When Noline Martin became assistant principal at Thurgood Marshall Elementary, a pre-K-6 school in Richardson, Texas, in 2017, the school was working its way up from being declared a failing campus two years earlier. It had recently improved to a "met standard" rating, but Martin knew the school could do more to help its students. Her…

Recognizing that teacher leaders play an essential role in curriculum adoption and implementation, the Chicago Public Schools Department of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) partnered with Loyola University Chicago's Center for Science and Math Education to create a system of professional learning designed to advance teachers'…

Many teachers are underprepared to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Most have insufficient training and field experiences from their preparation programs, and once they begin teaching, they often lack collaborative professional learning about supporting students with disabilities. This article describes s how a multidisciplinary team…

Literacy is a fundamental skill for students in every academic subject area and, most importantly, for navigating the world outside of school. The Long Beach Network for School Improvement focuses on building educators' capacity to support student literacy skills in middle schools in Long Beach, California, with a particular focus on increasing…

Amid soaring rates of teacher burnout and attrition, those at City Year are finding a trend that may seem surprising: Participants in their Network for School Improvement, when asked how likely they would be to recommend the network to other colleagues, have given an average rating of 9 out of 10. The authors have found that six key principles can…

Viewing classrooms as apolitical, race-neutral environments is not working -- and never has. In promoting color blindness, educators have denied student racial identities. In using the broad language of multicultural education, schools have maintained a strict adherence to white, middle class, heteronormative definitions of success. As a result,…

As leadership coaches, Kendall Zoller and Antonia Issa Lahera has worked with diverse groups of students. As they have pursued a path of equity for all students, teachers, families, and communities, they have developed a framework to develop, nurture, and grow collaborative relationships. They call it HeartSpace (Lahera & Zoller, 2021).…

The Alhambra Elementary School District in Phoenix, Arizona, uses the Standards for Professional Learning to shape and guide their planning and professional learning design, and embeds them in meetings and learning opportunities for district-level directors, specialists, and coaches to ensure they integrate them throughout their work across the…

Continuous improvement is at the heart of all teaching and learning. Just as we strive to nurture their students' growth and improvement, educators should be continually growing and improving. As a result, Michelle Pledger and Mari Jones designed the Deeper Learning Hub Fellowship. The aim of the fellowship was to increase K-12 teachers'…

As the world races to combat a pandemic, slow climate change, and solve many other public health challenges, it is clear that developing young people's scientific knowledge should be an urgent priority in schools. The goal of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is to foster scholars and citizens who can think critically and creatively to…

Coaches play integral roles in many schools' learning cultures, but they often find their entry into coaching life disorienting and difficult. Educators typically take on the mantle of coach because they were successful as teachers, and they may have limited experiences working with adult learners. For new coaches, having access to the support and…

At the heart of the most successful pre-K and early elementary programs is professional learning -- and at the heart of the professional learning is coaching. Even though early childhood is a unique period of development, the success of early learning coaches offers valuable lessons for professional learning across grade levels and settings. It…

It is a tragic irony that George Floyd Jr., once a brilliant Black boy with dreams to serve on the highest court in the U.S., would grow up to be murdered by a white law enforcement officer who pressed his knee needlessly against Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. What did young George Floyd learn about the justice system? What do young…

At the Center for Black Educator Development, the organization Sharif El-Mekki founded and leads, they believe that to teach Black children "superbly" is a revolutionary act. In service of that goal, they prepare educators to instill in Black children a positive sense of their own racial identity and, in so doing, equip them with the…

The need for social and emotional learning (SEL) has increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unprecedented school closings have led to social isolation, illness, and economic hardship -- exacerbating anxiety -- and reopening plans continue to cause uncertainty and stress. These factors heighten the urgency to equip educators and school…