Turning around a low-performing school is no easy task – and sustaining that turnaround over the years to come can be just as challenging. In this video, teachers and school leaders from Evergreen Elementary School in Spanaway, Washington explain how the implementation of a “No Excuses” model helped them improve and sustain their success over Read More
Sierra Expeditionary Learning School Truckee, CA In 2008, in a small town in northern California, a dozen or so parents of preschoolers started dreaming about a different kind of elementary school and chartered SELS—the Sierra Expeditionary Learning School, in Truckee, California in March 2010. This podcast features Kim Bradley, a founding parent and current board Read More
Still Making the Grade showcases the Brooklyn (NY) School for Global Scholars, P.S. 748. Originally designed as a district-based application school for gifted and talented students, P.S. 748 featured a self-created and evolving curriculum that used project-based learning and departmentalized, interdisciplinary learning to prepare global citizens for the future. It opened in 2010. Two Read More
Game Changer tells the story of struggling White Street School in Springfield, MA, where “demographics” had been the steady explanation for low student achievement. Families were reluctant to send their children to a school were only 4% of fifth graders scored Proficient in any subject. In 2010, the State Education Department had singled the school Read More
Blackshear Elementary Fine Arts Academy Austin Independent School District Austin, TX In 2011, Blackshear Elementary School (Austin, TX) was labeled in need of improvement. Today, under the inspired leadership of Principal Betty Jenkins, who arrived in 2012, Blackshear is a jewel of the Austin Independent School District, the state’s first elementary level fine arts academy Read More
Clark County School District Las Vegas, Nevada Walter Bracken Elementary School, an urban school near downtown Las Vegas, was declared In Need of Improvement in 2002. Reinventing itself as an elementary magnet school for math and science through technology, accessible via random lottery, Bracken exited In Need of Improvement status in two years and has Read More
Austin Independent School District Austin, Texas In only five years, J. Walter Graham Elementary School, a Title I school on the east side of Austin, Texas, went from slipping toward academic unacceptability to “one of the best elementary schools in the state of Texas,” in the words of education researcher Ed Fuller of Penn State Read More
Marc Johnson, Sanger USD Superintendent, recaps the John Wash Elementary turn-around story. He identifies the guiding principles and practices that contributed to the transformation and highlights the role of leadership, high expectations, collaborative culture, and shared accountability in meeting the needs of all students. Read the transcript of Defining Moments of School Change. Return to the general Read More
Threatened by school closings in 2001, a group of dedicated educators and community members applied for and received charter approval quickly. A Board of Directors provides fiscal and program oversight, relying on committed administrators to implement the academic program. A fiscally astute principal and business manager raise money through grants to supplement the state allotment, Read More
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