USD President's Report 2004

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new principals versed in the intricacies of the reform movement and lots of professional development fo r teachers.

Like many San Diega ns, Professor Lea Hubbard is vi tally interested in the details of the city's school reform initiative, dubbed th e "Blueprint for Student Success," which aims to remake the local public school curriculum from the top down. Unlike most, Hubbard , through a research proj ect, was able to gain up- close and personal access to those involved during every step of the process. When published , the results of her research likely will set the edu cation community buzzing with its careful documentation o f how th e Blueprint has - and hasn't - succeeded since it was implemented district-wide in 1998. T he Blueprint for Student Success has been controversial since it was introduced by San Diego City Schools Superintendent Alan Bersin . Meant to combat dismal literacy rates and even wo rse test scores, the sweeping reform package has been followed by Hubbard and her team member since its inception in 1998. They've been present at every step o f th e process, exami ning the root causes of tensions that are produ ced when th e ambitiousness of reform outpaces th e capacity of current edu ca tors to carry it out, and when unanticipated politi cal forces impede reform.

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" In many cases, the instructional leaders were learning th e reform at th e same time they were asked to teach it to principals," Hubbard says. "The result was that there were problems w ith (th e principals') depth of knowledge about how best to implement reform. " With so much change happening so quickly, problems were all but guaranteed. "Teachers who had been teaching in isolation were expected to open their classroom doors to supervisors and th eir colleagues," says Hubbard. "Many of them found this extremely difficult." Hubbard and her colleagues - the University of Pittsburgh 's Mary Kay Stein and Hugh Mehan at the University of Cali forn ia, San D iego - set out to ascertain w heth er th e program was fulfilli ng its goal to improve student ac hievement by supportin g teaching and learning in the classroom. Their research focused on six local schools - three elementary schools and three high schools. The key, Hubbard says, was to look at " intersection encounters," such as those that occur between principals and teachers or teachers and students. " I collected wheelbarrows full of data," Hubbard laughs. " It was important th at we be comprehensive, but it was a challenge to organize such vast amounts of information. " N ow that the data analysis is complete, the team members are writing a book about their findin gs that's slated to be published in 2005. T hey hope their study will have real-world implications for theories of school refonn, public policy, and organizational learning. In any case, Hubbard is pragma tic about how lo ng it takes to institute edu ca tional reform.

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" I wanted to understand the rationale," Hubbard explains. " I wanted to see how the Blueprint translated from its roots in N ew York C ity,

to its new implementation in San Diego . Did th e reform propel students fo rward? Did it provide th em with what th ey needed?" Good questio ns. Finding the answers required dedicating years to fiel d research, attending countless meetings and condu cting hundreds o f interviews.

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Key elements in the Blueprint in clude emphasis on literacy and discouragement of so- call ed "social promotio n" - th e practi ce of allowing students to pass th rough school with th eir peers without sa tisfying academic requirements - as well as the introduction o f

"To expect immediate change is unrealistic," she says. "This is what we know about learnin g. It takes time."