The purpose of the Common Core State Standards is to prepare students to succeed in college and career pursuits. To that end, the Common Core calls on teachers to focus on deepening students' understanding of what they're learning, enhancing their problem-solving skills, and improving their ability to communicate ideas. At the same time, states…

The first two goals of "Teaching Our Way to the Top, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools" (CMS) Strategic Plan 2014,--Effective Teaching and Leadership and Performance Management--make clear that the district's top two priorities are ensuring excellent instruction districtwide and creating a performance culture organized on the principles of…

After spending decades introducing curriculum and instructional programs with little to show in the way of student achievement results, the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), under the leadership of Chancellor Michelle Rhee, decided to shift its focus. Emphasizing what to teach had yielded few results. Dogged by its standing as perhaps…

This paper documents Pittsburgh's transformation from a typical, adversarial district-union dynamic to one of deep, substantive collaboration over the course of several years. This work has catapulted Pittsburgh to the vanguard of efforts to improve teacher effectiveness, and helped secure more than $80 million in philanthropic and federal grants.…

School systems across the country are working hard to fix broken teacher evaluation systems. This work offers the promise of regular, meaningful assessment of teacher performance. While this represents a significant advance, it is one part of a bigger picture: a teacher performance management system that links accountability, support, ongoing…

There's a lot of work happening all over the country to "turnaround" schools. Federal stimulus programs, including Title 1 Improvement Grants and Race to the Top, have caused many states and school systems to focus on how to address schools trapped in a cycle of failure and "turn them around." On the school level, there are some shining examples.…

Urban Teacher Residencies (UTRs) are an emerging innovation designed to embody best practices in recruitment, screening, preparation, placement, induction, and teacher leadership for urban school districts. UTRs can be a key element of urban districts' portfolio of pathways into teaching and a lynchpin of a larger strategy to strengthen the…

Thinking and acting strategically about human capital development and management is the lifeblood of most high-performing businesses and organizations. Public education in this nation should be no different. Principals' and teachers' performance has more effect on student achievement than any other factor and their effectiveness in increasing…

Significant improvements in student learning require real change at the heart of instruction: the interaction of students and teachers around the content to be learned. This paper suggests a set of design specifications for strengthening this interaction of student, teacher and content and increasing student performance across a school district.…

While most urban school districts face rapid turnover in leadership and limited results, Boston has won national attention for its stability and success. The purpose of the study is to inform the leadership transition that will occur as Payzant's superintendency comes to a close in June 2006. This study examines Boston's accomplishments and…