Documenting the Development of a School Improvement Program

Abstract

This case describes the documentation of a school improvement program initiated by the Pittsburgh public schools in 1981. The case is of interest for several reasons. As pointed out in chapter 7, the role of documenter represents an unusual and potentially potent use of evaluation resources to assist managers in the development and implementation of new programs. Both the length of this case (three years) and the degree of interaction provided a rich database on the changing information needs of clients and how documentation can respond to such needs. Finally, the program itself was an interesting, early example of what became a national trend, namely, the use of the findings contained in the literature on effective schools (Bickel, 1983) to frame programs for school improvement.