A school is much more than a collection of individual classrooms. Fostering a collaborative and learning-oriented culture can improve teachers' and students' success. In model classrooms, teachers who have participated in professional learning open their classroom doors and agree to have others observe as they work to integrate the targeted new…

With restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, we shifted to a video dance performance experience for the Fall 2020 semester at our university. We decided to use a drone to film an outdoor performance of our tap ensemble. This turned out to be a very successful performance experience for dancers, choreographers, and the online audience. This…

Efforts to tackle educator stress should balance self-care with demands for changes to the unjust systems that cause the stress. To illustrate how coaching can ensure that the steps educators take are equitable and include perspectives and voices of educators who have been historically marginalized, the author has created a composite story about…

Districts and schools often count on coaching to promote student learning and organizational change. Across the United States, a wide variety of coaches engage in various types of work with teachers as well as school leaders. But coaching is often loosely defined, weakly supported, and ultimately underutilized, and as a consequence, its promise…

This article captures lessons learned while coaching a team of writing teachers across a poetry writing unit of study. Because of the heightened pressure of successful implementation of curricular programs, coaching can become focused solely on implementation of resources with fidelity, which can neglect the art of teaching. This article captures…

Coach and ASCD author Cathy Toll knows that principals can face resistance and competing priorities when trying to make changes in schools. "Whole-staff coaching" is one tool to get all educators on the same page by putting teachers in control of planning, implementing, and evaluating change--and principals in charge of facilitating it.

Systems coaches provide support to teams responsible for improving the implementation of schoolwide service delivery framework such as multitiered system of supports (MTSS). This article first summarizes key findings about what systems coaching is, the goal systems coaches work toward, who these coaches support, and what systems coaches do. The…

Professional learning that includes coaching is an effective method of supporting teachers to make changes to their teaching practice. This article provides an overview of the initial in-situ professional learning and coaching in a primary school in Western Sydney facilitated by a Mathematics Teaching Educator. In this article I present the…

Educational change in higher education is challenging and complex, requiring engagement with a multitude of perspectives and contextual factors. In this paper, we present a case study based on our experiences of enacting a fundamental educational change in a medical program; namely, the steps taken in the transition to programmatic assessment.…

There is renewed interest around including performance assessments in state and local assessment systems to spur positive changes in classroom instruction and student learning. Previous research has identified the external conditions that mediate the role of assessment in changing instructional practices. We extend that work by focusing on the…

Many effective strategies exist to keep students safe, supported, and engaged in school. Restorative practice (RP) is a powerful approach for achieving these goals as it elevates student voice and can strengthen school climate. Annie M. White and John Kenneth Weiss share findings from an initiative through which high school student-faculty teams…

Coaches are trusted advisors, information conduits, sounding boards, and advocates who facilitate institutional change. This report summarizes findings from the first five years of the Student Success Center Network's Coaching Program, focusing particularly on the most recent phase that engaged directly with Centers in four states (California,…

The COVID-19 pandemic made traditionally proctored in-person exams impossible. This article provides a summary of the arguments against institutional adoption of remote proctoring services with a focus on equity, an account of the decision to avoid remote proctoring on the University of Michigan--Dearborn campus, and conclusions and suggestions…

Also known as The Nation's Report Card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of student achievement and their learning experiences in various subjects for the nation, states, and 27 urban districts. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is currently…

Evaluating the teaching performance of lecturers in higher education is important for both the Universities and the faculty themselves. Having information about teaching performance is essential to bring about change in student learning and assessment, to incentivize lecturers, to appraise lecturers and to make important administrative decisions.…