In this article, the authors highlight key elements of their new model for developing educators' capacities, as well as key takeaways about the potential of supporting adult development. Focusing on the five elements -- Theory, Culture, Pillar Practices, Feedback, and Sustainability -- of their developmental model for building capacity can foster…

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…

As charter schools continue to attract lots of political and policy attention, research has emerged suggesting that these schools enroll fewer students with disabilities than public schools. Given that the success of the movement is based on charters being more effective than public schools as determined by test scores, it is not entirely…

As recently as five years ago, educators politely listened to, and largely ignored, suggestions that the world is changing at a dramatic rate and that education must adapt. Today, many educators agree that the traditional Industrial Age model of learning no longer adequately prepares students for their futures. As a result, many schools, and…

Today's education technology holds immense promise, but what matters more than the tools themselves are how they are used in schools and in classrooms. In "Breakthrough Leadership in the Digital Age," Frederick M. Hess and Bror Saxberg argue that educators have tended to think of adopting technology as a way to "reform" or…

The goal of Carnegie "Challenge" papers is to lift up ideas and issues in a way that elevates them to the nation's agenda. This paper is a "Challenge" paper, and serves as a call to realize the full power of the Common Core by redesigning and reshaping schools to support teachers and maximize key resources, rather than…

Although a relatively new idea in the U.S., weighted student funding (WSF) for individual schools has a long history in the Netherlands. This country of about 16.5 million people has been using a version of WSF for all its primary schools (serving children from age 4 to 12) for 25 years. In this article we describe and evaluate the Dutch system…

"First Things First" is a reform model intended to transform elementary, middle, and high schools serving significant proportions of economically disadvantaged students. Its three main components are: (1) "small learning communities" of students and teachers; (2) a family and student advocate system that pairs staff members and…

The purpose of this ethnographic study is to examine how a commitment to socially just pedagogies influences the core practices and policies of a school. This article presents a comprehensive description and analysis of two public middle schools committed to teaching for social justice: Urban Promise Academy and San Francisco Community School.…

Since 2002 the Consortium on Chicago School Research, in collaboration with the Mills College in Oakland, California, has conducted a series of studies on the Chicago High School Redesign Initiative (CHSRI)--a partnership between Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the Gates Foundation, and local Chicago foundations to create approximately two dozen…

A report is presented on school reform interventions and outcomes of the Howard University Center of Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR)/Capstone Institute that uses evidence-based strategies to promote the academic achievement and social competence of African American children. The "participant action…

A study examined the impact of school professional community on the intellectual quality of student achievement (authentic achievement) and the relationship of professional community to the technical and social organization of the classroom, including the mediating relationship of these classroom organizational features on authentic achievement.…

This is the second in a series of reports that examines the role of coaches in facilitating school change. The report explains that as coaching, or external facilitation of school change, becomes a more widespread strategy for helping schools undergo comprehensive restructuring to create more professional collaborative cultures and to increase…

This paper describes one model of school reconstruction, which includes a professional development school, being implemented at Celebration School in Celebration, Florida. The description highlights the educational practices and daily learning experiences of students at Celebration. The narrative provides a picture of the philosophical foundation…

This book argues that large American high schools have become obsolete and uses case studies of four new or restructured schools to show why smallness and distinctiveness are prerequisites for school reform. The large comprehensive high school developed as an economical means of providing a range of "tracks," from practical subjects for future…