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Accelerated Schools

Bringing students placed "at risk" into the educational mainstream by providing all students with challenging learning activities.

Dimensions: Empowering School Culture and Social Structure; Equity Pedagogy

Title and Location: Accelerated Schools
Storrs, Connecticut

Contact Information:
University of Connecticut
Neag School of Education
National Center for Accelerated Schools
2131 Hillside Rd., Unit 3224
Storrs, CT 06269-3224
(860) 486-6330
http://www.acceleratedschools.net/

Abstract

Accelerated Schools is an approach to school reform that aims to enhance academic growth for students placed "at risk" through challenging and stimulating activities that build on students' strengths. A key idea behind the approach is that rather than remediating students' deficits, students who are placed "at risk" of school failure must be accelerated by providing them with high expectations and curriculum typical of programs for gifted and talented students. Through shared inquiry, the accelerated school takes stock of the current status of the school, forges a vision for change, sets priorities, and establishes governance structures that focus on participatory decision-making.

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Program History and Description

In 1986, Henry Levin, a Stanford University professor of economics and higher education, introduced two elementary schools in the San Francisco area to a philosophy and process he called Accelerated Schools, a comprehensive approach to school change designed to improve schooling for students placed "at risk." Levin proposed to accelerate learning by providing all students with the challenging activities that have traditionally been reserved for students identified as "gifted and talented." As Levin succinctly describes the philosophy underlying the approach, "Abandon remediation, because it doesn't work. Go for acceleration." (Middle Matters, 1995, p. 7). The purpose is to bring students placed "at-risk" into the educational mainstream by building on their natural strengths and having consistently high expectations for all students, regardless of background.

The Accelerated Schools approach is built around three central principles. The first is unity of purpose, or a common vision of what the school should become that is agreed to and worked toward by all school staff, parents, students, and community. The second is empowerment coupled with responsibility. Staff, parents, and students participate in a shared decision-making process, shape their own decisions about curriculum, instructional methods, and organization, and accept responsibility for the results. The third principle, building on strengths, strives to tap the skills, experience, and creativity in all members of the school community.

Accelerated Schools participate in an Inquiry Process to achieve their vision. First, each school takes stock by engaging the entire school community, conducting surveys with parents, teachers, and students and collecting other types of data. Then each school develops a collaborative vision for what the school should be for children, staff, and families, and sets priorities for action (McCarthy & Still, 1993, p. 69).

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Program Components

Primary Goals

Accelerated Schools seek to enhance academic growth, particularly for students placed "at risk," through challenging and stimulating academic activities. This is accomplished by identifying students' strengths, creating a schoolwide unity of purpose, and incorporating the entire staff into a governance and decision-making process.

Instructional Strategies and Materials

Each Accelerated School is encouraged to search for methods that help them realize their vision. While the program provides no specific instructional approaches or curriculum, there is an emphasis on reducing remedial activities and adopting constructivist teaching strategies.

Participants

No comprehensive breakdown of the race and economic level of students participating in the Accelerated Schools program is reported. According to the general program description, "the majority of accelerated schools serve high populations of students traditionally labeled "at-risk," coming from ethnic minority households and living in some degree of poverty" (What is the Accelerated Schools Project?, 1997)

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Program Success

Student Achievement

According to Fashola & Slavin (1997), the evaluation evidence on Accelerated Schools is largely anecdotal. Levin stresses that the full implementation of the program takes five to six years, and no evaluation data has been reported from schools in the program for this length of time. However, there have been three evaluations of individual Accelerated Schools. McCarthy and Still (1993) reported that a predominately Latino Texas school showed gains in its fifth-grade standardized test scores.

Knight and Stallings (1995) compared another Texas Accelerated School with a 25% Latino population to a matched comparison school over a two-year period with mixed results. Students in Grades 1 through 3 gained more than comparison students on standardized tests, but not grades 4 through 5. In language, the Accelerated School scored better in Grades 1 through 2, but the comparison schools did as well or better in Grades 3 through 5. On a writing measure, students in the Accelerated School performed slightly higher than the control school in Grades 3 and 5.

In a Sacramento Accelerated School that contained students speaking 13 languages, Chasin and Levin (1995) reported gains on standardized tests for sixth graders, but didn't report changes in any other grade.

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Program Replication

In order to become part of the Accelerated Schools Project, the full staff of a school must engage in a one to three month exploration of the accelerated school philosophy. This process often includes visits to existing accelerated schools and a visit by a representative from the National Center. After exploring and researching the model, members of the school community must take a formal vote or come to consensus concerning adoption of the program. A school will not be accepted into the program without at least 90 percent agreement.

The National Center for the Accelerated Schools Project at Stanford University trains coaches to guide a school community through the Accelerated Schools philosophy and provide support on a regular basis to encourage capacity-building. Off-site coaches affliated with district offices, state education departments, and universities devote at least 25 percent of their time to training and follow-up activities to help individual schools internalize the accelerated school model. The Accelerated Schools Project network has now expanded to more than 1000 elementary and middle schools in 41 states across the country, with ten regional satellite centers located in universities, districts, and state departments of education.

The cost of transforming a school into an accelerated school is generally less than 1 percent of the school budget, usually $30-$40 per student per year.

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References

Chasin, G., & Levin, H. M. (1995). Thomas Edison Accelerated Elementary School. In J. Oakes & K.H. Quartz (Eds.), Creating new educational communities (pp. 130-147). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Knight, S. L. and Stallings, J. A. (1995). The implementation of the Accelerated Schools Model in an urban elementary school. In R. L. Allington and S. A. Walmsley (Eds.), No quick fix: Rethinking literacy programs in American elementary schools (pp. 236 - 252). New York: Teachers College Press.

Fashola, O.S. & Slavin, R. E. (1997). Promising programs for elementary and middle schools: Evidence of effectiveness and replicability. Journal of Education for Students Placed At Risk, 2 (3), 251-307.

Levin, H. M. (1987). Accelarated schools for disadvantaged students. Educational Leadership, 44 (6), 19-21.

McCarthy, J. & Still, S. (1993). Hollibrook Accelerated Elementary School. In J. Murphy & P. Hallinger (Eds.), Restructuring schooling: Learning from ongoing efforts (pp. 63-83). Newbury Park, CA: Corwin.

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