The San Diego Blueprint for Student Success: A Retrospective Overview and Commentary

Abstract

In a series of reforms started in 1998 and formalized with the 2000 introduction of the Blueprint for Student Success, the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) implemented a wide-ranging series of reforms designed to boost the literacy skills of students. This article provides an overview of the reforms, assesses the contributions made by the articles in this special issue of JESPAR, and highlights complementarities between this research and related quantitative research. Overall, the evidence suggests that the model of professional development in the 8th largest district in the nation took root and led to tangible changes in the classroom. Achievement analyses by Betts (2005 Betts , J. R. ( 2005 ). The promise and challenge of accountability in public schooling . In F. M. Hess (Ed.), Urban school reform: Lessons from San Diego (pp. 157 – 176 ). Cambridge , MA : Harvard Education Press . [Google Scholar]), Betts, Zau, and King (2005 Betts , J. R. ( 2005 ). The promise and challenge of accountability in public schooling . In F. M. Hess (Ed.), Urban school reform: Lessons from San Diego (pp. 157 – 176 ). Cambridge , MA : Harvard Education Press . [Google Scholar]), and Betts, Zau, and Koedel (2008 Betts , J. R. , Zau , A. C. , & Koedel , C. R. ( 2008 ). Blueprint for success? An evaluation of the direct and indirect effects of the San Diego reading reforms (Unpublished manuscript) . San Diego : Department of Economics, University of California San Diego . [Google Scholar]) have suggested that the reading achievement of students improved in the lower grades as a result of the reforms, but dipped somewhat in high school. This article concludes with thoughts on the political and financial challenges to sustaining such reforms and the practical difficulties of evaluating their impact.

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