Whole school restorative practice (WSRP) calls for creating supportive, equitable schools, requiring broad systems change. This case study explores the journeys of three schools piloting WSRP in one Midwestern district and examines how school leaders designed and implemented within their school contexts. Schools were purposefully selected from…

Teachers play a major role in the success of educational reform, and reforms impact teachers in different ways. This paper explores the relationship between teacher identity and school reform: how a reform affords or constrains teacher professional identity construction, and how teacher identity construction enhances or hinders reform enactment.…

The purpose of this case study was to examine the leadership team of one successful school district to identify the characteristics, vision, and practice of the team. The study examined specific situations that the members of the administrative team identified as significant in their growth. Specifically, the study identified the perceptions and…

This study examines the impact of a federal Teacher Incentive Fund grant award that expanded a partnership between Cross County School District and the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) to create systems that support ongoing, continuous improvement for teachers. Through the implementation of the TAP System for Teacher and…

Teachers are increasingly dissatisfied. In one recent survey, 47 percent of teachers said they were not enthusiastic about their jobs, and another showed a sharp drop in teacher satisfaction since 2008, from 62 to 39 percent. This dissatisfaction does not stem from what one might think--stresses related to dealing with students and families.…

Educator Excellence Innovation Program (EEIP) is a Texas Education Agency (TEA) grant program that funds innovation in teacher supports and leadership opportunities. This report describes feedback from teachers at the six EEIP schools and summarizes implementation in the third year of the program.

The purpose of this study is to investigate school district administrators' perspectives concerning the professional activities and influence of special educators in Norway (n?=?266) and Sweden (n?=?290). We examine three themes drawn from a survey of practices and policies in each country: (a) the organisational arrangements in which special…

A state department of education (SDE) served by the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) at SEDL requested information regarding state use of schoolwide, large-scale professional learning communities (PLCs). Specifically, the SDE staff wanted to know the following with respect to PLC work in other states: (1) Are PLCs state-mandated through…

For the past two and one-half years I have been a practitioner participant in the National Center on Scaling Up Effective School's (NCSU's) work with Fort Worth Independent School District. I have a unique vantage point, being one of the few members remaining who has been involved since the very beginning. In addition, my work with NCSU has…

Leadership matters. Principals are the primary drivers of school improvement and the best long-term investment to ensure effective teaching and learning at scale. Principals are central to State efforts to implement new college and career-ready standards, execute teacher evaluation and support systems and turn around low-performing schools. These…

Professional learning communities (PLCs), with their attributes of shared values, high expectations, and collaboration, have the potential to change school culture. The 4 elementary schools in this study have been unable to sustain ongoing, effective teamwork, resulting in a failure to attain adequate progress, and in 2 schools, in the placement…

This leadership framework, based on practices employed by some the nation's most successful principals, can be used to diagnose and address school needs. The framework is excerpted from "Breakthrough Principals" © 2016 by Jean Desravines, Jaime Aquino, Benjamin Fenton, and New Leaders, published by Jossey-Bass, a Wiley brand. The…

Educational reform is not easy. As school leaders search for a format that leads to improvement on many fronts concurrently, data teams is one such promising practice. The data team design not only involves sensemaking of data as evidence of effective teaching and learning, but also builds a professional learning community, distributes leadership,…

Teacher leadership plays a significant role in the professional culture of many schools across the country, according to principals who value it. This is the major conclusion from a survey and telephone interviews conducted by the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL). While limited in scope, the study confirms the contributions of teacher…