Scott Hamilton is the Forrest Gump of education reform, although with a lot more IQ points and fewer chocolates. He worked for Bill Bennett in the U.S. Department of Education and for Benno Schmidt at the Edison Project. He authorized charter schools in Massachusetts, co-founded the KIPP network, quadrupled the size of Teach For America (TFA), and…

Through an illustrative example of Together We Achieve at Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois, this chapter outlines an institutional approach for improving conditions for Black men on campus.

In early November 2013, the authors started talking about visiting the Hurley School, a dual-language school in Boston, Massachusetts. The Hurley School had spent considerable time transitioning to the Common Core State Standards on literacy, but little time addressing the shifts in math. They worried that math classes were no longer rigorous…

Crystal Bonds is Principal at The High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College, New York, NY. During her three years as a new principal at one of New York City's eight specialized high schools, she found herself constantly wrestling with two challenges: (1) Maintaining the school's high academic standards; and (2) protecting the…

To remain internationally competitive, states needed clearer, higher, and comparable K-12 learning standards aligned with college and career expectations, and as ambitious as those of the countries that lead the world in education. Idaho's old academic standards were not preparing students for postsecondary education, which contributed to the…

Policy makers' attempts to improve low-achieving schools through reform measures are not new to the 21st century. Research asserts that this policy churn has done little, if anything, to change student achievement levels. Based on the research, I assert that policy reforms such as teacher evaluations and test-based assessment, and school…

A significant proportion of students enrolling in mathematical subjects designed for non-STEM majors in university courses have minimal mathematical skills and poor motivation. This combination of starting attributes often leads to failure in the first mathematical subject encountered. We have been implementing simple, alternative pedagogies in an…

Lately educators are hearing more about full-service community schools, which pair schools with other community resources in pursuit of the long-term goal of improving academic performance. (These full-service schools are differentiated from the community day schools that serve expelled students.) The focus on academics is what makes today's…

The College Assessment for Learning Program (CALP) was initiated in order to improve student learning outcomes and to strengthen professional conversations across three campuses. It was based on a backward mapping process developed earlier at one of the junior campuses with successful outcomes. Analysis of NAPLAN, School Certificate and Higher…

In the current era of mathematics standards, whether they are Common Core State Standards or other state standards, effective vertical mathematics teams offer an opportunity for teachers to grow professionally through shared experiences, for leadership to grow among the faculty, and for the school to change its perspective on the teaching and…

Whether an administrator, faculty member, classroom teacher, or specials teacher (Art, Music, and Physical Education), everyone wants students test scores to improve and know that they contributed to it. These improved scores validate the roles and influence of educators and administrators. The purpose of this article is two-fold: (1) to assist…

Mentors need to be proactive in helping the newer teacher to anticipate the critical episodes that inevitably face any teacher. These episodes include the challenge to manage a daunting workload while following habits necessary to stay healthy; to recover from disappointments, errors, and disrespect; to form positive relationships with students,…

In this article, the authors discuss a recent study they carried out at a mid-sized state university that used a polling method called deliberative polling. This type of polling differs from conventional polling in that respondents are polled before and after a deliberative session in which they discuss issues based on pertinent and…

Instructional rounds are a disciplined way for educators to work together to improve a school's instructional core. The practice combines three common elements of improvement: classroom observation, an improvement strategy, and a network. Instructional rounds differ from supervision and evaluation in that people doing rounds learn something…

Curtin University's Curriculum 2010 (C2010) initiative aimed at ensuring degree programs were excellent and sustainable. Before C2010, graduate attributes were not universally emphasised and indicators showed room for improvement in generic skills. C2010 focused on embedding graduate attributes through three strategies. The first was embedding…