The 2012 MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough Schools are outstanding examples of how determined and focused leaders create and sustain school improvement. The schools are places of strategic decision making where dedicated adults demonstrate their conviction that every student can and will achieve. Each of the schools demonstrates the efficacy…

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…

This article presents an interview with Wes Taylor, the 2011 MetLife/NASSP National High School Principal of the Year. In this interview, Taylor shares credit with the teachers and staff members at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, for the school's systemic and long-lasting improvement in instruction and climate. He mentions that the…

When reforming practices to help all students succeed, secondary school leaders face the unique challenge of aligning the efforts of educators from different disciplines. In addition, they know that few common measures capture student growth across these disciplines. If a school has a history of success, a deep examination of its practices may not…

This article features Lesher Middle School, a school of choice, as are all of the schools in the Poudre School District in Ft. Collins, Colorado. In 2004, it was a traditional junior high school with a declining enrollment that housed an application-based International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IB MYP) that resulted in tracking…

This article presents an interview with Cathy Carnahan, the 2011 MetLife/NASSP National Middle Level Principal of the Year. Carnahan makes adult learning a priority to support student achievement at Duniway Middle School in McMinnville, Oregon. She describes her school as a community of learners that is a safe setting for teachers to lead and…

For the past three years, the faculty and administrators of Diamond Fork Junior High School--a large junior high in Spanish Fork, Utah--have been on an amazing journey of examining the school's educational practices with the intent of improving learning opportunities for all its students. In March 2009, the administrators and the faculty…

In the 2006-07 school year, North Brunswick High School--a rural, racially and economically diverse high school in Leland, North Carolina--was identified as a priority school by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Overall student proficiency was at 48.6%, indicating that less than one-half of all students earned a score of…

Helping students make the transition to high school and preparing them for postsecondary learning is built into the day-to-day processes at Statesville (NC) High School. The author and his staff members always strive to do what is best for the students. Because statistics indicate that the freshman class is always the largest and the senior class…

When low test scores demanded a hard look at the curriculum, literacy became a focus for improvement at Brockton (MA) High School. Schoolwide training for teachers and a rolling implementation model ensured consistency and reinforcement of the skills. Results came in improved scores and national recognitions, including selection as a National…

The literacy team at Brentwood (NY) High School, a large urban high school, focused its efforts on building content-area teachers' literacy instruction skills. The team is made up of teachers from the various content areas, including physical education and art, as well as supportive administrators. The team developed a pacing guide, a monthly…

During the 2008-2009 school year, faculty members at New Fairfield (CT) Middle School examined relevance and student engagement in relation to student achievement. Subtle clues indicated that students were not fully engaged in their learning: many students did not relate their classroom experiences to their personal reality or to their vision of…

Response to intervention (RTI) protocols at the secondary level require a systems approach that is supported by professional learning teams (PLTs). PLTs create viable courses in which most students experience success and work together to plan further interventions. PLT protocol work begins with the design of uniform summative assessments and is…

"Webster needs an extreme makeover," students told Principal Joan Brixey upon her arrival at Daniel Webster Middle School in Waukegan, Illinois, three short years ago. The message came in a student-produced video that highlighted things that needed repair at Webster. Brixey was already a firm believer in the proposition that students…

The lines between academic study and career and technical skills training are blurring. State and national leaders are beginning to recognize the transformational potential career and technical education (CTE) offers for such issues as secondary-postsecondary transitions, remediation, and the drop-out problem. At the national level, the National…