Strategic Inquiry is an innovative model for promoting teacher collaboration around identifying specific that keep struggling students from succeeding. Gaps may include anything from the proper use of commas and conjunctions to concepts such as slope in math. The authors argue that addressing these critical learning gaps can lead to big changes in student success, in teachers' sense of efficacy, and in school culture. The strategic inquiry model has been implemented in schools and districts around the country, including New York City, where it was rigorously evaluated with impressive results. As Common Core standards raise the bar for student learning ever higher, this proven approach promises to build teachers' capacity for closing the gap between where struggling students are and where they need to be.

This paper describes and evaluates the Scaffolded Apprenticeship Model (SAM), a school improvement and leadership development program that supports a school “Inquiry Team” to close targeted learning gaps and lead their colleagues to do the same. In SAM’s theory of change, the school’s “sphere of success” continually expands as interventions focused on students’ specific skill gaps accelerate their learning. The study tests this theory of change with a range of research methods and data from interviews with SAM facilitators working with the 14 New York City high schools involved in the program, a survey of program participants, two years of teacher surveys in all schools, and a case study of a large restructured high school that showed significant success with this reform model. Results provide evidence of: a) significant growth in team leadership in most of the schools, b) shifts of school culture toward use of student assessment data to focus improvement efforts, and c) improved student outcomes in schools that made expected gains in leadership and data use. The study analyses conditions that support and that inhibit SAM’s success and describes processes of change in the school that made greatest progress. Conclusions point to promising strategies for school improvement and hypotheses for further research.

Building on extensive evidence that school-based teacher learning communities improve student outcomes, this book lays out an agenda to develop and sustain collaborative professional cultures. McLaughlin and Talbert - foremost scholars of school change and teaching contexts - provide an inside look at the processes, resources, and system strategies that are necessary to build vibrant school-based teacher learning communities. Offering a compelling, straightforward blueprint for action, this book: takes a comprehensive look at the problem of improving the quality of teaching across the United States, based on evidence and examples from the authors' nearly two decades of research; demonstrates how and why school-based teacher learning communities are bottom-line requirements for improved instruction; outlines the resources and supports needed to build and sustain a long-term school-based teacher professional community; discusses the nature of high-quality professional development to support learning and changes in teaching; and details the roles and responsibilities of policymakers at all levels of the school system.

Current policies place unprecedented demands on districts to use evidence to guide their educational improvement efforts. How districts respond is likely to be influenced by how individuals in the district conceptualize what it means to use evidence in their ongoing work. This study draws on sensemaking and institutional theory to investigate how individuals in one urban school district conceive of evidence-based practice. The study develops grounded typologies that describe the ways that individuals conceptualize high-quality evidence, appropriate evidence use, and high-quality research. It then explains variation in conceptions, pointing to the ways organizational responsibilities and reform history shape how individuals come to understand evidence-based practice. The article closes by suggesting implications for district response to federal policy demands for evidence-based practice.

This report describes how leaders can define goals that enhance student learning and develop strategies to accomplish them.

....................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................ 5 Does the District Matter for School Reform ........................................................................................................... 6 What Does A Reforming District Do? ................................................................................................................... 10 Taking the System as Unit of Change ...................................................................................................... 10 System Communication and Shared Reform Commitment ................................................... 11 Strategic Planning at the System Level ..................................................................................... 12 Learning to Support School Reform Across the System ....................................................................... 13 Establishing a Coherent Focus on Teaching and Learning .................................................................. 15 Providing Instructional Support that is Responsive to School Needs ................................................ 16 Engendering Data-Based Inquiry and Accountability .......................................................................... 18 Revisiting Conventional Wisdom about District Reform .................................................................................. 20 Myth 1: Teachers and Schools Resist a Strong Central Office Role ..................................................... 20 Myth 2: Turnover and Change Will Sink Reform Efforts ..................................................................... 22 Myth 3: Local Politics Will Defeat a Serious Reform Agenda .............................................................. 23 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................ 25 Endnotes .................................................................................................................................................................... 26 References .................................................................................................................................................................. 27 Appendices ............................................................................................................................................................... 30

American high schools have never been under more pressure to reform: student populations are more diverse than ever, resources are limited, and teachers are expected to teach to high standards for all students. While many reformers look for change at the state or district level, the authors here argue that the most local contexts?schools, departments, and communities?matter the most to how well teachers perform in the classroom and how satisfied they are professionally. Their findings?based on one of the most extensive research projects ever done on secondary teaching?show that departmental cultures play a crucial role in classroom settings and expectations. In the same school, for example, social studies teachers described their students as apathetic and unwilling to work, while English teachers described the same students as bright, interesting, and energetic. With wide-ranging implications for educational practice and policy, this unprecedented look into teacher communities is essential reading for educators, administrators, and all those concerned with U. S. High Schools.

This paper aims to reconcile tensions between an artisan model of teaching and the call for a collaborative teacher community--offering a vision of an artisan community as a context of innovative practice in contemporary American high schools. In his stunning critique of the 'communitarian movement', Michael Huberman (1993) argued that strong school community most likely undermines teachers' independent artisanship by taking up time and limiting professional judgment. Through the experiences and voices of teachers in high schools we studied in the early 1990s, we argue that artisanship in teaching is influenced, for worse or better, by the character of teachers' professional community. In weak teacher communities, the most innovative teachers were demoralized by a lack of collegial support in addressing needs of non-traditional students; in strong traditional communities, teacher artisanship was squelched or marginalized by the standardized curriculum and assessments that enforced student tracking systems. In contrast, strong collaborative teacher communities engendered artisanship in teaching--by sustaining teachers' commitment to improving practice, through dialog and collaboration around engaging students in school and content, and by sharing and inventing repertoires of effective classroom practice. We illustrate artisan communities at work with brief descriptions of the subject departments and schools we studied that fit this model of professional community. Building on Huberman's analogy between teaching artisanship and jazz improvisation, we conclude by highlighting the fundamental role that community plays in developing musicians' improvisational skills and repertoire of practice.

This paper takes the case of math educationreform in California to analyze problems andprospects for reforming high school teaching.The experiences of three math departmentsreveal the profoundly political nature of highschool mathematics reform. First, changing mathinstruction means rejecting established normsfor professional practice in mathematics and inteaching more generally. I argue that radicalteaching reform depends upon professionalismand sustained commitment of teachercommunities, as well as on the knowledge ofreformed practice they generate. Second,successful reform engages politics beyond theteaching profession, as the California ``mathwars'' attest. After describing the course oforganized opposition to a reformed high schoolmath department, I examine the rhetoric andvested interests that figure prominently inparents' mobilization against mathematicsreform. The analysis brings into focus the dualproblems for high school teaching reform ofchanging professional practice and engagingpolitical opposition to educational change. Thestunning success of anti-reform politics inAmerican mathematics education highlights theimportance of activist professionalism inteaching.

The unique perspective of Richard E. Snow, in recent years one of the most distinguished educational psychologists, integrates psychology of individual differences, cognitive psychology, and motivational psychology. This capstone book pulls together the findings of his own 35 years of research on aptitudes and those from (especially) European scholars, of which he had exceptional knowledge. A panel of experts and former associates completed this book after his death in 1997, expanding his notes on implications of the theory for instructional design and teaching practice. The panel developed Snow's ideas on where the field should go next, emphasizing promising research strategies. Viewing intelligence as education's most important product, as well as its most important raw material, Snow stressed the need to consider both cognitive skills and affective-motivational characteristics. In this book, previously unconnected research and scattered theoretical ideas are integrated into a dynamic model of aptitude. Understanding the transaction between person and situation was Snow's primary concern. This volume draws from diverse resources to construct a theoretical model of aptitude as a complex process of unfolding person-situation dynamics. Remaking the Concept of Aptitude: Extending the Legacy of Richard E. Snow: *presents historical and contemporary discussion of aptitude theory, illuminating recent ideas by pointing to their historic antecedents; *provides evidence of how sound research can have practical ramifications in classroom settings; *discusses the strengths and weaknesses of prominent research programs, including Gardner's multiple intelligence, meta-analysis, ATI experiments, and information processing; *describes in detail specific research that has developed important concepts--for example, Czikszentmihalyi on flow; Lambrechts on success in stressful training; Sternberg on componential analysis; and Gibson on tailoring affordances to match motivations; and *keeps statistical complexities to a minimum, and includes a simply written Appendix that explains the interpretation of key technical concepts. By characterizing sound research in the field, this volume is useful for psychologists and educational researchers. It will also be instructive for teachers seeking to deepen their knowledge of the whole child and for parents of children facing standardized testing.

The unique perspective of Richard E. Snow, in recent years one of the most distinguished educational psychologists, integrates psychology of individual differences, cognitive psychology, and motivational psychology. This capstone book pulls together the findings of his own 35 years of research on aptitudes and those from (especially) European scholars, of which he had exceptional knowledge. A panel of experts and former associates completed this book after his death in 1997, expanding his notes on implications of the theory for instructional design and teaching practice. The panel developed Snow's ideas on where the field should go next, emphasizing promising research strategies. Viewing intelligence as education's most important product, as well as its most important raw material, Snow stressed the need to consider both cognitive skills and affective-motivational characteristics. In this book, previously unconnected research and scattered theoretical ideas are integrated into a dynamic model of aptitude. Understanding the transaction between person and situation was Snow's primary concern. This volume draws from diverse resources to construct a theoretical model of aptitude as a complex process of unfolding person-situation dynamics. Remaking the Concept of Aptitude: Extending the Legacy of Richard E. Snow: *presents historical and contemporary discussion of aptitude theory, illuminating recent ideas by pointing to their historic antecedents; *provides evidence of how sound research can have practical ramifications in classroom settings; *discusses the strengths and weaknesses of prominent research programs, including Gardner's "multiple intelligence," meta-analysis, ATI experiments, and information processing; *describes in detail specific research that has developed important concepts--for example, Czikszentmihalyi on "flow"; Lambrechts on success in stressful training; Sternberg on componential analysis; and Gibson on tailoring affordances to match motivations; and *keeps statistical complexities to a minimum, and includes a simply written Appendix that explains the interpretation of key technical concepts. By characterizing sound research in the field, this volume is useful for psychologists and educational researchers. It will also be instructive for teachers seeking to deepen their knowledge of the whole child and for parents of children facing standardized testing.