As former principals who led turnaround schools and now as coaches who work with school leaders and their teams, the authors know that there are many challenges all school leaders face. The authors have found there is one consistent factor that separates schools that successfully respond to challenges from the rest: the collective understanding…

For teachers and coaches, co-teaching can be exciting, rewarding, and full of powerful learning. It offers teachers supported experiences to apply new knowledge in their own contexts, exemplifying active engagement in job-embedded professional learning. Co-teaching requires the coach and teacher to make continuous, intentional decisions about how…

Young people have long been on the front lines of pushing for systemic change. The Prichard Committee Student Voice Team, consisting of 100 self-selected students from across Kentucky, works to improve schools and society. This article describes the Student Voice Team, an extension of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, an organization…

Collaborative efforts are key to transforming schools into communities of powerful learning where all students excel academically and develop the agency, integrated identity, and competencies necessary to have successful lives as adults. Such efforts start with leaders, learning to cultivate anti-racist systems, structures, policies, and…

Greece Central School District's longstanding new teacher induction model suddenly changed when the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to close abruptly in March 2020. At a time when many districts dropped their new teacher induction plans amid chaos and confusion, Greece Central School District was able to rapidly transform the way they support…

Teacher expertise and insights are valuable resources untapped by most districts and states. That's why as new federal education laws with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) begin to be implemented, teachers need to seek and create opportunities to use their teacher agency in advocating for relevant and effective professional learning. And as…

Across the U.S., educators face a common challenge: How can we help all students become strong readers and writers? In the author's state of Tennessee, many educators believe they have a reading crisis. Two-thirds of 3rd graders do not read and write on grade level as measured by the statewide assessment (Tennessee Department of Education, 2019a).…

In a learning system, central office personnel assume collective responsibility for schools and go about their work very differently. They are responsible not only for departments and programs, but also for student learning. They demonstrate that responsibility by engaging in data informed conversations about student achievement. Central office…

The educational landscape around standards, assessment, professional development, and funding is changing at a rapid pace. This article asks how can education institutions--and educators--respond with a balance of urgency and coherence? How can education institutions temper the need for risk-taking and innovation with the responsibility to deliver…