Study of Instructional Improvement

A Note of Thanks

The Study of Instructional Improvement (SII) research team acknowledges the students, parents, teachers, principals, school support staff, central office leaders, and state department of education officials who participated in this unprecedented longitudinal examination of instructional improvement efforts in elementary schools serving high need students. Over a period of four academic years, these participants responded in a most collaborative spirit to the many requests for quantitative and qualitative data in areas of student assessments, daily instructional logs in mathematics and reading by teachers, selected classroom observations, interviews and self-administered questionnaires related to school improvement efforts. These data will enable researchers to have a stronger understanding of instructional practices in our most challenging elementary schools.

We wish to extend our thanks also to the project sponsors for making this research effort possible. The Atlantic Philanthropies, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, National Science Foundation, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Washington made generous contributions allowing SII to conduct this comprehensive program of school research. More importantly, we thank our sponsors for taking such a great interest in improving the schooling experiences of young children.

SII would also like to recognize the trainers, developers, and executives of Success for All (SFA), America's Choice (AC), and the Accelerated Schools for their cooperation in providing us with opportunities to learn about their program designs and their work. We wish them all continued success in their efforts to reform teaching and learning in schools.

Thank you all for your participation and support and we hope that our research will provide information and insights useful to all stakeholders in efforts to improve American education.