Coherent district reform: A case study of two California school districts

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to enhance our understanding of districts that are implementing sustainable professional learning in data-driven decision-making (DDDM) to improve student achievement. The data-informed leadership framework, comprised of leadership practices that acknowledge the complexities that play into data use, guided the inquiry. Data collection included semi-structured interviews, observations, and documents. I argue that whole district reform is possible in ways that increased student achievement results on standardized tests across these two districts. Findings indicate that the confluence of: a focus on DDDM, systemic and comprehensive professional learning, and distributed leadership led to consistent student achievement gains over a 3–5-year period. This study suggests that sustainable professional learning in DDDM through structures and processes is critical to how district reform takes place to achieve equitable student results.

Keywords

• academic achievement
• data-driven decision-making
• distributed leadership
• district reform
• professional learning
• urban schools