A Study On School Improvement Strategies At The U.S. District Level

Since school improvement came into the focus of people as an independent research field,different institutions have done various research from different angles.Some researchers pay attention to school improvement from the federal level and some other people from school level.But school districts,which connect federal and school in school improvement,have been ignored,On the one hand,School districts play a vital role in school improvement.School districts master much knowledge about school improvement and thus they can provide professional support for school.On the other hand,school districts make up the outer environment for school improvement.All the things school districts do have exert much influence on school.No Child Left Behind and Every Student Succeed Act have made demands on school district by accountability mechanism,requiring school district to improve the quality of school instruction.However,what districts can do in school improvement and which path districts can choose?Such problems remain to be solved.In such cases,this thesis tries to figure out the role school districts play in school improvement and which path school district can choose to improve school quality.On this basis,we try to give some suggestions to Chinese county education department.After exploration,we find that school districts try to improve education quality from three important paths:data-driven decision-making,teacher professional development and principal instructional leadership.By using data in decision-making and offering professional support for teacher and principal such as instructional coaching and professional training,School districts become the active participant in school improvement.This thesis is divided into four parts:Introduction:first of all,this thesis introduces the background of this study from the shortcomings in this research field and the important role school districts play in school improvement.On this basis,this thesis put forward the problems which remain to be solved in this thesis.What's more,research methods and definitions of key concept in this thesis are also stated in this section.Chapter two is literature review.This chapter is made up of three parts:the American education system,affecting factors in school improvement and the efforts school district had made to school improvement.Chapter three entails the specific actions school district take in school improvement.First of all,we identify three school improvement paths by analyzing school district duty and the nature of school improvement.Then we analyze how school districts are committed to the school improvement by implementing three school improvement paths.The last Chapter pays attention to Chinese school improvement in county level.Firstly,this thesis analyses the background of Chinese school improvement in county level.Then the problem existing in Chinese county education department is analyzed by investigation.Thirdly,what we can learn from the experience school district got in school improvement practice are also stated in this thesis.Last but not least,we discuss the deficiency of this research and the future of this research field.