Connecting districts and schools to improve teaching and learning: A case study of district efforts in the Los Coyotes High School District (California)

National, state and local trends for educational accountability have been growing in intensity over the past 40 years, and even more so since the 1983 landmark A Nation at Risk report. Both the government as well as the citizenry continues to demand evidence that schools are improving the learning of their students, and that trend has expanded to include all of the students in schools, not just those who have in the past traditionally been the high achievers.; Researchers on the topic of educational reform tout that effective and lasting improvement in school performance is linked to instruction and learning. Instituting successful instructional change initiatives requires careful planning, setting objectives, providing professional development, and meaningful analysis of efforts as in the case of instruction itself in order to determine the next steps in order to improve performance so as to make a positive impact on the accountability systems.; This study investigated the design and implementation of one Southern California high school district ("Los Coyotes High School District") in a case study model. The study examined the elements, factors and implementation of their district design for a research-based instructional improvement innovation working from a research-based foundation grounded in the literature of the Classroom Instruction that Works meta-analysis led by Robert Marzano, the district leadership designed and implemented a three-year, phased plan for staff development that delivered instruction and supporting exemplars to core teams from the instructional staff at each of the district's schools.; The study's findings report the success of the district in meeting their goals of implementing a research-based instructional innovation, but the assessment instrumentation used by the district to evaluate the effectiveness gathered only quantitative data related to frequency of use rather than qualitative data reporting the depth and integration of the Marzano identified strategies into the lessons delivered by the district's teachers.