Purpose: School principals should see themselves as social justice leaders, who have the ability to allow all students to succeed, regardless of their characteristics and backgrounds. At the same time, school principals are also called upon to demonstrate instructional leadership, which emphasizes the teaching and learning aspects of school…

This case study explores the strategic plan of Janice Jackson, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, along with the central office leadership team she assembled over a five-year period. In July 2015 Dr. Jackson was tapped by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel to become Chief Education Officer (CEdO) in partnership with CEO Forrest Claypool, a veteran public…

This is the Executive Summary for the report, "Transforming Central Office Practices for Equity, Coherence, and Continuous Improvement: Chicago Public Schools under the Leadership of Dr. Janice K. Jackson." This case study explores the strategic plan of Janice Jackson, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, along with the central office…

The Region 5 Comprehensive Center worked in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Education to develop a professional learning framework and toolkit. Although they were developed to meet the needs of education staff in Tennessee, the guidance can benefit other state education stakeholders in their efforts to ensure all professional learning…

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has produced a five-brief series documenting insights from their efforts to understand how educators and researchers can build relationships that support a shared action research agenda around social and emotional learning (SEL). It shares the perspectives of researchers and…

Resources in higher education steer colleges and universities both strategically and tactically. They drive incentives and accountability for faculty and staff while providing academics with the infrastructure they need in order to perform effectively. But while American colleges and universities remain the gold standard for worldwide higher…

A leadership academy is a formal professional learning opportunity for current school leaders, focused on augmenting knowledge and skills, increasing specialization, and refreshing leadership practices. States interested in supporting leadership academies through federal or other funding sources can look to current models of leadership academies…

Across the social sectors, a growing number of organizations are embracing continuous improvement approaches and organizing themselves as networks in order to attack complex problems. To succeed, networks must learn quickly by studying their own practices, continuously adapting to changing circumstances within their organizations and in the…

This study investigates the leadership practices associated with, impacts of, and challenges encountered from a "big city" Chief Executive Officer's continuous improvement approach to system-level leadership. Undertaken from Summer 2019 to early Fall 2020, this study used organizational learning and continuous improvement as tools to…

This study sought to gain insight into teacher perceptions of their ability to improve a high poverty urban school. The school selected for this study came from a purposive sampling of urban schools that had exited from improvement required status and had then demonstrated gains in student academic performance in subsequent years. Four teachers…

Professional Development Schools promote connections between schools and teacher education programs. These partnerships are thought to benefit teacher candidates, teachers, and teacher educators through promoting positive and collaborative relationships and bridging the efforts of schools and universities. In the school year 2016-2017, seven…

Self-regulation--the capacity to modulate attention and emotion--is a robust predictor of important outcomes across the life span. Contemplative practices, such as yoga and mindfulness, have been implemented in schools and shown to improve self-regulation. For the most part, studies incorporating contemplative practices have used quantitative…

Today, higher education faces increased accountability to assess and measure student learning. However, traditional metrics (like standardized tests and graduation rates) fail to provide a comprehensive understanding of exactly what students learn in a contextualized program of study. To address this gap, the researchers piloted a charrette model…

Purpose: Historically, the school effectiveness and improvement movement has focussed its attention on "within school" factors associated with effectiveness and improvement and on the individual school as the primary unit of analysis for improvement and scrutiny purposes. More recently, research has focussed on school-to-school…

Globalisation, migration and super diversity have urged teachers to cultivate their intercultural competence so as to work more successfully in their culturally diverse schools. Previous literature argues that teacher professional development for building intercultural competence plays a pivotal role in improving the intercultural school. For…