Whole School Reform in a Low-Income African American Community

Abstract

This article reports the results of a 1-year evaluation of the CoZi model, a whole school reform model that combines Edward Zigler’s School of the 21st Century (which includes on-site, daylong, and year-round preschool, after-school care, and family support services) with James Comer’s School Development Program, a school management and collaborative decision-making model. The study used written surveys, in-depth interviews, achievement tests, and classroom observations to study teacher, parent, and preschool outcomes in a CoZi elementary school and a comparison school, both of which served predominately disadvantaged students. The CoZi school had significantly higher school climate and parent involvement throughout the year, but across-school changes and levels of achievement, parent-child interaction, parent social and psychological outcomes, and teacher efficacy were not significantly different.