Many school reformers these days talk about "redesigning schools" -- that is, about developing reform strategies that encompass the whole school, from curriculum and instruction to budgeting and community involvement. Basing innovation on these new, whole-school designs is intended to reduce the program-oriented, piecemeal approach to reform often found in schools and to stimulate significant gains in student achievement.

NEW AMERICAN SCHOOLS
Figuring prominently among those pursuing an entirely new vision for education is New American Schools (NAS), formerly called the New American Schools Development Corporation. The project was launched in July 1991 by corporate and foundation leaders as a private, bipartisan, nonprofit organization with one mission: to help schools help greater numbers of students achieve at high levels. From the beginning, NAS has enjoyed Annenberg support. The Ambassador's initial grant of $10 million has been followed by two subsequent Challenge grants -- one for $50 million to test and refine NAS designs and a second for $6.6 million to support dissemination and scale-up of the tested designs.

Design-based Assistance
To achieve its ambitious mission, NAS set out to invest in the development of a diverse collection of design teams, each offering a unique vision of a high-performing school coupled with the materials, tools, and hands-on assistance to help schools use the vision as a plan to raise student achievement. Components of this design-based assistance include, for example: on-site work with teachers in their classrooms; facilitation of local and national teacher networks; summer institutes in which teachers gain new skills, develop curriculum, and plan collaboratively with other teachers; strategic planning to meet local accountability requirements; and ongoing advice and consultation. While each design is unique, all focus on innovations in instruction, curriculum, governance, and the creative use of resources, including faculty, time, technology, and dollars.

The following are brief descriptions of the eight NAS design teams.

ATLAS COMMUNITIES
ATLAS (Authentic Teaching, Learning, and Assessment for All Students) Communities is a dynamic model for the vision and daily operations of school communities. Implementation of the design revolves around school "pathways," which are feeder patterns of schools from pre-kindergarten to grade 12. Teams of teachers from each pathway collaborate to develop their own standards and then to design curriculum and assessment linked to these standards.
CONTACT: Linda Gerstle at (617) 969-7100.

CO-NECT SCHOOLS
Co-NECT Schools offers a comprehensive, technology-supported framework for schoolwide and districtwide restructuring. Cross-disciplinary teams of teachers are responsible for small clusters of students, who ideally stay with the same teaching team for at least two years. Teaching and learning revolve around interdisciplinary projects that address locally defined performance standards.
CONTACT: Bruce Goldberg at (617) 873-2683.

EXPEDITIONARY LEARNING
OUTWARD BOUND
Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound offers a curriculum centered on "learning expeditions": in-depth, usually interdisciplinary projects and performances around a single theme or topic designed by teachers in each school. Intended to develop not only intellectual ability but also fitness, craftsmanship, and character, learning expeditions often bring community members into the classroom, as well as taking students outside the school.
CONTACT: Meg Campbell at (617) 576-1260.

MODERN RED SCHOOLHOUSE
Modern Red Schoolhouse is based on the belief that the only acceptable goal for all children is the mastery of subject matter and the acquisition of basic skills, best achieved by the creation of individualized learning plans for students. Unlike its namesake, however, the design uses advanced technology to restructure and strengthen both instruction and management in schools.
CONTACT: Steven Adamowski at (317) 549-4156.

NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR
RESTRUCTURING EDUCATION
The National Alliance for Restructuring Education, a major initiative of the National Center on Education and the Economy, is a partnership among states, school districts, and national organizations to implement standards-based reform. The Alliance and its partners link assessments and teaching practices to the new standards, integrate technology into classroom instruction, coordinate health and social services for children and families, restructure school administration, and work to engage parents and the public in reform efforts.
CONTACT: Mary Anne Mays at (202) 783-3668.

PURPOSE-CENTERED EDUCATION:
THE AUDREY COHEN COLLEGE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
Purpose-Centered Education focuses all student learning - both academic and personal leadership development - on complex and meaningful "Purposes" that carry social relevance. Students achieve each semester's Purpose by planning, carrying out, and evaluating a "Constructive Action" in which their knowledge and skills benefit their community and larger world. In the early grades, each class addresses its Purpose as a group; older students plan and implement individual Constructive Actions with teacher involvement.
CONTACT: Janith Jordan at (212) 343-1234.

ROOTS AND WINGS
Roots and Wings is a comprehensive restructuring program for elementary schools. The "roots" component derives from the widely used Success For All program, which focuses on reading, writing, and language arts coupled with tutoring and family support services. The "wings" element includes a constructivist math approach and an integrated social studies/science program.
CONTACT: Robert Slavin at (410) 516-0274.

URBAN LEARNING CENTERS
Developed by the Los Angeles Unified School District, United Teachers of Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Educational Partnership, the Urban Learning Centers design is a comprehensive model for urban K-12 schools organized around three components: 1) curriculum and instruction, 2) learning supports, and 3) governance and management. The advanced use of technology supports each component.
CONTACT: Greta Pruitt at (213) 622-5237.

• create an investment fund to aggregate and target funding for school renewal and change;
  
• build a professional development infrastructure that supports comprehensive school transformation;
  
• develop rigorous standards with a rich assessment system designed to measure achievement of those standards;
  
• decentralize authority over budgets, staffing, curriculum, and instructional strategies to schools that craft plans for reaching the standards; and
  
• engage the public around school and district performance to support school transformation.

Accomplishments
Early results indicate that schools working with NAS are making progress. All design teams have data showing improved student achievement both on standardized tests and on more authentic, performance-based assessments. In some schools, the rate of improvement outpaces that of schools not using designs. In virtually all NAS schools, attendance is up, the number of discipline problems is down, and teachers report student engagement is higher than before. In addition, the market demand for designs is increasing, as indicated by the willingness of schools to pay design team fees for services, the existence of waiting lists at a number of NAS schools, and the increasing interest among school districts in joining the NAS partnership. NAS believes that the responsibility for these results must rest jointly with all involved - students, teachers, principals, district administrators, parents, and design teams.

Originally, NAS's board of directors gave the organization a five-year life. The five years, which ended in June 1997, gave NAS enough time to accomplish its goal of developing a set of effective organizations to provide assistance to schools. The board of directors, convinced of the continued need for a central organization to provide national leadership for design-based school reform, granted NAS permission to continue operations until it identifies an appropriate successor organization, by no later than June 1999. Its continuing goals include further increasing the capacity of design teams to assist schools, advocating for changes at the district and state level that support NAS's work, and building broad national support for design-based school transformation.