Conventional thinking holds that districts and schools face a strategic decision between two fundamentally different alternatives: make or buy? The former refers to planning, designing, and enacting school-specific improvement initiatives. The latter refers to contracting with external providers of schoolwide improvement programs. However, there…

Principals manage schools, ensuring that nothing interrupts business as usual. They spend little time on instruction. A good principal is the one who works in a high-achieving school that has no significant management problems. Districts celebrate improved student results by recognizing an outstanding crop of students, rarely pointing to the…

Virginia state officials selected the University of Virginia to run a training program that will let an experienced school leader earn a credential as a "turnaround specialist." This strategy, borrowed from the corporate world, is meant to form an elite cadre of school leaders that are able to jump-start improvement in low-performing…

This booklet was developed as part of the Pilot Communities Program and focuses on how to develop and use teams in schools. The first section of the book, entitled "The Groundwork for Building a Team," includes the rationale for and definition of a team and discussions of: (a) team goals and objectives and real world constraints; (b) selection of…

The Ford Training and Placement Program (FTPP) is a collaborative effort of the University of Chicago, the Chicago Public Schools, and the communities which the schools serve. The model assumes that (a) each school is a unique system characterized by institutional role sets and personalities with individual needs and (b) universities cannot…

Alaska has mounted an intensive statewide staff development effort to help teachers and administrators use research-based practices. Leadership teams from each school, with assistance from the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, develop improvement plans and implementation strategies. Administrators, teachers, and school board members…