A team of 4th-grade teachers in California's Sacramento City Unified School District collaboratively examines student writing products using a rubric that outlines elements in high-quality persuasive writing. The teachers analyze how they taught and assigned the written work in relationship to what the students produced. They focus on what a few…

When the Minneapolis Public Schools first set out to hire turnaround school principals, administrators followed their usual process--which focused largely on reputation and anecdotal support and considered mainly internal candidates. Yet success at the complicated task of turning around the fortunes of a failing school depends on exceptionally…

School District 54 in Schaumburg, Illinois, always viewed itself as a great school district. Unfortunately, many parents and community members in the district, located on the outskirts of Chicago, thought of it as less than stellar. Student achievement had remained stagnant for several years. Staff members were becoming increasingly frustrated and…

The proposition that competition will spur public schools to perform better is now familiar to most Americans and self-evident to many. It is a compelling idea. While much attention has focused on student performance in charter schools, a distinct and important policy question relates to how increased competition from charter schools affects the…

Whether schools have productive data-analysis sessions leading to instructional improvements and increased student learning or meetings that are a waste of time and resources could well hinge on the structures that are put in place by and the expectations of school and district leadership. Based on his work as a data coach with more than 200…

Business and industry leaders do not flinch at the idea of placing top talent in struggling departments and divisions. This is not always the case in public education. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools made a bold statement to its community in its strategic plan by identifying two key reform levers--(1) an effective principal leading each school;…

Finding, keeping and supporting great educators presents the single biggest challenge to successful school turnarounds. Without teachers and administrators who bring the needed combination of skills and passion, nothing else will achieve the desired effect. The turnaround model supported by the U.S. Department of Education School Improvement Grant…

Along with radically shifting priorities and practices to put better learning first, recent experiences and new research underscore a second, closely related imperative for districts--that principals get the high-quality training they need to be successful as frontline leaders of instructional change throughout their schools. In fact, no…

Sanger Unified School District in California's Central Valley had been named one of the worst 98 school districts in California. It was not only one of the worst-performing districts in a state with 1,042 districts, but it also had been flagged as one of the first to be named a program improvement district under No Child Left Behind. In this…

Last May, the seven most recent New York State Teacher of the Year award winners joined the 1993 recipient in sounding the alarm bell over the state's new plan to stake 40 percent of teachers' performance evaluations on students' standardized test scores. In their letter to Chancellor Merryl Tisch and the state Board of Regents, the teachers said…

For central offices to become full partners with schools in improving teaching and learning, simply defining new roles or creating new reporting structures is not enough. Through the authors' recent central-office research, they have confirmed that creating the conditions for improved teaching and learning districtwide demands new practices within…

The continuum of learning walks can be viewed in stages with various dimensions including frequency, participants, purpose and the presence of an instructional framework within which the instructional practice is viewed. Steps in the continuum progress as the learning walks are conducted more frequently. One way to ensure this is accomplished is…

This article describes a better form of peer support for superintendents. Old models of peer support--guest speakers, war stories, and a culture of protected and isolated practice--cannot provide what superintendents need. Today, in a major cultural change, dozens of superintendents in small groups share real problems, improve their practice and…

Imagine being part of a school district where children choose to come in early from recess to do schoolwork, a place where student engagement is so contagious it has overtaken the faculty and staff, a district where the focus is truly on every child every day. Many would contend such an ideal culture simply does not or cannot exist in today's…

Benchmarking against similar districts, ideally higher-performing ones, can be a valuable tool for determining the appropriate level of central-office investment. Unfortunately, reliable benchmarks on district spending in teaching and learning support are not readily available. This should not preclude districts from using this valuable method to…