Changing District Culture and Capacity: The Impact of the Merck Institute for Science Education Partnership

"With this report, we hope to contribute to the discussion of the roles of school districts and reform support organizations in improving teaching and learning by examining the cases of four districts that have worked closely for more than a decade with a business-sponsored reform support organization... We feel that our findings offer some lessons both for those interested in the development of reform support organizations and in the design of system-wide instructional improvement initiatives. We also believe that our findings contribute to the development of a theory of district improvement by identifying and validating some of the factors contributing to enhanced district capacity to carry out improvements in teaching. Finally, we offer an encouraging existence proof demonstrating that it is possible to intentionally enhance the capacity of local school districts."

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