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	SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLANNING: WHAT'S MISSING? School improvement plans increasingly are shaping strategic changes at schools and districts. While specific deficiencies of such plans are frequently noted, general analyses of school improvement planning guides have not been the focus of policy reports. This policy report presents an analysis of school improvement guides... Go to the Executive Summary at: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/schoolimprovement/execsummary.pdf The full document is online at: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/schoolimprovement/whatsmissing.pdf The Adult Education Content Standards Warehouse project is designed to help states progress in the development, alignment, and implementation of state content standards. http://www.adultedcontentstandards.org/default.asp TOOLS FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLANNING The Annenberg Institute's "Tools for School Improvement Planning" website features 75 different tools used throughout the country, organized into school-improvement focus areas common to many schools, districts, and states. http://www.annenberginstitute.org/tools/index.html Literacy Coaching http://www.ncte.org/print.asp?node=1256 Lesson Study: Practical Professional Development http://www.education-world.com/a_admin/admin/admin382.shtml Proposed Standards for Secondary Literacy Coaches http://www.reading.org/downloads/resources/draft_coach_standards_0305.pdf LISTENING TO TEACHERS: CLASSROOM REALITIES AND NCLB (PDF File) This new report from the Harvard Civil Rights Project (September 2004) draws on responses from groups of teachers "on opposite ends of the country" -- Fresno CA and Richmond VA. Both districts serve many low-income and minority students and each operates within a different state policy and reform context. http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/articles/NCLB_Survey_Report.pdf WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL LEADERSHIP (PDF File) This brief, prepared by a task force of the American Educational Research Association, "presents a summary of well-documented understandings about education leadership at the school building level." The basics of school leadership, the authors conclude, "focus on setting direction for the school, developing people, and developing the organization." Many of the findings in this research brief emphasize the need for leaders to develop professional learning communities that support teacher leadership for student growth and achievement. http://www.cepa.gse.rutgers.edu/whatweknow.pdf BUILDING POWERFUL FACULTIES In this simple but elegant two-page grid, the University of Florida's Lastinger Center for Learning has compiled the best contemporary thinking about teacher professional development into a comprehensive model -- "Building Powerful Faculties." http://www.teacherleaders.org/misc/CompPDmodelUF.pdf This is a site that is a narrative about the Challenge School recipients and showcases what best practices caused them to become challenge schools. http://www.ksconfidencetaskforce.org/Exec%20Summ%202003.htm This site has useful information and many resources concerning school improvement. www.helpforschools.com/sikb/index.shtml