The Sustainability of Comprehensive School Reform Models in Changing District and State Contexts

TLDR

The study examines how turbulent district and state contexts affect the sustainability of comprehensive school reform models. The study seeks to determine why some schools sustain reforms while others do not, and how shifting state and district contexts influence reform sustainability. The authors conducted a longitudinal qualitative case study of six CSR models across 13 schools in a single urban district. After three years, only five of the 13 schools maintained moderate to high levels of CSR implementation, while six schools had ceased reform efforts and two had low‑level implementation, illustrating that sustainability varied with each school’s strategy, local conditions, experience, and capacity in response to shifting district and state contexts.

Abstract

This article addresses the sustainability of comprehensive school reform(CSR) models in the face of turbulent district and state contexts. It draws on qualitative data gathered in a longitudinal case study of six CSR models implemented in 13 schools in one urban district. Why do reforms sustain in some schools and not in others? How do changing state and district contexts influence reform sustainability in schools? After 3 years, reform efforts ceased in 6 of the 13 schools studied; two other schools were still implementing reforms but at very low levels. Only 5 of the 13 schools continued to implement their CSR models with moderate to high levels of intensity. Findings show that changing district and state contexts affected the sustainability of CSR models in schools differently depending on each school's strategy for dealing with the changes, as well as their local conditions, experiences with reform, and capacity.