School Improvement

Editor’s Note

Articles on this page examine some of the myriad challenges and difficult choices associated with the work of organizational change in schools. The topic includes discussion of promising strategies and practices associated with supporting and sustaining reform.—N.W.

10 Essential Questions About School Reform

Education researcher Jane David and Stanford University education historian Larry Cuban have just published Cutting Through the Hype: The Essential Guide to School Reform. In this interview, David talks about this revised and expanded edition of their popular primer, first published in 2006. Continue

“Clicks” Get Bricks

Once completely virtual, some K–12 online schools are settling into buildings

From its humble beginnings with 400 students in 2001, Connections Academy offered a complete, full-time education online for kindergarten through 12th grade students who wanted or needed to learn in more of a home-school setting. Continue

Inverting the Pyramid of School Reform

Practice should drive research and policy, not the reverse

When I was eight years old, I was sure that I knew how Santa Claus worked. I knew that the story my parents were telling me could not be true, because mathematically it just did not make sense. There were more than 5 billion people in the world, of which at least a billion were kids. There were only 86,400 seconds in a day. There was no way Santa could get to all of those chimneys. So how did my presents arrive at 402 Winston Avenue in North Baltimore?
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Q&A with Christopher Lubienski and Peter Weitzel

Four Central Dilemmas of Struggling Schools

The starting points for a developmental approach to intervention

The Real Race to the Top

To win, your district needs a strategy—not just a strategic plan

Scenes from the School Turnaround Movement

Passion, frustration, mid-course corrections mark rapid reforms

Improving Teaching and Learning through Instructional Rounds

Lessons From Down Under

Urgent Lessons from Unexpected Schools

An Interview with Karin Chenoweth

Unlearned Lessons

Six stumbling blocks to our schools' success

Professionalism, Partnerships, and Positive Public Discourse

How Ontario built support for its successful school reform strategy

Getting and Spending

Schools and districts share lessons on the effective uses of philanthropy

Creating Coherence in District Administration

A framework based on the work of the Public Education Leadership Project

Finding High-Achieving Schools in Unexpected Places

An interview with Karin Chenoweth

Is Coaching the Best Use of Resources?

For some schools, other investments should come first

Three Thousand Missing Hours

Where does the instructional time go?

In Praise of the Comprehensive High School

We can learn from what small schools do well—but there are things big schools can do better

Making Schools Safer for LGBT Youth

Despite signs of progress, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students say harassment persists

The “Data Wise” Improvement Process

Eight steps for using test data to improve teaching and learning

Where High Turnover Meets Low Performance

New initiatives target the special problems of hard-to-staff schools

What (So-Called) Low-Performing Schools Can Teach (So-Called) High-Performing Schools

Aiming for AYP

The quest to make “adequate yearly progress” leads one targeted district to teach math in all junior high classes

School-Based Coaching

A revolution in professional development—or just the latest fad?

Rethinking High School and Beyond

A European-style proposal for strengthening the transition to work or higher education

One Charter School's Formula for Success

Could It Work in a Large, Traditional Public School?

Telling Tales Out of Charter School

What educators and policymakers can learn from the successes and failures of charters

Buying Quality

With budget cuts and layoffs from coast to coast, schools turn to private donations to make up the shortfall

Do AP and IB Courses Have Merit?

A new study by the National Research Council says yes, but recommends changes in how courses are taught

Fuel for Reform

The Importance of Trust in Changing Schools

Using Charters to Improve Urban Schools

Two university-run programs are taking advantage of flexible charter school laws in an effort to raise minority achievement

The Limits of “Change”

Supporting real instructional improvement requires more than fiddling with organizational structures

Solving Problems with ‘Action Research’

A conversation with Pedro Noguera

“We Don't Allow That Here”

In an effort to stem student violence, schools experiment with ways to improve school safety

Successful School Reform Efforts Share Common Features

Schools big and small show that standards-based reform doesn't have to mean standardization. But it does require building "a culture of excellence."

Related Books

Inside School Turnarounds
How It's Being Done
Instructional Rounds in Education
Bringing School Reform to Scale
School Reform from the Inside Out
What Next?
Improving Struggling Schools
Strategic Priorities for School Improvement