The flat structure of American schools is ill-suited to meeting today's demands for education improvement. Historically, American schools have addressed this instructional support deficit with a patchwork of poorly defined roles and responsibilities--underused department chairs, fitful coaching models, and informal teacher leaders who generally…

Today's accountability paradigm has led many teachers to take on too much work in the push to raise test scores. Teachers don't need to do more; rather, they need to approach instruction differently. To improve results, teachers must require that students assume more responsibility for their own learning. Three key ways in which students and…

Since 1988, National Center for School Leadership at University of Illinois has systematically explored what school leaders can do to enhance classroom teaching and student learning. Articles in this section focus on NCSL findings and illuminate connections between leadership and reform. Researchers assumed leadership is multidimensional, student…

The pedagogical ideas underlying the school-to-work model and embodied in the scholarship/citizenship/artisanship triad can be expressed in various program components: studying the history of democratic capitalism; interviewing CEOs; evaluating personal characteristics and career opportunities; examining economic trends, policymaking, and…