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Peabody Journal of Education, Volume 83, Issue 3, 2008

Special Issue: Scaling Up Teaching and Learning Improvement in Urban Districts: The Promises and Pitfalls of External Assistance Providers

In the midst of a national call to strengthen teaching and learning, leaders in urban school districts, in particular, have struggled to implement initiatives aimed at this goal. As a result, many urban districts have begun to establish partnerships with external organizations - such as school reform support organizations, universities, and others - in an effort to expand social, fiscal, and additional resources. This special issue of  the Peabody Journal of Education brings together educational scholars across disciplines to examine these two significant and related trends: efforts to scale-up high quality teaching and learning in urban school districts and the role of external assistance providers in the process.

The collection of articles in this special issue address many of the questions raised in the educational scholarship on this topic. First, Honig and Ikemoto introduce how the Institute for Learning at the University of Pittsburgh has partnered with multiple urban districts, exploring the dynamics of the relationships and identifying key features of the partnerships that lead to positive teaching and learning outcomes. Next, Coburn, Bae, and Turner investigate the role of authority and status in these relationships between districts and external organizations. The work of Park and Datnow follows, highlighting the efforts of the Success for All Foundation in working with educators to increase capacity for learning and instruction. Their article focuses on the collaborative dynamics of such partnerships. Marsh, Hamilton, and Gill then turn to the practice of combining structured assistance for teaching and learning with accountability mechanisms to achieve school improvement, demonstrated by the case of Edison schools, a for-profit educational management organization. Finally, Supovitz takes a step back from the in-depth examinations of the preceding pieces and explores the place of external partnerships in district-wide instructional reform efforts.

We hope that the contributions by these authors help fuel future investigations into how these partnerships between school districts and external support providers can strengthen teaching and learning.

CONTENTS
Journal abstracts are linked to titles.

Introduction to the Special Issue on the Scaling Up Teaching and Learning Improvement in Urban Districts: The Promises and Pitfalls of External Assistance Providers
Amanda Datnow and Meredith I. Honig
Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 83, No. 3: pages 323-327.

Adaptive Assistance for Learning Improvement Efforts: The Case of the Institute for Learning
Meredith I. Honig and Gina S. Ikemoto
Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 83, No. 3: pages 328-363.

Authority, Status, and the Dynamics of Insider-Outsider Partnerships at the District Level
Cynthia E. Coburn, Soung Bae, and Erica O. Turner
Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 83, No. 3: pages 364-399.

Collaborative Assistance in a Highly Prescribed School Reform Model: The Case of Success for All
Vicki Park and Amanda Datnow
Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 83, No. 3: pages 400-422.

Assistance and Accountability in Externally Managed Schools: The Case of Edison Schools, Inc.
Julie Marsh, Laura Hamilton, and Brian Gill
Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 83, No. 3: pages 423-458.

Melding Internal and External Support for Schools Improvement: How the District Role Changes When Working Closely With External Instructional Support Providers
Jonathan Supovitz
Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 83, No. 3: pages 459-478.