It’s Good that Some Students Did Well this Year;

Now Let’s Enable All Students to Succeed at School

Current policy and plans for turning around, transforming, and continuously improving schools are too limited because they are focused mainly on improving instruction and how schools manage resources. While there are a variety of student support programs and services, they are marginalized in policy and practice, and they are pursued in piecemeal and fragmented ways. Throughout many years of school reform, little or no attention has been paid to rethinking these learning supports. This state of affairs works against ensuring all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school.

Policy for improving schools needs to shift from a two- to a three-component framework. The third component becomes the unifying concept and umbrella under which all resources currently expended for student and learning supports are woven together. As with the other two components, such an enabling or learning supports component must be treated in policy and practice as primary and essential in order to combat the marginalization and fragmentation of the work. Furthermore, to be effective it must be fully integrated with the other two components. Properly conceived, the component provides a blueprint and roadmap for transforming the many pieces into a comprehensive and cohesive system at all levels.

Moving to a Three Component Policy Framework for School Improvement

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Excerpt from H.S. Adelman & L. Taylor (2011), Expanding School Improvement Policy to Better Address Barriers to Learning and Integrate Public Health Concerns, Policy Futures in Education, 9, 431-436. URL: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/expandingsip.pdf