Students of educational improvement have long puzzled over why some school reform ideas blossom while others wither away. Based on an in-depth investigation by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), this volume looks at what actually happens when externally designed reforms enter into school environments. How and in what ways do reforms change schools even as schools alter the intent of reforms? What motivates school faculty responses and program designer reactions? This book sheds new light on these important questions by focusing on high schools, the sites of the greatest...

The Common Core State Standards are at the center of the latest firestorm in American education reform. But this is not the nation s first torrid experience with standards implementation. In Challenging Standards, Jonathan Supovitz and James Spillane bring together the collective knowledge of top education researchers who have both experienced and investigated education reform challenges in the past. Combining both evidence-based research and applied knowledge, the contributors share with educational leaders their accrued wisdom about implementing standards in classrooms and systems, building...