Anatomy of School System Improvement: Performance-Driven Practices in Urban School Districts

May 1, 2005

This paper reports on findings from the first year of a three-year research project tracking the adoption of performance-driven practices in urban school systems, made possible with the support of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

External research partner, the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), analyzed the state of performance-driven practices within 28 leading school districts. The goal of this first year of study was to define the features of a performance-driven school system and to set a benchmark against which to measure future years of adoption of performance-driven practices.