AFEW decades ago, leaders in the field
of school reform introduced the concept of
"effective schools" as a way to identify
what works best in educating children and
to provide models for struggling schools
to use for improvement.The effective
schools movement is frequently attributed
to the work of the late Ronald Edmonds In
a speech delivered to the National Confer-
ence of the Teacher Corps in 1978, Ed-
-monds defined the five characteristics
consistently evident in effective schools:
strong leadership, clear emphasis on
learning, positive school climate, regular
and appropriate monitoring of student
progress, and high expectations for stu-
dents and staff.-
However, the effective schools move-
ment, like most other reform efforts, has
developed philosophical and political
schisms along its major fault line the cen-
tral tenet that children's learning can be
improved if schools adopt effective prac-
tices.From these straightfor
ward principles, an entire belief system has
evolved that offers a variety of solutions
that are designed to improve schools.If we as a society can summon the cour-
age and will to do these things, then maybe
all children can learn at higher levels and
the gap between low-income and more-
privileged children can really be narrowed.At its heart, this belief is positive,
useful, and practical-but it does engender
strong opinions and political reactions.