The Case for District-based Reform

Supovitz (U. of Pennsylvania and Consortium for Policy Research in Education) describes the role of the school district in educational reform by tracing the efforts of the Duval County School District in Florida to improve teaching and learning and show how the school district in general can be redefined. Chapters are organized by ideas: developing a specific vision, building the commitment and capacity of employees, constructing mechanisms to provide data to inform practices and monitor implementation, and developing methods for ongoing refinements. Supovitz's research, spanning 1999 to 2005, is based on interviews with teachers, school leaders, and district officials; annual survey data of principals; observations; annual analyses of performance results; and district policy documents and newspaper reports. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Jonathan A. Supovitz is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and a senior researcher at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education.