First Things First - Evidence

The First Things First framework builds on research about how young people develop and how schools promote (and undermine) students’ active engagement and learning. The framework also reflects emerging evidence on how changing what schools do can move these outcomes in positive directions.

Evidence drives implementation of the FTF framework as well. FTF grounds its approach to forming small learning communities, involving students’ families and improving teaching and learning, in research fortified by our experience with five generations of FTF middle and high schools over the past six years.

Our summaries of this evidence take three forms:

• First Things First: A Framework for Successful School Reform (72 pages, 443 KB pdf) reviews evidence from youth development, educational and organizational literature that supports the credibility of FTF’s seven critical features.
  
  
• FTF’s Approach to Improving Instruction (23 pages, 184 KB pdf) synthesizes research on this topic and lays out the arguments for the key activities IRRE and its school and district partners use to strengthen teaching.
  
  
• Results summarizes "early returns", especially from Kansas City, Kansas, FTF’s longest standing site.

Finally, we have included a table summarizing how the FTF framework aligns with the U.S. Department of Education’s Nine Components of Comprehensive School Reform (3 pages, 92 KB pdf).

References:

For additional references on research behind First Things First, see Publications, Education and Youth Development.