Attitudes and morale may be on the rise in Metro Schools, but a new report also says concrete change is coming along more slowly.
The district has been using its cut of Race to the Top money to develop a wide-ranging set of programs, from model technology classrooms to changes in the ways teachers can access data about their students’ progress.
An evaluation by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform found that Central office staff feel the efforts have brought a greater sense of purpose and direction. Principals report feeling that they have more power to fix problems in their schools.
But the report also shows employees are concerned the district may still be doing more brainstorming than implementing. Information about new programs is trickling down too slowly to the people who will actually have to carry them out. And for the second year in a row, it says the current list of initiatives, more than forty items long, may be more that Metro Schools can handle.