The reforms of Philadelphia School District Superintendent David Hornbeck have successfully taken hold in the system, though results won't be known for a few years, according to a report from the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, a part of Penn's Graduate School Education.

At a press conference to announce the findings Sept. 17, CPRE Co-Director Tom Corcoran, the principal investigator of the study, said, "The treatment is in place; it remains to be seen if the medicine works."

Hornbeck's reform, titled "Children Achieving," was begun about 18 months ago. The plan seeks to increase student performance by setting higher standards, increasing parental involvement in schools and reorganizing how teachers and administrators work together.

For the past six months, CPRE staff and researchers at two other Philadelphia-based groups, Research for Action, and the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning, conducted 150 interviews with teachers, parents and administrators at 67 schools in six "clusters" within the district, to gauge how standards, accountability and assessment were being accepted by various constituencies.

"Our interest isn't to say, 'Gotcha!'; it's to offer advice," said Corcoran. When pressed by a reporter at the conference, Corcoran gave the reform efforts a "B plus" so far, but cautioned, "This is a large, complex effort and it's going to take quite a while to determine how successful it's going to be." Corcoran added that the CPRE study was "the most complicated measure I've ever done."

The researchers found the reforms had achieved a measure of success in implementing such changes as the acceptance of standards in curricula for math, reading and science. The report also pointed out that several problems needed to be addressed before further reforms in education could occur. They included:

* The vision underlying the reform was understood and generally accepted among central office and staff members, but was less well understood in the school.

* Responses by schools to reform priorities were uneven

Corcoran said areas that could be detrimental to the progress of Children Achieving were public cynicism about the project and budget cuts in the state legislature. "People want results tomorrow," Corcoran said. "It doesn't work that way. " He also said the state government would have to pay its fair share of funding the school district if it expected the reforms to work.

CPRE, Research for Action and OMG will monitor the reform process for the next five years, and present periodic "report cards" on the progress of the reforms. The work was commissioned by the Children Achieving Challenge, a group that provides support to the School District. The Children Achieving Challenge was created through a grant from the Annenberg Foundation, which provided a $50 million matching grant to the School District. (The group is part of Greater Philadelphia First, a consortium of private and public city institutions engaged in civic activities.)

CPRE is an organization of five research universities that conducts research on education policy, governance, school finance, teacher compensation, student incentives and other issues. Along with Penn , the other members are Harvard University , the University of Michigan, Stanford University , and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Return to Compass Features for September 24, 1996