ABSTRACT
The Manitoba School Improvement Program (MSIP) has existed and developed throughout this era of concentration on educational change and has provided a unique opportunity for a longitudinal investigation of a particular approach to educational reform in secondary schools over more than a decade of engagement in the process. When MSIP began, it was in the vanguard of school improvement initiatives around the world. MSIP is an example of a whole-school approach to reform that originated in 1991 with private foundation support and has evolved into an independent, non-profit organization. Its goal is to improve the learning experiences and outcomes of secondary school students, particularly those at risk, by building schools’ capacities. In this chapter, the authors examine MSIP as an example, in an array of school improvement initiatives that has incorporated many of the elements that were supposed to make a difference but have not really penetrated the way secondary schools work.
