BASRC works to improve student achievement, close the achievement gap, and foster lasting organizational change in schools throughout the Bay Area. The Collaborative supports school districts as they engage in systemic reform and increase academic support to their schools. BASRC supports 128 Bay Area schools in managing this change effort by helping educators learn and use a continuous, data-based improvement process. This process is known as the "cycle of inquiry," represented by the diagram above. The cycle of inquiry asks educators to identify a high-priority student achievement problem; pose questions about the causes of the problem; implement strategies to address the causes; and then analyze data to determine the effectiveness of their strategy.   

BASRC also provides coaching to reform leaders at both the school and district level and works to bring about policy change that will support the implementation of instructional reform. It currently works with five focal districts. These efforts are a good match with the Hewlett Foundation's strategy of helping improve instruction in urban areas and trying to, in turn, spread reform to many other schools and districts. The Hewlett Foundation, together with the Annenberg Foundation, provided major grants to support BASRC for ten years.  

The Hewlett Foundation also supported a range of activities to evaluate and document the BASRC intervention in schools. The Center for Research on the Context of Teaching at Stanford (CRC) produced a Summary Report of the first five years of BASRC. And, as part of the basic Hewlett Foundation grant, the Bay Area Research Group (BARG) provides ongoing formative evaluation directly for BASRC in order to promote its continuous improvement as an organization.  

Major summative evaluation efforts were a part of the second phase of BASRC reforms. In a collaborative effort funded by the Foundation, CRC and the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC),  conducted in-depth evaluations to produce coordinated evidence for a summative evaluation. CRC's research addresses the processes and mechanisms of change promoted by BASRC's Phase Two Strategy (see CRC Evaluation Proposal), while MDRC assessed effects of changes on student reading achievement (see MDRC report 12/06).

For additional information about BASRC, please visit BASRC's website at http://www.basrc.org.