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Effective Schools: Structure, Environment and Processes

Research shows that certain elements of school structure and process go hand-in-hand with high levels of student performance. The core elements, which can be shaped by good policy and effective leadership, are

Staffing and professional development.

A uniformly able teaching staff is essential to ensuring student achievement. Schools where teachers teach out of field or where they are poorly prepared in their subjects, where teacher morale and engagement are low, where teachers are unable to teach well to diverse student needs, and where incompetent teaching is tolerated are severely handicapped in the pursuit of excellence.

Sound leadership can do a lot to ensure the quality of a school's instructional staff. Some important decisions remain in the hands of officials at the state and district level, but principals can do much to build teacher excellence.

As in all organizations, having teachers who share the principal's commitment to excellence is essential. If they aren't already on board, teachers should be given the chance to come around; but if they will not subscribe to the school vision advocated by the principal, they should be relocated to a school where they can make a more positive contribution.

All teachers need opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills. Many district policies make inadequate provisions for effective teacher professional development. This is a handicap but not an excuse for a principal's lack of emphasis and effort in this area.

Principals must first model a commitment to learning. They should create a climate that values collaboration and constructive sharing of best classroom practices. Formal professional development has its place, and opportunities to attend special workshops, trainings, and conferences that are related to the teachers' practice are important, but there are many other ways to incorporate learning into a teacher's in-school routine. At its best, professional development takes place in the course of the teacher's regular practice, not as an adjunct or out-of-school fillip.

Principals and teachers should work together to ensure that all instructional staff engage in collaborative scrutiny and discussion of student work, review student performance data and deliberate over their implications for good teaching practice, hold staff meetings that make time for substantive instructional discussions as well as administrative matters, and willingly participate in collegial observations to share unusually effective practices.

Flexible staffing patterns can also help ensure that good teachers are available in adequate numbers for the school academic mission. Where the principal has discretion over staff allocation and budget, and where teachers and administrators work as a team, it is possible to allocate resources to maximize the teacher-student ratio and relationships.

Finally, principals must work with others to create a shared commitment to excellence. Assistant principals need not be condemned solely to chores of student discipline, department chairs can provide invaluable instructional leadership, and teachers can be given opportunities to work on committees or to pursue individual projects that contribute to raising student performance.

Organization of the curriculum.

A school's curriculum must be aligned with its goals for student achievement and with district or state curriculum and testing requirements. Official policy to the contrary, studies show that alignment of these elements is often poor. Principals can bring school and community resources to bear to ensure that alignment is a reality.

Other research indicates that schools often artificially limit access to the most demanding courses. Schools can ensure that the most demanding courses are not scheduled "on the curve" but are offered so that all who can benefit are in fact able to do so.

Testing and assessment constitute a powerful instructional tool that is too often used to sort and screen rather than to diagnose needs and target instructional resources where they can help the most. Principals and teachers who want to be leaders of student learning should consider using multiple forms of assessment; assessments that require real performance and demonstrated competence; student portfolios; and test data for analysis and decision-making in a cycle of continuous school improvement.

Allocation of time and space.

The most effective organizations arrange their structure to support the values they espouse. Schools operate today on essentially the same schedule and physical plant they did prior to World War II! Since then, the country's population has changed, the numbers of school-age youth and the graduation rate have risen dramatically, our collective knowledge base has exploded, and technology has moved us into and beyond the space age to a time of "virtual reality." Time and space in schools need to be used differently to match these conditions.

Time is needed to teach complex material. Block scheduling can make that time available, and year-round schooling can stop the learning slide that often comes with the extended summer break.

Time is also needed for teacher planning, coordination, and staff development. Right now, there is simply no time in a school day for such things. American schools lag behind their Japanese and German counterparts in providing adequate time for planning and coordination. In some communities, schools have persuaded parents and the school board to set aside a half-day for such work. Schools have sometimes reorganized the teaching schedule to create time for planning, coordination, and staff development. And savvy principals use meetings and other administrative occasions as an occasion for focusing on the school's academic mission and engaging staff in fruitful interactions.

Teachers also need space to interact as a professional community, engage in collaborative planning and coordination, discuss student work, and share lesson plans.

A collegial community of teachers.

Teachers have come to operate as independent units in their schools. Many are isolated in their classrooms and reluctant to work collaboratively or open their practice to others. This development denies the school of much of their talent and of the benefits that sharing and collaboration offer. In a school with a strong sense of internal community, teachers share common goals for student achievement, work collaboratively to provide challenging instruction, and share collective responsibility for the success of each student.

Climate of achievement.

Many factors in a school work to promote or impede student achievement. In schools that promote student achievement, several factors combine to crate a climate that nourishes strong academic performance. Such factors include tangible expressions of high expectations, including, for example, an explicit, meaningful statement of academic mission; goals that drive high performance; a system of data collection, analysis, and decision-making that uses performance measures to improve daily operations; a system-wide focus on academics, so that the substantive work and symbols of the school emphasize its commitment to student achievement; public display of excellent student work products; and ceremonies and rituals that celebrate excellent individual and collective performance.

Firm, fair, and timely discipline.

Considerate, disciplined behavior results from a combination of factors. These include effective adult modeling, meaningful school work, and a policy of firm, fair, and timely discipline. Students must understand that good behavior is valued in the school, and explicit policies must define what behavior is not acceptable and how it will be punished. Punishment must be administered consistently and with respect for due process.

A sense of community.

A growing body of research demonstrates that schools with a sense of community enhance student performance. Community stems from a sense that one is known as an individual and that one has valued relationships with others. These qualities can be enhanced through school structures and processes such as smaller schools or sub-schools, small student/teacher groups that meet regularly, classes that move together from year to year, and lower teacher/student ratios. Teachers must also appreciate that their roles extend beyond the classroom and into the halls, the cafeteria, and the home and community. Effective teachers realize that much of the work of school takes place outside the physical school building, and they use those venues as places to relate to and influence students.

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