How are administrators leveraging the expertise and passion in their buildings? How do they inspire enthusiasm in their teachers and improve student achievement? How do they act as an agent for change? Those are the tasks the authors are given as instructional coaches. In the beginning, they were unsure how to tackle those tasks--or even if it was…

It is a challenge for schools with large populations of students from low-income, migrant, and international families to ensure that every student reaches proficiency on challenging state academic achievement standards and state academic assessments. Traditionally, schools across the country have tended to cope with this challenge by offering a…

As the principal of Baruch College Campus High School in New York City, the author wanted to help her teachers communicate with one another and put structures in place to develop the vision of the school while giving teachers opportunities for input and growth. After conducting a needs assessment, she found that teachers who had an ally in the…

Successful integration of technology into education calls for a new vision of professional development as an ongoing program aligned with curriculum goals, designed with built-in evaluation, and sustained by adequate financial and staff support. Research identifies three effective collaborative models: peer coaching, study groups, and thematic…