its violence, illicit drug use, gang activity, pregnancy, and other indicators of urban stress. In 2002, only 12% of Western students scored advanced or expert on the state assessments in reading. As a result, the school improvement program at level 5, the highest level, when we began our rad.Mature rate for the West during those years was 67 %.
for two years before our visit, the West focused on the creation of small learning communities (SLCS) in specific career paths (business, tourism, health, etc.). This initiative led to the school district as a result of federal grant podrške.Glavni reported spending almost every minute on the professional development of this initiative, "arguing about who goes where." However, as a history teacher told us after the meeting, "We have spent the last two years rearranging Titanic deck chairs." West's career academies in place, but this effort and is not in itself result in improved student achievement. Before our visit, teachers were told that the school faced state sanctions, including the regular curriculum imposed on classroom control.
In contrast to our previous work with the neighborhood school, visit the western required six to seven hours to change. This represents a unique opportunity to test our ideas about establishing a school wide literacy plan based on local capacity needed for long-term change. Given that we will be involved in ongoing professional development, coaching, and technical assistance designed to improve student achievement, and that we, of course, the midcourse corrections in our recommendations to the school, the most appropriate methodology for this study was a formative experiment (Reinking and , Bradley, 2007 ).
Formative experiments have been used to study the involvement in the reading of the beginning English language learners (Ivey and Broaddus, 2007), the use of computers affect reading and writing (Reinking and Pickle, 1993), vocabulary learning (Baumann, Ware, and Edwards , 2007), and the effectiveness of cognitive strategy instruction for Latina / o readers (Jimenez, 1997). Western High School provides a unique opportunity to document and study the whole school changes as teachers tried to increase student achievement.
Formative experiments allow inquiry and research using both qualitative and quantitative traditions. Formative experiments focus on what is needed to achieve the pedagogical objectives, as well as factors that inhibit or enhance the effectiveness of intervention. Our study borrows from the procedures as specified by Reinking and Watkins (1998) in an attempt to develop, improve, and validate interventions designed to increase student achievement in school weak. These six cases are as follows.