This article describes how the Virginia Beach schools have embraced differentiation as its new instructional philosophy, in part by adding it to teacher evaluation. The heart of guiding everyone in the district from novice to expert in the work focuses on these four essential questions: (1) Are we clear about what matters in curricula?; (2) Is the…

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;…

The single most significant factor in increasing student achievement is having highly effective teachers in the classroom. In Nevada's Washoe County School District, the 58th-largest in the country, a new strategic plan--Envision WCSD 2015 Investing in Our Future--is pushing aggressive reforms in employee hiring. With 94 schools to serve, the plan…

Superintendents across the country have shared their frustration with planning initiatives that consume valuable chunks of time and energy without yielding a viable tool to drive improvement and accountability. In this article, the authors provide an example that reflects the actual experience of a school district whose identity they are shielding…

Presidents, governors and mayors are often publicly assessed on what they accomplish in their first 100 days in office. This is a traditional measuring stick for public officials. Starting off on the right foot also is viewed as a factor in how superintendents are remembered or whether there will be sufficient reasons for being remembered at all.…

During the author's travels all over the United States speaking to a wide variety of audiences, and his visits with leadership groups in the Middle East and Far East, he has encountered diverse audiences who share his concern that the majority of students are leaving high school without the skills that matter most--even in those school districts…

As resources shrink, the need to do more with less becomes critical. As a business CEO turned superintendent, this author has seen firsthand that many options exist, but none are fun, easy, or politically rewarding. He contends that the challenge of managing declining resources is not the choice between doing less for children or discovering new…

In December 2009, a rapid-growth school district on the Texas Gulf Coast shifted its paradigm of rezoning. Even though half of the Katy Independent School District (Katy ISD) was affected, it achieved a genuine ownership for boundary changes that would affect more than 11,500 students at five schools. Katy ISD accomplished this by seeking…

This article describes how a school district's use of a transparent tool coalesced support for systemic improvement. The author was looking for a way to push improvement in his 4,000-student school system when he discovered the balanced scorecard, a strategic tool for performance management. The author details how the balanced scorecard helped him…

The author, who is a superintendent of the Iredell-Statesville Schools in Statesville, North Carolina, discusses how his school district has obtained a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Along the journey to the Baldrige Award, the author shares his experiences and many turning points he and his cabinet members encountered. The author…

Ten years ago, the Atlanta Public Schools had low and declining student achievement, demoralized teachers, crumbling buildings, high turnover among superintendents (average tenure of two years) and disaffected parents pulling their children out of the system. More than 60 percent of the city's high school students missed at least two weeks of…

Everything in K-12 education is instant, short-term, the quick fix. As such, little attention is paid to long-term planning and even less to leadership succession or stability. The change agenda is the leadership agenda and from the very top, both are being mismanaged. More and more, the author is seeing this with his own eyes in his studies of…

The Delaware Department of Education, in collaboration with the Delaware Academy for School Leadership at the University of Delaware, has been the recipient of Wallace Foundation funding since 2000 as part of the foundation's initiative to develop and share ideas for strengthening education leadership. The grant has enabled the state education…

As American schools increasingly are called on to ensure students have the skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century, school districts nationwide are responding with a renewed interest in systemic change. The revived attention notwithstanding, educators, policymakers and the public still misunderstand the true meaning of systemic change in…

The Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Community School District has long been recognized as a strong school system, educating many of its students to the highest levels of learning. However, like many others across the state and nation, the district also enrolls students whose potential is not being realized. For Cedar Rapids district to become a great school…