This newsletter of best practices in implementing the High Schools That Work (HSTW), Making Middle Grades Work (MMGW) and Technology Centers That Work (TCTW) school improvement models is based on presentations at the 27th Annual HSTW Staff Development Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the summer of 2013. The newsletter is divided up into the following sections: (1) Those Who Sleep Through History Are Condemned to Repeat History: Strategies for Engaging Students in Learning; (2) High Schools Join to Use the LDC Writer's Notebook for a "Campus Reads" Program; (3) Achievement Rises as Tech Center Blends Literacy With Career and Technical Education; (4) There Is Hope: Get Off the Escalator!; (5) Merging Reading and Math: A Whole-Brain Approach; (6) Inspired Teaching Means Higher Student Achievement; (7) Math Literacy: Using Reading Strategies to Understand Math; (8) Math Teachers Successfully Implement MDC Lessons and Tasks; (9) The Academy at Semmes: A Successful Approach to College and Career Readiness; (10) Using the LDC Framework in Middle Grades Classrooms Across the District; (11) Stop Saying Your Students Can't Write: They Can!; (12) Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC): A Schoolwide Model for Success; and (13) Formative Assessment Is Good Teaching!