Finding #8: Most of the programs studied in Special Strategies are continuing to evolve and expand. These systematic self-improvements bode well for the future of school reform.
Reading Recovery is exploring methods of connecting its reading program to whole school reform. The version of Computer Curriculum Corporations software studied in Special Strategies was "Release 14," running on Intel 80286 processor computers. The current version of CCC is "Release 16," running on 80486, Pentium, and Power Macintosh equipment. Other CAI programs have made similar advances. Dr. James Comer, founder of the Comer School Development Program, and Dr. Theodore Sizer, founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools, are both participating in one of the New American Schools (NAS) designs. Their hybrid NAS design is called Authentic Teaching, Learning, and Assessment for all Students, or ATLAS Schools (Orrell, 1996). Similarly, the Success for All staff are involved in a NAS sponsored Success for All extension, Roots and Wings (Slavin, Madden, Dolan& Wasik, 1996). The distributors of the Metra program now prefer to market their materials as part of a schoolwide paired-reading project. By law, all Chapter 1/Title I schoolwide projects re-examine their progress every three years and undertake program refinements based on that self-study.
It is possible that the developments described above are leading to the gradual evolution of better schooling systems for the U.S. If so, that evolution may be the most important trend chronicled in Special Strategies.
