Beginning with the "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001 (NCLB) and reinforced by the "Education Sciences Reform Act" of 2002 (ESRA), the federal government established explicit expectations for the role of research in informing decisions about education programs, policies, and practice, and it also specified new expectations for…

In the fall of 2015, Jonathan Howland interviewed about a dozen independent school heads to inquire about novel programs and developments in their schools that, if they take root and flourish, could be "game changing"; about their vision of independent schools 40 years hence, in mid-21st-century America; and about impediments to reaching…

This second issue of "Connect" highlights innovative teaching as practiced by teachers and administrators in Michigan schools as they seek to provide greater personalization for every student's learning. Nicholas Provenzano and Ben Gilpin give field reports from their schools, which have implemented a version of 20-Time--a concept…

All schools have the capacity to become great schools. All they need is the focus and leadership to create the proper conditions for the board, school leadership team, staff, and constituents to do so. In this article, the author presents 25 elements that are central to great independent schools. These include: Create and perpetuate an intentional…

The best hope for accelerating much needed improvement in student achievement is by using a range of pedagogical and technological innovations that deliver personalized learning to each student. The authors examine three school initiatives across the country that are using technology and new teaching methods successfully to drive student…

The United States has long struggled with the challenge of educating children experiencing extreme disadvantage, including the poor, ethnic and racial minorities, English language learners, and foster children. In this article, we argue that solutions to this problem lie not to the east or west, but to the south. Specifically, we offer the…

What drives decisions about what gets taught, how, and to whom? In some districts, teachers base these decisions on the organization of textbooks, the timing of pacing charts, or lesson plans from prior years. Often, they base curricular decisions on content that needs to be "covered." In contrast, in many of the United States'…

This publication outlines the fundamental principles and process of Strategic School Design. Through more than a decade of research and practice in the area of school resource use, we have found that high-performing schools are responding to the changing context in education by using people, time, technology, and money in ways that look…

"What if?" might be the most powerful question in education. NAESP and Crayola challenge schools with that question every year in their Champion Creatively Alive Children grant competition. Schools are encouraged to ask questions such as: What if arts-infused learning thrived every day in schools? What if schools relied more on project-based…

The Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) and the Center on School Turnaround (CST) collaborated to develop case studies of three selected schools receiving SIG funds that have, with the support of their districts, promoted the use of early childhood programming (PK-3) as a key strategy in their schools' turnaround models. The goal…

Success for All, a comprehensive schoolwide reform approach for high-poverty elementary schools, has been successful in spreading itself across the country because of its local and national network of schools willing and able to provide technical and interpersonal support. Title I and other federal policies have contributed to scaling up proven…

Principals are in a paradoxical position. On one hand, they're called on to use research-based strategies to improve student achievement. On the other, they're increasingly required to micromanage teachers by observing in classrooms and engaging in intensive evaluation. The authors point out that these two positions are at odds with each other. In…

This research study sought to identify the successful strategies used by teachers in high performing, high poverty schools to address the needs of economically disadvantaged students. The study examined teacher perceptions, motivation factors, and instructional strategies as they relate to the improvement of the academic progress of economically…

To assist system administrators as they pursue their own teacher leadership initiatives, this profile from Leading Educators and the Aspen Institute details the steps Denver Public Schools (DPS) took to design and implement its Differentiated Roles pilot. Specifically, it examines the initiative's opportunities and challenges within the context of…

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and the Mathematics Design Collaborative (MDC) are strategies designed to improve how teachers teach and students learn. The designs encourage teacher collaboration and creativity and offer flexible frameworks for building lessons in all disciplines. Their purpose is to engage students to read challenging…