Turning Around Five At‐Risk Elementary Schools

Abstract

Abstract This article presents a description of an instructional management system called Consistency Management and its implementation in five urban elementary schools in Texas. The five schools were identified in 1986 by the Texas Education Agency as ranking in the lowest 5 percent of all elementary schools taking the state mandated Texas Education Assessment of Minimal Skills (TEAMS). An analysis of the program indicates that the five schools significantly improved their TEAMS test scores from 1985‐86 to the 1987‐1988 school year in mathematics, reading and writing. When compared to a matched set of elementary schools, the Consistency Management schools increased 17 percent in the percent passing the TEAMS while the non‐program schools decreased 2 percent in the percent passing during the 1987‐1988 school year. When the students of teachers trained in the program were compared with students of untrained teachers, based on the Metropolitan Achievement Tests (MAT6) and the TEAMS, the program (experimenta...