About SAM
The Schoolwide Applications Model (SAM) is a data-based approach to structural school reform. It is intended to replace categorical fragmentation of educational resources and supports within schools with fully integrated and coordinated resources focused on improving academic and social outcomes for all students. The model has originated through on-going research within the Kansas City, Kansas School District, and is now being field tested at scale in the East Palo Alto, California Ravenswood City School District.
SAM is a general education support approach which uses a response to intervention logic model to focus and direct all school and [available] community-based resources, to the measurable improvement of academic and social outcomes for all students - regardless of type, level and extent of supports required to progress in the general curriculum. This includes the 1-2% of students who cannot participate in the general assessments.
Adequate yearly progress (AYP) is a primary goal of the SAM process. Data from three years of implementation in the Ravenswood School District suggest that faithful implementation of the fifteen critical features of SAM, as measured by its fidelity instrument SAMAN (SAM Analysis System), is highly correlated with improved academic and social achievement indicators for all students after a 2-3 year period. The data indicate that initial “clusters” of schools require about three years to fully implement the model and that subsequent cohorts may require less time as SAM becomes part of the “culture” of the school district.
SAM is designed to particularly address the needs of urban core, multicultural, low income school districts. It is our observation that a “medical model” approach to specialized categorical, targeted populations of students in these districts has led, in many cases, to extensive fragmentation of services and supports that are needed by nearly all students, as well as over-representation by ethnic minorities in various disability categories in special education. Implementation of SAM is an extensive systems-change process that transforms the culture of schools from discreet, specialized functions of resources and personnel, to a fully integrated system of supports and services applicable to all students in accordance with a response to intervention (RtI) logic model dictated by valid and reliable, on-going assessments of pupil academic and social progress.
Finally, SAM systems-change processes, delivered through ongoing professional development and technical assistance, are directed to two primary formative sets of variables. The first is structural elements of school organization and service delivery. Elimination of special classes, for example, is an element of structural reform. The second is the quality of instruction. As the culture of schools moves toward a unified resources approach with school teams making instructional decisions on the basis of repeated measures data, measurable improvement in the quality of instruction is an expected outcome.
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