Material resources, personalized support, time to collaborate, and strong principal leadership are necessary for making curricular and instructional shifts. The authors of this article share the lessons they learned about supporting implementation of the Common Core State Standards. They draw on interviews with teachers, as well as field notes…

Across the country, high schools have found that their ninth-grade students have the highest rates of truancy, discipline referrals, failures, and retentions. A school's worst data points are usually found among freshmen. For this reason, proactive schools seek strategies for transitioning freshmen into high school. An effective freshman…

In 2003, Southmoreland was a seventh- and eighth-grade junior high school in the warning category under NCLB for failing to make adequate yearly progress. Scores on state tests were grim--only 39% of the students were proficient or advanced in math and 55% in reading. Two years later, the combined improvement in reading and math scores resulted in…

One has heard it before: time is money, especially when it comes to adding time for instruction to the school day. When budgets are tight and relief is nowhere in sight, how can schools afford to implement a reform as costly as adding instructional time? It's a daunting task, yet current federal educational priorities tied to federal funding…

Evaluating special education teachers is an especially salient topic for secondary principals because special educators in middle and high schools often collaborate with numerous content-area teachers and have varying degrees of direct instructional impact. The author's experiences as a secondary special educator and as a supervisor responsible…

Principals face a tangled web of accountability for several reasons: NCLB shifted the focus of programs for English language learners (ELLs). Success is no longer viewed with the single lens of meeting English proficiency, but rather with a magnifying glass to ensure that students "will meet the same challenging state academic content and…

For 40 years, elementary and middle level schools in West Hartford, Connecticut, have dismissed students early on Wednesday afternoons so that teachers can spend two hours a week engaged in learning. Last fall and winter, the district interviewed high school teachers about what they would like to see happen in professional development. Under the…

Expert-run training does not often result in long-lasting changes in instruction. True professional development results when teachers have ongoing support as they rehearse new skills and incorporate them into classroom practices. Staff members are often the most effective coaches for their peers when building those new skills. This article…

Communication and professional dialogue are essential elements of a high-quality education environment in which all students can succeed. Such an environment is especially important for the success of students with special needs. Unfortunately, collaboration between special educators, general educators, and other professionals is often hindered by…

In the Scaffolded Apprenticeship Model (SAM), a school improvement strategy in place in New York City; Boston, Massachusetts; and Oakland, California, teacher teams improve their schools by studying and closing high-leverage learning gaps for small groups of struggling students as a strategy for systemic change. SAM's goal is for each school to…

Evolving from a school where teachers teach to a school where students learn is an intense process that demands honesty, collaboration, and focused effort. Tefft Middle School in Streamwood, IL, a suburban/urban area west of Chicago, has made that effort. Its 760 students in grades 7 and 8 are highly diverse economically and ethnically. Principal…

When visitors step inside Pocomoke (MD) Middle School, they are immediately surrounded by a profound sense of pride and high expectations. Students are actively engaged in instruction, the classroom walls are covered with student work, and the halls are lined with pictures of students demonstrating success. Beanbag chairs await eager readers,…

Monthly meetings and a peer-observation program help novice teachers overcome isolation and practice new skills that support improved student learning. Peer observation is not without its difficulties. Above all else, the point of the program is to make teachers more comfortable observing, sharing instructional ideas, and learning from one…

Developing interdisciplinary teams that function properly should be the goal of every school leader who is interested in promoting middle level reform. To accomplish that goal, individual team members should not be left on their own to sink or swim with the teaming concept, but must be guided through a transformational process that teaches them to…

The first faculty meeting of the year is an opportunity for administrators to model strategies that engage their teachers and promote a sense of teamwork. This article describes the first faculty meeting of the 2008-09 school year at Matoaca Middle School in Chesterfield County, Virginia, where the administrators tried to model strategies that…