Citizens Changing Their Schools: a Midterm Report of the Annenberg Challenge
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 447 586 EA 030 745 AUTHOR Cushman, Kathleen; Cervone, Barbara TITLE Citizens Changing Their Schools: A Midterm Report of the Annenberg Challenge. INSTITUTION Brown Univ., Providence, RI. Annenberg Inst. for School Reform. PUB DATE 1999-04-00 NOTE 44p. PUB TYPE Reports Evaluative (142) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Academic Achievement; *Academic Standards; Accountability; Cooperation; *Educational Change; Elementary Secondary Education; *Financial Support; *Participative Decision Making; Public Schools; School Community Relationship; *Teacher Improvement IDENTIFIERS *Annenberg Foundation ABSTRACT This report marks a midpoint in the Annenberg $500 million challenge to improve public schools. It comes at a time when evidence from the Annenberg Challenge's first projects has started to accumulate--and to suggest that the program is indeed having a beneficial impact on students, schools, and communities. This report also furnishes early lessons that have much to tell about effective school reform. In preparing this report, the Challenge's national office drew upon the findings of the independent research teams that evaluate each project. As an interim report, this one captures work in progress. The Annenberg Foundation sequenced its grant awards so that the work of the first could inform those that followed. Even the six oldest Challenge projects featured in this report (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, and a national consortium of rural sites), therefore, stand at different stages of development, as do the local evaluations that chart their progress. Appendices provide additional information concerning principal investigators of Annenberg Challenge Research Teams, Challenge Site Evaluation Reports, and additional data concerning grants.(DFR) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. 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BSTCOPYAVAILABLE 2 Preface 1 Introduction 3 Early Lessons from the Challenge 5 How the Challenge Is Helping Schools How Students Are Benefiting 15 How the Challenge Is Influencing 17 the Larger Educational System What Lies Ahead 19 Appendices Principal Investigators of Annenberg Challenge Research Teams 22 Challenge Site Evaluation Reports 23 Total Grant Payments by Fiscal Year 26 Matching Grants Timeline 27 Scope of Local Grantmaking 28 How Big Is Big? 3o Partial Listing of Challenge Contributors 31 Challenge Contact Information 39 TEXT: Barbara Cervone, Kathleen Cushman EDITING:Lisa Rowley DESIGN:Sandra Delany COVER ARTcreated in 1996 by Juan Carreno while a student at Cutler Ridge Middle School; 3 a South Florida Annenberg Challengeschool.' Preface HIS REPORT MARKS A MIDPOINT in As the national office takes stock at mid- Walter H. Annenberg's $500 million term, it keeps looking for answers to these challenge to improve public schools, what pressing questions: Can a financial contribu- he aptly called a citizen's "crusade for the tion of whatever magnitude unleash an array betterment of this country." It comes at a of other giftsnot just of money but of time when evidence from the Annenberg courage and vision and energythat make Challenge's first projects has started to their way to America's schoolchildren and accumulateand to suggest that the pro- help them learn? Can citizens outside the gram is indeed having a beneficial impact entrenched systems of public schools help on students, schools, and communities. And change the way those systems work? it furnishes early lessons that have much At this halfway point, the Challenge to tell about effective school reform. continues to believe they can. When citizens In preparing this report, the Challenge's joined by educators bring commitment and national office at Brown University drew fresh ideas to the business of reforming our upon the findings of the independent nation's public schools, it asserts, students research teams that evaluate each project. will prosper. This report contains early Like any interim report, this one captures evidence for that conviction. work in progress. Although Ambassador Annenberg BeiftbA6._ CS2A0(1._ announced his generous gift in December 1993, the Challenge took time to lay the groundwork for its ambitious structure, Barbara Cervone which called on private citizens and educators National Coordinator, Annenberg Challenge to coalesce around their own strategies for Associate Director, Annenberg Institute for school improvement. The Annenberg Foun- School Reform dation also sequenced its grant awards so that the work of the first could inform those that followed. Even the six "oldest" Challenge projects featured in this report, therefore, stand at dif- ferent stages of development, as do the local evaluations that chart their progress. But these varied trajectories do not diminish the importance of the findings summarized here. 4 1 Who We Are: Challenge Matching Grants* LARGE:URBAN GRANTS;-` SITE GRANT NAME GRANT AWARD DATE AWARDED Bay Area Bay Area School Reform Collaborative $25 million August 1995 (San Francisco)(BASRC) Boston Boston Annenberg Challenge $ic) million October 1996 Chicago Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) $49.2 million March 1995 Detroit Schools of the 21st Century Initiative $20 million October 1996 Houston Houston Annenberg Challenge $20 million January 1997 Los Angeles Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project$53 million December 1994 (LAAMP) New York CityNew York Networks for School Renewal $25 million November 1994 (NYNSR) Philadelphia Children Achieving Challenge $50 million April 1995 South Florida South Florida Annenberg Challenge $33.4 million January 1997 (SFAC) RURAL SCHOOL REFORM SITE GRANT NAME GRANT AWARD DATE AWARDED (National) Rural Challenge $50 million August 1995 SITE GRANT NAME GRANT AWARD DATE AWARDED Minnesota Arts for Academic Achievement $3.2 million July 1997 (National) Transforming Education Through the Arts Challenge $4.3 million April 1996 New York CityCenter for Arts Education $12 million July 1996 SITE GRANT NAME GRANT AWARD DATE AWARDED Atlanta Urban Atlanta Coalition Compact $1.5 million June 1997 Chattanooga Success for All Students $2.5 million May 1995 Chelsea, Mass.The Boston University/Chelsea Partnership $2 million July 1996 Salt Lake City Vanguard Initiative $4 million December 1996 West BaltimoreBaltimore New Compact Schools $1 million March 1996 *In addition to the18matching grants listed above, the Annenberg Foundation awarded several outright grants to support school reform nationally, including those to the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and New American Schools. The outright grants account for the remainder of Annenberg's $5oo million gift. BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 5 Citizens Changing Their Schools: A Midterm Report on the Annenberg Challenge MBASSADOR ANNENBERG'S $500 The Challenge's broad impact is beginning million gift to the nation's public to emerge in all of its projects, but especially schools, unveiled at the White House in its first six: New York City, Los Angeles, December 1993, set out an unprecedented Chicago, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay challenge to an American public increasingly Area, and a national consortium of rural sites. vocal about the need for school improve- And at this midpoint in the work of these ment. His gift combined his idealistic belief first projects, important lessons are also in America's democratic obligation to educate emerging from the particular design of the all our children well with a practical plan that Challenge initiativelessons that shed new would galvanize communities, in their own light on what works and what doesn't in best interests, to take the necessary tough large-scale systemic school reform. political steps to do so. Five years later, the last of the Annen- A Better Option for School Change berg funds has been allocated. The first grant, to support small schools in New York City, These findings offer a compelling alternative was announced in fall 1994. The last, to spur to two current theories of reforming public arts education as a lever for school improve- education that are attracting greater atten- ment in Minneapolis, was announced in sum- tion: privatization through vouchers and mer 1997. Just as the Annenberg Foundation increased centralization of authority over a has staggered the awards of its Challenge community's schools. grants, so, too, has each project staggered its The Challenge rests on a different set of grants to schools. Thus, while some schools values. Local citizens and communities must have been working with Challenge funds for join as partners in improving their schools, three years, others have just begun. it asserts, and public-private coalitions can Today, 18 locally designed Annenberg provide the tool to achieve progress. Challenge projects are under way, involving