Research for Action

Jolley Bruce Christman

Founder and Principal jchristman@researchforaction.org	Jolley Bruce Christman is a Founder of Research for Action and a research director of the Learning from Philadelphia’s School Reform project. She has published in the areas of urban high school reform, instructional communities, civic capacity in urban public schools, students’ perspectives on their educational experience, and evaluation methodology. She recently completed a five-year evaluation of Philadelphia’s systemic reform effort, Children Achieving, and authored two major reports (see below). She is associate Faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education where she teachers qualitative approaches to program evaluation. She received the Ethnographic Evaluation Award for excellence in the scholarly application of ethnographic procedures to policy decision making from the Council on Anthropology and Education of the American Anthropological Association.
Selected Research for Action projects: Learning from Philadelphia's School Reform Learning to Learn from Data: Using Data to Inform Instructional Decisions and Improve Student Learning in Low-Performing Urban Schools An evaluation of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative, a classroom based coaching model: Annenberg Foundation All Projects
Selected Publications: Gill, B. P., Zimmer, R., Christman, J. B., & Blanc, S. (2007, Jan). Student Achievement in Privately Managed and District-Managed Schools in Philadelphia Since the State Takeover. Pittsburgh, PA: RAND Corporation. Gill, B. P., Zimmer, R., Christman, J. B., & Blanc, S. (2007, Jan). State Takeover, School Restructuring, Private Management, and Student Achievement in Philadelphia. Pittsburgh, PA: RAND Corporation. Useem, E., Christman, J. B., & Boyd, W. L. (2006, Jul). The Role of District Leadership in Radical Reform: Philadelphia's Experience under the State Takeover, 2001-2006. Philadelphia: Research for Action. Christman, J. B., Gold, E., & Herold, B. B. (2006, Jun 2). Privatization 'Philly Style': What Can Be Learned from Philadelphia's Diverse Provider Model of School Management (Updated edition with important new information and findings). Philadelphia: Research for Action. Supovitz, J. A. & Christman, J. B. (2005, May). Small Learning Communities that Actually Learn: Lessons for School Leaders. Phi Delta Kappan, (), 649-651. Christman, J. B., Corcoran, T., & Corcoran, T. B. (2002, Nov). The Limits and Contradictions of Systemic Reform: The Philadelphia Story. Philadelphia: Consortium for Policy Research in Education. Christman, J. B. & Rhodes, A. (2002, Jun). Civic Engagement and Urban School Improvement: Hard-to-Learn Lessons from Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Consortium for Policy Research in Education. Christman, J. B. (2001, Dec). Powerful Ideas, Modest Gains: Five years of Systematic Reform in Philadelphia Middle Schools. Philadelphia: Consortium for Policy Research in Education. All Publications
Educational Background: Ph.D.: University of Pennsylvania, Educational Administration B.A.: Randolph-Macon Woman's College