STATE SERVICES

Developing State Capacity for Systems-Based Reform

State education agencies (SEAs) are in the midst of developing strategies, processes and policies to support district and school improvement efforts, especially among the growing numbers of districts and schools identified for improvement. Developing a statewide system of support to catalyze and support district and school improvement efforts involves leveraging the resources of different state offices (e.g., Title I, Title III, Special Education, School Improvement) as well as institutions of higher education and other statewide resources. As states and districts mobilize to support increasing numbers of districts and schools and strive to align resources and policies, they are finding that historical funding patterns and entrenched bureaucratic norms and structures often impede their efforts at integration (Dwyer, 2005; Lusi, 1997).

Research and experience show that the development of a coherent and aligned system of support is necessary to effectively improve schools, but that there are barriers to creating such a system (Elmore, 2000; Fullan, 2005). Equally challenging is fostering the organizational conditions that promote sustainable school improvement—those that enhance the alignment of structures, policies, roles, and the related beliefs of those individuals working together to support school improvement efforts.

Under the auspices of our grant from the U.S. Department of Education, we partnered with several states in their efforts to assess, analyze, and improve their district improvement strategies and state systems of support. In this work, we developed a variety of organizational assessment and decision-making tools that can help to facilitate the coherence of a SEA's efforts to support effective statewide district and school improvement.

SEA Organizational Assessment >

SEA Strategic Mapping >