Building Better Schools: Insights From Innovative Public Schools
Kristen Carroll, Brian Robinson, Ebony Lambert, and Daniela Torre Gibney (Bellwether)
Mia Howard (NewSchools Venture Fund)
Executive Summary
Introduction
Essential Design Strategies
Visionary Leadership
Nurturing Relationships
Effective Implementation
Learning and Continuous Improvement
Conclusion
Glossary of Terms
Appendices
Appendix A. List of Participating Schools
Appendix B. Catalog of Innovative Practices
Appendix C. Examples of Complementary Practices
Appendix D. Detailed Methodology
Endnotes
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
About Bellwether
About NewSchools
Executive Summary
The traditional approach to public PK-12 schooling is not working for all students.1 Data on educational outcomes — from academic proficiency and graduation rates to college and career readiness — illustrate that schools across the United States are struggling to prepare many students for future success.2 These outcomes are exacerbated by decades of systemic inequities that have led to persistent disparities in education outcomes by race and income.3 Traditional educational methods often also overlook students’ social-emotional needs, which can harm their school performance and future success, especially for those furthest from opportunity (e.g., students dealing with poverty or trauma).4 Schools must take a different approach to support students’ comprehensive development to ensure every student succeeds.
Across the country, a growing number of schools are doing just that: designing innovative educational models to meet the needs of students and prepare them for future success. Since 2015, NewSchools Venture Fund (NewSchools), a venture philanthropy focused on improving education for all students, has been at the forefront of this school design effort. It has funded the creation of 122 innovative PK-12 schools across 31 states, serving more than 76,000 students at full capacity. These schools support students’ academic and social-emotional development by providing relevant and rigorous interdisciplinary learning opportunities; teaching essential habits, mindsets, and skills; offering wraparound support; and fostering positive, safe classroom environments. Across the NewSchools portfolio, 80% are charter schools and 20% are district schools. Fifty-five percent of school leaders identify as people of color. Seventy-two percent of students are from low-income families, 73% identify as Black or Latino, 17% are multilingual learners, and 16% have learning differences.5
Leveraging the research-based Expanded Definition of Student Success (EDSS) framework,6 NewSchools works with school leaders to design effective learning environments for students. The framework includes three components: (1) a strong academic foundation; (2) essential mindsets, habits, and skills; and (3) a positive learning environment.7 Research shows that when PK-12 schools integrate these approaches, they can improve students’ academic and social-emotional outcomes and support them in experiencing success in school and life.8 9
Schools within the NewSchools portfolio show promise, as they are not only enhancing students’ growth and opportunities but also using innovative approaches to support student learning. For example, NewSchools analysis shows that before the COVID-19 pandemic, students attending portfolio schools achieved outcomes that were equivalent with up to 91 extra days of learning annually.10 Students in the portfolio who feel physically and emotionally safe, believe their abilities and skills can grow with effort, and develop ways to cope with their stress and emotions demonstrate additional learning similar to moving from the 50th to 67th percentile on national normed assessments.11 According to internal NewSchools analysis,
over the last two academic years — (SY) 2021-22 and SY22-23 — schools in the portfolio have seen a 16% increase in the number of students who are meeting their growth goals in math and a 15% increase in reading, relative to portfolio results from the SY20-21.
How can current and future school superintendents, principals, and practitioners integrate instructional, cultural, and operational practices like those in the NewSchools portfolio to design academically challenging and positive learning environments? To better understand the strategies and design choices that enhance, and often accelerate, students’ learning and engagement across NewSchools portfolio schools, Bellwether collaborated with NewSchools on a qualitative study. Over 10 months, from spring to fall 2023, Bellwether visited 29 schools within the NewSchools portfolio to determine areas of common practice and identify strategies that can be replicated and tailored by school leaders across the country (Appendix A).
Key Findings
This study focused on schools in the NewSchools portfolio where leaders are implementing innovative practices designed to simultaneously improve students’ academic growth and prepare them with the essential mindsets, habits, and skills needed for success. Schools were selected for the study sample because they are achieving promising student outcomes and/or they are using unique school design models to expand educational opportunity and access.12 The study leveraged insights from 127 classroom observations, discussions with 122 caregivers, and 447 interviews with school leaders, teachers, and students across the NewSchools portfolio.
From this qualitative investigation, four essential design strategies emerged that all school leaders can use to create learning environments that allow students to thrive in school.
• Visionary leadership: School leaders ensure schoolwide alignment with a clearly defined mission and vision for how their community approaches learning, relationship-building, and equity.
• Nurturing relationships: School leaders explicitly focus on relationships, building trust, and creating a culture of care13 to meet the multifaceted needs of their students and school communities.
• Effective implementation: School leaders consistently uphold and center their school’s mission and vision through high-quality implementation of key practices. Leaders do this by grounding school practices in the mission, developing consistent structures and supports for instruction, culture, and operations, and combining practices that serve the whole child.
• Learning and continuous improvement: School leaders promote a datadriven learning culture to continuously improve model implementation so that students achieve mastery and develop essential mindsets, habits, and skills important to student success.
Drawing on these four essential design strategies, leaders across the study sample prioritize designing an equitable education experience rooted in strong relationships and individualizing students’ academic instruction. Evidence from these schools shows that this approach fosters a unique and positive school climate where:
• Students are welcomed and feel a strong sense of belonging, support from teachers and staff, and a sense of community among their peers.
• Families benefit from engagement with school leaders who intentionally set a clear vision for their child’s success.
• Teachers develop positive relationships with other staff and hone teaching skills with support from strong leadership.
The four essential design strategies are complemented by intentional and coherent implementation of various practices school leaders use to organize their academic programs, build strong community and belonging, and support staff development. Bellwether conducted qualitative observations of school practices and created a Catalog of Innovative Practices to reflect the range of design choices schools make to achieve their goals. The catalog is organized by seven pillars based on research
on school effectiveness and Bellwether’s school health framework.14 It outlines model components, instructional practices, and innovations common to highly effective schools in the portfolio that other practitioners can adopt in their school systems (Appendix B).
The study findings show that practices within the Catalog of Innovative Practices are complementary and interrelated in NewSchools portfolio schools; the success of one practice often depends upon the success of another.
Evidence from schools across the study sample suggests that effectively implementing the four essential design strategies requires weaving together complementary practices in a cohesive approach. For example, Academy of Advanced Learning, a K-8 public charter school in Aurora, Colorado — known for its students’ achievement of one year’s growth in just five months15 — centers effective implementation and continuous improvement of academic instruction by combining small group support, ongoing data use, individual teacher coaching, and professional learning communities that provide routine opportunities for feedback and collaboration. While these practices are known and proven, their consistent implementation is key to successfully enacting the school’s vision and achieving promising outcomes.
Leaders across the study sample often implemented complementary practices to enhance students’ learning environments. Some example complementary practice pairs are also described in Appendix C.
As PK-12 schools work to create systems that are more responsive, accessible, and relevant to students and their families, this study’s findings elevate a set of common approaches across the NewSchools portfolio that all school leaders — regardless of their location, governance structure, and resources — can use as practical tools and conversation starters. At their core, these innovative and proven strategies require dedicated leaders and educators committed to ensuring equitable education for all students — a visionary leadership quality that is abundant in schools across the country.
Introduction
Amid declining student engagement16 and widespread absenteeism,17 PK-12 school leaders across the country must explore innovative approaches to rebuild effective and engaging learning environments. NewSchools believes effective innovation takes many forms, including combining new ideas with proven practice to promote students’ comprehensive growth and future success.18 Schools across the NewSchools portfolio study sample share a set of common innovative strategies that other school leaders can use to support whole-child growth and prepare students to thrive in the future.
What is an “innovative” school?
An innovative school is distinguished by the alignment of its school design practices with a coherent vision, its dedication to building trusting and caring relationships, the purposeful implementation of high-quality academic practices and social-emotional learning (SEL) supports, and its willingness to operate as a continuous improvement and dynamic learning organization.
Methodology
To explore how innovative schools boost student learning and engagement, Bellwether conducted a 10-month qualitative study. In collaboration with NewSchools, Bellwether selected a set of 49 portfolio schools in years one through eight of operation to invite for participation in the study. The sample included schools that showed promising assessment outcomes (measured by NWEA MAP Growth metrics; student surveys of essential mindsets, habits, and skills; and school culture and climate factors)19 and/or that are using unique school design models to expand educational opportunity and access (such as serving teenage parents or preparing students for college and career success with a focus in aerospace). Of this group, 29 schools decided to participate, representing each region of the United States, different school governance structures (e.g., district public school and charter public school), and all PK-12 grade levels.
2.
1.
From spring to fall 2023, researchers visited schools in the study sample (Figure 1). Over one- to two-day school site visits, researchers observed classrooms and interviewed school stakeholders21 to understand school design choices, implementation tactics, and overall outcomes. Across the 29 participating schools, Bellwether:
• Observed 127 classrooms.
• Interviewed 164 students.
• Interviewed 199 teachers and school staff.
• Interviewed 84 school leaders or administrators.
• Interviewed 122 caregivers (in six interviews and twenty-four focus groups).
Although this qualitative study cannot support making causal claims, its design captures and elevates the lived experiences of educators, students, and communities, allowing researchers to derive rich insights into how innovative schools operate and feel that can be obscured in quantitative research (Appendix D).
Essential Design Strategies
Figure 1: Map of Schools Participating in the NewSchools Portfolio Qualitative
Essential Design Strategies Essential Design Strategies
Essential Design Strategies That Build a Positive Learning Experience
While pursuing different innovative practices, school leaders across the NewSchools portfolio use four essential design strategies to prepare students to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
• Visionary leadership: School leaders ensure schoolwide alignment with a clearly defined mission and vision for how their community approaches learning, relationship-building, and equity.
• Nurturing relationships: School leaders explicitly focus on relationships, building trust, and creating a culture of care22 to meet the multifaceted needs of their students and school communities.
• Effective implementation: School leaders consistently uphold and center their school’s mission and vision through high-quality implementation of instructional, cultural, and operational practices. Leaders do this by grounding school practices in the mission, developing consistent structures and supports, and combining practices that serve the whole child.
• Learning and continuous improvement: School leaders promote a data-driven learning culture to continuously improve students’ academic growth and develop essential mindsets, habits, and skills important to student success.
The remainder of this study describes how school leaders approach these four essential design strategies to build a positive learning experience for all students. The study also illustrates each strategy through four school profiles and multiple cases across the NewSchools portfolio study sample, providing examples of practices and actions that any school leader can adopt in their own context to support their school community.
Visionary Leadership
School leaders in the study sample guide their schools by cultivating a shared mission and vision focused on academic and social development. Research on school leadership reveals that, on average, student achievement scores are higher within schools led by principals who created a shared mission and vision compared with their counterparts.23
To support a strong mission and vision, portfolio school leaders:
• Engage their community to co-create a shared vision of success.
• Build buy-in for the mission and vision across their school community.
Engage their community to co-create a shared vision of success
Community co-design is a core feature of the planning phase for schools that join the NewSchools portfolio. Leaders work with their broader community (i.e., students and families, educators, civic leaders, local business leaders) to define student success and determine how the school will meet students’ and families’ needs through coherent approaches to instruction, culture, and operations.
Aventura Community School, a bilingual K-2 public charter school in Nashville, uses dual-language instruction and culture-building strategies to improve student outcomes. Its mission, created with the largely Latino south Nashville community, is “to elevate peace and justice by inspiring a diverse community of students to live as curious global citizens dedicated to changing the world.” Aventura designed its academic model around four pillars based on community wants and needs: bilingual education, purposeful academics (project-based learning), global competence, and community partnership.
“[The community] wanted multicultural learning environments, they wanted bilingual opportunities, they wanted their kids to spend time in nature, they wanted their kids to be active, they wanted to develop their social-emotional skills, they wanted education to be more personalized.”
—Staff Member, Aventura Community School
““Butler looks at each child as an individual, and really cares about their social emotional [needs and] cares about what they need to succeed. I felt like, instead of trying to make my child fit what the school needed, the school builds what my child needs.”
-Parent, Butler Academy
Build buy-in for the mission and vision across their school community
After co-creating and articulating a clear mission and vision, school leaders also work to ensure that all school community members (i.e., students, staff, teachers, and families) are familiar with and support it. School leaders create this buy-in through a set of mutually reinforcing and consistently implemented practices that bring the mission and vision to life. Examples include mission-driven recruitment practices, creating a common language shared by students and staff, regular instructional coaching, and applied and personalized learning experiences aligned to college and career readiness.
In Hartsville, South Carolina, Butler Academy achieves its mission to “create an enthusiastic learning culture in which every student is expected and positioned to exceed academically” by “emphasizing the social and emotional well-being of [...] students, families, and staff.”24 The team believes this is the best way to meet the needs of a predominantly Black student population that has been historically underserved in their small southern city. The school implements several key practices to fulfill its mission and vision while helping students and staff reach their full potential:
• Intentional Staff Recruitment: The school pre-screens candidates to assess alignment to the school’s mission and values, including being held to high levels of accountability, working with students who struggle academically, and embracing restorative practices.
• Culturally Relevant Curriculum: Students read books featuring diverse authors, characters, and topics to help them understand the world around them.
• Compassionate Education and Support: The school provides daily SEL instruction for students and SEL supports for staff, including subsidized therapy and staff circle.
• Flexible Student Groups: Staff regularly meet to review academic and SEL assessment data, which are used to form small groups and direct intervention and support.
Sojourner Truth Public Charter School
Location: Washington, D.C.
Grades Served: 6-11 (6-12 at full enrollment)
Enrollment (SY22-23): 101
Primary Innovation Focus: Montessori/Personalized Learning Governance Structure: Public Charter School
Sojourner Truth Public Charter School, a public school in Washington, D.C., uses Montessori principles such as student-led classrooms and carefully designed classroom environments to prepare students for success in college, career, and life. Its mission, developed in partnership with community stakeholders, is to empower students to transform the world. Forty-eight percent of students are proficient in reading, exceeding the district average.25 Sojourner Truth staff put just as much attention on personal development — task management, emotional wellness, self-monitoring — as they do traditional academic development. Students have the opportunity to learn at their own pace, and the school leverages high quality instructional material such as Illustrative Math to provide rigorous learning experiences. Their curriculum also gives students the opportunity to explore personal interests while engaging in projects that extend beyond the classroom and affect the real D.C. community. One of Sojourner Truth’s guiding principles is that “Each individual’s identity, voice, perspectives, and choices matter,”26 and that is reflected in the student learning experience and the school’s relationship with families.
“The main thing [that attracted me to the school] was the mission statement. I could tell from talking to the administrators that they were focused on the mission. I really liked their focus on social justice, and the Montessori aspect that would provide independent angles for kids to pick things they had interest in and give them more freedom.”
—Parent, Sojourner Truth PCS
Sojourner Truth’s model complements its mission and includes:
• Three hours each day in core academic blocks with a co-teaching model that focuses on small groups for tailored support.
• Curriculum units presented in 10-week cycles, which allow students to regularly engage in real-world, authentic projects that encourage not only content and skill mastery but also creativity and personal expression.
• Daily elective courses such as physical education, art, yoga, farming, and Spanish.
Sojourner Truth Public Charter School
• Mentors and advisory groups that engage in relationship- and community-building activities and support students to set personal goals and develop individualized learning plans for their academic blocks.
• On-campus enterprises that allow students to engage in the community. One such enterprise is the school’s farm, where students cultivate crops that are shared with neighbors through Truth’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes.
The design, made in collaboration with the community and school staff, advances Sojourner Truth’s mission and long-term vision of ensuring every student graduates knowing they can walk into any space, find their place, and make a powerful contribution.
“You can’t be innovative alone. There has to be a team of people working together. They don’t have to be like minded exactly, but all believe in the vision and bring in different lived experiences. Having a diverse team is helpful.”
—Parent, Sojourner Truth PCS
School leaders at Sojourner Truth exemplify visionary leadership using two approaches:
APPROACH EXAMPLE
Engage the community to co-create a shared vision of success.
Sojourner Truth leadership:
• Created a parent design committee two years prior to opening to include families in early stages of the school design.27
• Designed its academic model around two pillars based on community wants and needs: learning that prepares students for life, not just school, and identity affirmation that helps students find and use their voice.
Build buy-in for the mission and vision across the school community.
Sojourner Truth creates buy-in through activities such as the following:
• The school established parent engagement groups in the first year that advise on budget and curriculum.
• Students are coached through the design of their own work plans to take ownership of their learning.
• Students participate in a micro-economy (such as the school farm) to apply classroom skills, promote entrepreneurship, and build self-confidence.
Nurturing Relationships
““Our goal as staff is to build relationships with students. The teaching comes after that, because they’re not going to listen to you until they have some kind of understanding that you’re not against them.”
—Staff Member, Purdue Polytechnic High School
To execute their mission and vision, leaders of participating schools build strong and supportive relationships between and among students and teachers. By engaging in relationship-building activities, school leaders foster trust and collaboration with stakeholders, which supports the shared mission and vision and successful implementation of their innovative model.28 To create schools that enhance academics while establishing a positive school culture, school leaders:
• Cultivate relationships between students and teachers to build trust in the classroom.
• Affirm identities and prioritize community-building to nurture student-to-student peer relationships.
• Build a strong adult culture to strengthen staff relationships.
Cultivate relationships between students and teachers to build trust in the classroom
Strong, trusting, and meaningful teacher-student relationships can increase student engagement, enhance students’ academic performance, promote emotional stability and social competence, and support teachers’ ability to provide individualized learning opportunities.29 Schools in the study sample focus on cultivating strong and supportive relationships between students and teachers to promote a positive and effective classroom learning environment.
At Purdue Polytechnic High School (PPHS), a college prep public charter high school in Indianapolis, school leaders focus on creating strong relationships, through staffing, advisory groups, and student clubs, as the foundation for student success. PPHS has small teacher-to-student ratios, which allows teachers, called coaches, to develop deeper relationships and support students through their time at the school. Students attend a daily advisory, described by one student as a “mini-family” where they seek assistance from teachers, catch up on work, and develop relationships with peers. Finally, school leaders create opportunities for students and staff to build relationships based on shared interests outside of the classroom through student clubs (called“Passion Projects”) such as music, weightlifting, wrestling, filmmaking, board game design, and backpacking.
Essential Design Strategies Essential Design Strategies
The intentional focus on relationships, in combination with rigorous academics, which includes a structured career pathway program and opportunities to participate in internships and dual-enrollment, has resulted in 50% of PPHS students achieving proficiency in reading, exceeding the state average.30
Affirm identities and prioritize community-building to nurture student-to-student peer relationships
Schools in the study sample foster peer relationships through community-building practices such as advisory periods, student clubs, and a culture centered on shared values. Schools that intentionally build community enhance students’ sense of belonging, which research links to higher achievement and motivation.31 The culture and structures at Believe Circle City High School in Indianapolis, create a climate where all students are included and feel they can be themselves. Peer relationships are nurtured in the school’s advisories, or “villages,” where students are grouped by gender and grade for their entire high school experience. In addition, the student handbook guarantees the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming students to be called by the pronouns they use and has a zero-tolerance approach to bullying.
“I feel like there are a bunch of different people here, and everyone is honest about who they are. It’s a very safe space. I think the reason is because of the village. For me, they became my family and some of my greatest friends.”
—Student, Believe Circle City High School
“The school is pretty adamant about not judging other people and not bullying. If something happens frequently, they have town halls and talk about it. … It’s very obvious what the school’s core values are.”
—Student, Believe Circle City High School
Build a strong adult culture to strengthen staff relationships
Just as strong relationships among students are critical in a school community, so are positive relationships among staff. School leaders in the NewSchools portfolio intentionally focus on building strong relationships and culture among staff, given the role adult culture plays in shaping teacher-student relationships and school culture broadly.32
Staff and leaders at Digital Pioneers Academy in Washington, D.C., note that “adult culture is scholar culture” and demonstrate an intentional focus on nurturing adult relationships. To promote strong relationships and connection, Digital Pioneers Academy staff gather each morning in the school lobby for a community meeting modeled after the community meetings teachers hold with students at the beginning of each day. Staff respond to a question of the day, celebrate wins, share announcements, and participate in a “mindfulness minute.” The school also supports adult culture by providing time off for mental health days and a dedicated therapist for staff, among other resources.
“We have been successful at building adult culture and scholar culture. Kids want to be here. Adults want to be here. There’s collaboration. There’s teamwork. There’s open and honest communication and feedback. … Yes, we have big goals. But we are going to push you and support you along the way.”
—Staff Member, Digital Pioneers Academy
Integrate development of essential habits, mindsets, and skills into Tier I instruction
Addressing social, emotional, and academic aspects of learning together is essential because they are “inextricably linked in students’ experiences.” 33 Schools in the study sample embed SEL into Tier I academic content via social learning goals, group collaboration, use of diverse curriculum materials, and relationship building.
At Elevate Academy Nampa, a community-driven career-technical public charter school in Idaho, SEL lessons are embedded into Tier I academic content. The school’s learning model is built around their SEL curriculum, Next Step Ready, which is intended to prepare students for postsecondary success . The SEL curriculum is particularly embedded in career courses where students are simultaneously working toward mastery of course content, the development of career and technical skills, and industry-recognized credentials.
“I think the reality is [Next Step Ready is] all about relationships with students because if you think about how we promote that on a daily basis between students and teachers, with affirmation for the behavior we want to see and redirection for the behavior we don’t want to see…we try to make it so they’re internally motivated to [follow the Next Step Ready tenets] because they understand the why and it’s about their relationships with the adults they spend time with.
—Staff Member, Elevate Academy Nampa
Valor Voyager Academy
Location: Nashville
Grades Served: 5-8
Campus Enrollment (SY22-23): 503 students
Network Enrollment (SY23-24): 1,860 students
Primary Innovation Focus: Mastery-Based Learning Governance Structure: Public Charter School
Valor Voyager Academy (Voyager) has a mission to “leverage the power of diversity, academic rigor, and guided social/emotional introspection to prepare all students to succeed in college and to live inspired, purposeful lives.” Voyager boasts strong academic outcomes for its students. In SY22-23, Valor was designated a “Reward School” by the Tennessee Department of Education — the highest distinction a school can earn in the state for demonstrating high levels of performance and/or growth across all measured indicators.34 In fact, 61% of students at Valor demonstrated mastery of grade-level standards in Tennessee compared with just 38% statewide.35
School leaders believe their intentional focus on relationship-building is an important factor in achieving their strong academic results. Students and staff both participate in relationship building activities through weekly circle time. Students also belong to a “pride,” where teachers, referred to as “mentors,” engage students to build essential mindsets, habits, and skills through the school’s highly structured and well implemented Compass model. In addition to giving students time to catch up on work, teachers use this time to engage in mindfulness activities and check in with students to understand their current state of being in alignment with Compass’s core habits of curiosity, diversity, joy, identity, courage, kindness, determination, and integrity. Teachers use the language students learn from Compass and the relationships they build during prides to push students to activate a growth mindset during academic instruction.
“Our pride is a very safe space. … It’s allowed a stronger bond and a stronger connection that improves our learning.”
—Student, Valor Voyager Academy
BUILDING
Valor Voyager Academy
To cultivate strong relationships and build a positive school culture, Voyager leaders engage in the following three approaches:
APPROACH EXAMPLE
Build a strong adult culture to strengthen staff relationships.
Cultivate relationships between students and teachers to build trust in the classroom.
• Hold weekly adult circle time to allow staff to build relationships and seek support.
• Students participate in a same grade, same gendered “pride” for two years to develop deep relationships with peers and a “mentor.”
• Students meet one-on-one with teachers during pride to set and track progress towards goals.
• Students and teachers resolve conflict through “relationship work” in the Compass Support Center.
Affirm identities and create community space to nurture student-to-student peer relationships.
Integrate development of essential habits, mindsets, and skills into Tier I instruction
• Students discuss and share aspects of their identities and build relationships with other students in their prides.
• The structured SEL model (Compass) explicitly calls on students to connect and appreciate one another.
• A “diverse-by-design” school, Voyager encourages students to share and practice their culture (e.g., by allowing Muslim students a space to participate in Friday prayers.)
• Teachers create culturally responsive lesson plans and adapt instruction to ensure the students can access content regardless of their background
• Valor moved from a self-paced learning and blended instruction model to a traditional instructional model, which enables coherence between their Compass curriculum and academic content
Essential Design Strategies Essential Design
Effective Implementation
Effective implementation is a determining factor of success. Without a well-executed plan, even the best strategies and initiatives can fall short. Research illustrates that effective implementation methods, such as communicating a shared vision, creating an implementation plan, identifying data to monitor progress, and facilitating staff training to build buy-in, help reduce barriers to implementation.36 School leaders within the NewSchools portfolio engage in these as well as additional implementation strategies to ensure that their vision and goals are realized. Across the study sample, innovative ideas are transformed into successful school communities as school leaders:
• Create systems that reinforce the mission and vision.
• Codify instructional, cultural, and operational practices for consistency.
• Build staff and administrative capacity to support the mission.
• Embrace distributed leadership models.
Create systems that reinforce the mission and vision
Across the NewSchools portfolio, leaders often make intentional choices to ensure that all facets of the school — from teaching and learning to hiring and operations — align with and support the school’s mission and vision.
For example, in Bremerton, Washington, at Catalyst Public Schools, the expectation is that graduates will “build a strong understanding of themselves, envision the world in which they want to live, and develop the agency to access the future of their dreams.”37 School leaders have implemented a system of design choices to support this vision, including:
• Implementing a project-based learning (PBL) program that supports students’ academic, social, and leadership skills development.
• Connecting some PBL activities with the community of Bremerton to strengthen the connection between student vision and community change.
• Encouraging parents to work with a local community group to learn empowerment and advocacy strategies on behalf of students.
These deliberate choices demonstrate how various aspects of the school’s instructional vision operations support its overarching mission and goals.
“They’re very integrated into the community. … [They] really empower our children to think more than just being an elementary school student and how they’re going to impact and change the world.”
—Parent, Catalyst Public Schools: Bremerton
Codify instructional, cultural, and operational practices for consistency
By codifying school practices, schools are better positioned to effectively implement their mission and vision. In the study sample, schools with clear, organized practices connected to instruction, culture and operations ensure consistency and better adherence to their model. School practices can be documented in manuals, handbooks, or frameworks. They can also be established informally through norms and expectations. By codifying their practices, some of the schools within the NewSchools portfolio have replicated their approach by opening additional campuses or sharing their model with other schools. While schools should engage early in the work to codify practices, it is important to note that policies and practices often must be refined over time.
At Seckinger High School in Buford, Georgia, leaders have successfully designed and implemented an artificial intelligence (AI)-themed curriculum. In its academic model, AI instruction is incorporated into all subject areas via Seckinger’s AI Learning Framework (Figure 2). Aligned with the district’s academic standards, the framework includes a focus on data science, mathematical reasoning, creative problem-solving, ethics, applied experiences, and programming. Each lesson across all subject areas (including electives) aligns with an aspect of the framework. School and district leaders, along with families, defined the framework’s pillars before the school opened in August 2022. As a result, the AI Learning Framework was incorporated within Seckinger’s classrooms on Day 1.
Figure 2: AI Learning Framework, Seckinger High School (Buford, Georgia)
Build staff and administrative capacity to support the mission
Research shows that regular, high-quality coaching can positively influence teacher practice and student outcomes.38 Leaders of schools in this study’s sample use regular coaching and PD to build the capacity of their staff and ensure they have the tools and competencies necessary to carry out the school’s mission and vision.
Butler Academy, a charter school in Hartsville, South Carolina, currently serving students in grades K-8 with plans to grow to grade 12 by 2028, offers many PD opportunities for staff to implement high-quality instruction. Every morning, staff join 15-minute “huddles” led by an instructional coach for PD discussions based on data, observations, and school-wide goals. Other staff capacity-building opportunities include half-day PD on Wednesdays after students are dismissed early, summer PD sessions, and regular meetings with an administrator and instructional coach to review student-level data and plan for small-group instruction. Administrators also do regular walk-throughs and provide teachers with feedback on their instruction. Butler Academy administrators also participate in PD via an Instructional Leadership Cohort that prepares leaders to conduct regular observations and guide weekly data meetings with staff. As a result of its deep focus on teacher PD, Butler boasts a greater percentage of students demonstrating academic progress (67%) — and does so across all subgroups — than district (52%) and state (51%) averages.39
“They try to be positive when they give feedback. And it’s given immediately. That’s been pretty helpful to me.”
—Staff
Member, Butler Academy
Embrace distributed leadership models
Several schools in the NewSchools portfolio use distributed leadership models to effectively implement their school’s mission and vision. In contrast with schools where leadership is concentrated in one or two individuals, a distributed leadership model involves a collaborative approach where activities and decisions are managed by a broader group of educators and school leaders across the organization. Research suggests that distributed leadership can directly affect teacher efficacy, improve job satisfaction, and lead to shared ownership over a school’s outcomes and goals.40
The distributed leadership model at McClure Health Science High School in Duluth, Georgia (McClure), allows the school to implement a high-quality Health Science Pathways program while maintaining strong core academic programming. The school leader at McClure sets the vision and engages with students, families, and the community. Meanwhile, the school’s assistant principals serve as the instructional leader and the Health Science Pathways program coordinator. Teachers at McClure have opportunities to take on leadership positions such as subject-specific department chair roles, and the principal supports staff in developing their leadership skills through district-provided or external training programs. At McClure, everyone has a specific role, creating a culture where all team members work together to advance the school’s mission to “provide relevant opportunities for college and career pathways that unfold into a promising future.”41 This collaborative approach has contributed to positive student outcomes: In 2023, 55.6% of grade 12 students at McClure completed a Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE) pathway, compared with 28% of grade 12 students across the district.42
“Having the opportunity to build an admin team was critical. They’re so different with so many strengths and talents, and we always talk about how we put each other in their zones of talents.”
—Staff Member, McClure Health Science High School
Ednovate –East College Prep
Location: Los Angeles
Grades Served: 9-12
Campus Enrollment (SY22-23): 350
Network Enrollment: (SY23-24): 2,600
Primary Innovation Focus: College Prep Governance Structure: Public Charter School
Ednovate – East College Prep is focused on preparing a predominantly Hispanic, low-income student population for postsecondary success, with the goal of 100% college acceptance. This is crucial for many students who are the first in their families to attend college.
Effective implementation of this mission has led to impressive outcomes: a 100% graduation rate in SY22-23, about 14 percentage points higher than the district and the state, according to the California Department of Education.43 In addition, 98% of students are accepted into college based on self-reported school data.44
To meet its goal of 100% college acceptance, Ednovate – East College Prep prepares students for postsecondary options by:
1. Instilling confidence in students that they can go to and succeed in college.
2. Holding students to high academic expectations and leveraging approaches such as mastery-based grading.
3. Providing students with supports such as an academic advisor, , a college counselor,, and regular access to teachers beyond the traditional school day (e.g., office hours).
Given the challenges first-generation students face in pursuing higher education, such as academic gaps and a lack of guidance, it’s crucial that Ednovate – East College Prep invest in the right supports, resources, and opportunities to help its students succeed.45
“College is education, it’s knowledge, it’s power, it’s opportunity, it’s access. … So our entire existence as a school is to ensure that [students] obtain the power, [because they] deserve to have access to those things.”
—Staff Member, Ednovate – East College Prep
Ednovate –East College Prep
To effectively implement school practices that achieve its mission and vision, Ednovate – East College Prep leaders used three key approaches:
APPROACH EXAMPLE
Create systems that reinforce the vision.
Ednovate — East College Prep leaders identified the academic, social, and community practices needed to support their vision of 100% college acceptance, including:
• Implementing a college-preparatory curriculum that includes a mastery-based grading model to promote academic persistence, aligning instruction with rigorous standards, and offering eight core Advanced Placement (AP) courses so students can earn college credit.
• Enrolling all students in a college readiness course to help them navigate the postsecondary landscape, complete the application process, and secure scholarships and financial aid.
• Hosting family college meetings, beginning in grade 11, to learn about the college application process.
• Creating cultural norms schoolwide, including a “Wall of Acceptances” to celebrate students’ college acceptance letters and encourage their peers to see what is possible.
• Employing an alumni coordinator who follows up with students post-college acceptance and stays connected with them throughout their college career.
Codify instructional, cultural, and operational practices for consistency.
While college enrollment is a core component of Ednovate’s mission, Ednovate — East College Prep also develops students who are dedicated to learning and giving back to their communities. The school network also has codified practices across eight campuses, including Ednovate — East College Prep, to:
• Incorporate a “Purpose” in its whole-child report card, which requires students to complete at least 10 hours of internship or community service work aligned with their passions. These hours are referred to as “Positive Multigenerational Change Hours.”
• Require students to participate in an applied learning capstone project during grade 12 that allows them to focus on a community-related passion project (e.g., working with a locally owned coffee shop to improve its marketing).
Embrace distributed leadership models.
Leadership roles at Ednovate – East College Prep are overseen by its principal, who:
• Empowers the administrative team to make decisions through dedicated coaching.
• Distributes teacher effectiveness, instructional coaching, and PD to the dean of instruction.
• Delegates logistics to the dean of operations.
• Assigns the integration of holistic supports, including structuring advisory lessons and managing restorative discipline practices, to the dean of culture.
Learning and Continuous Improvement
Schools in this study share a focus on transformational change by creating learning environments that are personalized, flexible, and culturally responsive to meet the needs of students. Yet, this focus is often difficult to maintain amid internal and external constraints that can shift schools back to traditional ways of operating. Across the NewSchools portfolio, school leaders demonstrate a commitment to continuous improvement, making changes over time to better serve students. This commitment enables school leaders to maintain and refine their innovative school approaches as needed.
Continuous improvement is primarily supported by schoolwide data-driven decision-making, in which school leaders, teachers, and staff regularly analyze qualitative and quantitative data to support key instructional, cultural, and operational decisions. Schools in the sample regularly collect and track data on students, including academic performance, discipline, attendance, and student and family satisfaction, as well as students’ SEL outcomes. These data are typically disaggregated by race and ethnicity, family income, special education status, or other relevant student identifiers.
To promote organizational learning and continuous improvement, leaders of schools in this study:
• Create a data culture to improve decision-making and student outcomes.
• Embrace change and adaptability.
Create a data culture to improve decision-making and student outcomes
School leaders create a data culture where administrators and staff collectively value, practice, and encourage the use of data to drive classroom-level and schoolwide decision-making.46 By valuing and systematically using data, school leaders can better understand student progress, evaluate outcomes, give feedback, make realtime adjustments, and individualize learning to boost overall achievement.47
Butler Academy in Hartsville, South Carolina, is a data-driven school focused on strengthening students’ academic growth and social-emotional development. Teachers meet every 9-10 weeks with their instructional coach to review studentlevel data and plan small group support according to students’ academic and SEL needs.
Butler has two data rooms, for its elementary and middle school, where staff meet regularly to review student performance on the NWEA MAP and student selfreflections on Kelvin SEL and culture-climate surveys. In the data room, faculty members are able to track schoolwide student and subgroup data over time using a color-coded and magnetized system that enables staff to visualize student progress throughout a given school year and when comparing year-over-year data.
“We adopted the Aperture System and DESSA monitoring48 for assessing SEL. We do that three times a year. Every teacher can log into the system. We set up a threshold score so that we can flag students who need a full assessment of SEL needs. We create SEL groups to provide intervention for SEL skills. We can look at a printout to see assets and places to grow. We run groups for about 8 weeks and then retest. We track kids who are making progress or not to know if they need to be referred to contract services. Our intervention groups always change because life happens. Aperture looks at school trends, race, gender, and helps us find the quiet and reserved kids with needs.”
—Staff Member, Butler Academy
Embrace change and adaptability
Across the study sample, school leaders exhibited a high level of self- and organizational awareness, along with an entrepreneurial mindset to take actions that can transform a school’s model. A key characteristic observed across portfolio leaders is a willingness to pivot and make timely changes in response to data. Consequently, innovative schools also require some degree of autonomy in operations and management so that they can be nimble and responsive to student and community needs.
For example, leaders at La Promesa, a language immersion district high school in Houston serving students who have recently immigrated to the U.S., showed adaptability by changing the school’s course sequencing after Year 1 to better prepare students for success. After reflecting on data showing students struggled to achieve proficiency in grade 9 biology, the school moved biology to grade 10 and now offers a grade 9 environmental systems course that integrates biology.
Discovery High School
Location: Springfield, Massachusetts
Grades Served: 9-12
Enrollment (SY22-23): 113
Primary Innovation Focus: Early College and Career Governance Structure: District Public School – Springfield Empowerment Zone49
Discovery High School, an early college and career high school in Springfield, Massachusetts, has a strong data culture that allows school leaders and staff to regularly assess student progress and make adjustments to meet the school’s mission and vision. The school offers four STEM career pathways: engineering, computer science, IT, and digital and media arts. These pathways focus on the latest technologies and simultaneously prepare students for lucrative industries and higher education opportunities within their local community. Students at Discovery High School prepare for postsecondary education by taking a daily career exploration course and college course taught by local university professors.
Discovery High School has a strong data culture that allows school leaders and staff to regularly assess student progress and make adjustments to meet the school’s goals. In recent years, data reported by the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership indicate 70% of students at Discovery High School met growth goals in reading and 67% met their growth goals in math. This is higher than the growth of all schools in the empowerment zone partnership, which averages 50% in reading and 57% in math, respectively.50
“We learned quickly that without support [in their college courses] our students wouldn’t do well. … So, we changed our schedule to match that, we changed our supports to match that, we changed our teachers’ professional practice goals to match that. And now everything we do is early college.”
—Staff Member, Discovery High School
“[Teacher coaches] meet with our content teams twice a week, then bring that content info to the Coaching PLC. We ask a lot of questions around how to make the school better. It’s cultural.”
—Staff Member, Discovery High School
BUILDING BETTER SCHOOLS: INSIGHTS FROM INNOVATIVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Discovery High School
This data culture at Discovery High School enables leaders and staff to engage in learning and continuous improvement practices through the following two approaches:
APPROACH EXAMPLE
Create a data culture to improve decision-making and student outcomes.
At Discovery, school leaders:
• Collect data that align with the school’s mission and vision, including NWEA MAP data, student surveys of school culture and climate, and student college course performance.
• Use a data dashboard to visualize student data (formative, summative, and course achievement) and guide discussions among staff.
• Disaggregate student formative and summative assessments in real time to identify subgroup differences and discuss equitable practices.
• Meet regularly to discuss trends and patterns in the data.
• Review patterns and trends in formative data to tailor instruction, engage in instructional coaching, and design curricula to meet students’ needs.
Embrace change and adaptability.
Throughout the school:
• Staff engage in continuous improvement by focusing on student growth.
• Teacher coaches analyze patterns and trends in formative data to tailor student instruction and instructional coaching.
• Leaders review summative data and make academic or organizational changes (e.g., curriculum and schedule changes) to improve student outcomes.
Conclusion
Innovation in the education sector often equates to approaching old challenges with new tools and solutions. However, this study shows that true innovation requires leveraging best practices and introducing new approaches. Schools in Newschools’ portfolio accomplish this via a web of complementary practices that support strong instruction, attend to the needs of the whole child and create a positive learning environment to truly drive student success.
Effective schools in this study create and maintain innovative learning environments that promote both academic growth and the development of essential mindsets, habits, and skills needed by all students. Regardless of size, location, and governance structures, all schools in this study drive success by aligning with a set of four essential design strategies: (1) clear mission and vision; (2) intentionally building strong relationships among students, staff, and families; (3) creating systems to consistently implement the vision; and (4) continuously monitoring success to inform decision-making. Across the sample, school leaders consistently demonstrated these four guiding principles, creating learning environments where students and adults felt that they could thrive:
• Students felt that their experience in an innovative school was different from their experiences in other schools. They described a strong sense of a belonging and welcoming school climate, as well as work that was more engaging and rigorous and provided better opportunities to prepare for college and careers.
• Families felt engaged and welcomed in the innovative schools and were impressed with the individualized support students receive from staff.
• Teachers explained how innovative schools were different because they adopted nontraditional instructional practices, had strong leadership, provided support, and fostered a positive adult culture.
• School leaders cited these strategies as instrumental in driving high student engagement and positive academic results (such as attendance rates, NWEA MAP test scores, college credit completion rates, and graduation rates).
These essential design strategies and practices used by schools in the NewSchools portfolio are available to any bold, visionary school leader in any geographic region serving any student population. School leaders can establish a clear mission and vision to guide the school community, create space and invest in resources to nurture relationships where each member of the school community feels a sense of belonging, identify and effectively implement innovative practices with fidelity to the mission and vision, and promote a data culture to continuously improve.
School leaders may not achieve success immediately. However, schools in this study are a promising illustration of why it is worth continuing to work toward an expanded definition of student success, one that centers the whole child along with strong academic results. Embracing similar innovative approaches can make any school stronger and give all students a better chance to grow and thrive.
“You need to have a very open mind … and be open to change. There [are] a lot of practices in education that have been the status quo because no one has challenged [them]. But as times are progressing, so are the kids and the society. And we have to adjust based on what’s best for the kids.”
—Staff Member, Caliber Changemakers Academy
Catalog of Innovative Practices: A list of key practices, identified through this qualitative study, that school leaders use to organize their academic programs, build strong community and belonging, and support staff development. The practices described in the catalog are organized into seven pillars (see Appendix B for more detail).
Community Co-Design: Involving members of the community, including families, students, influential nonprofits, and business leaders, in the design process of a new school.
Data Culture: The collective behaviors and beliefs of people who value, practice, and encourage the use of data to improve decision-making.51
Effective Implementation: School leaders consistently uphold and center their school’s mission and vision through high-quality implementation of key practices. Leaders do this by grounding school practices in the mission and vision, developing consistent structures and supports for school practices, and combining practices that serve the whole child.
Equity: Each student receives what they need to develop their full potential, ensuring equally high outcomes for all and removing the predictability of success or failures that correlate with any social or cultural factor.52
Expanded Definition of Student Success (EDSS): A research-driven framework developed by NewSchools to redefine student success beyond traditional metrics. The EDSS approach centers on the belief that students must develop a strong academic foundation, as well as essential habits, mindsets, and skills, within a positive learning environment to achieve success in school and life.53
Innovation: Innovation can take many forms in education, including combining new ideas with proven practices. For this study, an “innovative school” is distinguished by the alignment of its school design practices with a coherent vision, its dedication to building trusting and caring relationships among staff and students, the purposeful implementation of high-quality academic practices and social-emotional learning supports, and its willingness to operate as a continuous improvement and dynamic learning organization.
Innovative Public School: A charter or district public school that has received funding from NewSchools to launch a new model characterized by prioritizing expanded student outcomes, co-creating with community, and merging new and proven practices, tailored to meet the needs of the school community.
Interrelated Practices: The idea that each unique practice within the Catalog of Innovative Practices (e.g., clear mission, vision, and values; mission-driven recruitment) is related to and supports the success of other practices (e.g., identityaffirming school and classroom, advisory models/circle time).
Learning and Continuous Improvement: School leaders promote a data-driven learning culture to continuously improve students’ academic growth and develop essential mindsets, habits, and skills important to student success.
Learning Organization: An organization that prioritizes professional and personal growth through knowledge-sharing and learning.54
Mission: A declaration of a school’s purpose, values, and commitments.55
Nurturing Relationships: School leaders explicitly focus on relationships, building trust, and creating a culture of care56 to meet the multifaceted needs of their students and school communities.
Project-Based Learning (PBL): A teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.57
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL): The process of applying the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to help students develop healthy identities, manage emotions, achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.58
Tier I Instruction: The core instruction that’s provided to all students in a classroom. It’s the foundation of the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), a framework that provides targeted support for students at different levels of need.59
Vision: A declaration of a school’s high-level goals for the future.60
Visionary Leadership: School leaders ensure schoolwide alignment with a clearly defined mission and vision for how their community approaches learning, relationship-building, and equity.
Whole-Child Approach: A focus on a child’s overall development, including academic progress, cognitive skills, and mental, social, and emotional health.61
Appendix B: Catalog of Innovative Practices
Bellwether developed a Catalog of Innovative Practices to document what school leaders prioritize to achieve positive learning environments that prepare students for future success. The Catalog of Innovative Practices illustrates the variety of school models, designs, and innovations within Innovative Public Schools portfolio schools visited as part of the study. The seven Pillars (Pillars) are derived from research on school effectiveness and Bellwether’s framework for organizational health, and defined below. Each pillar consists of related practices, defined in the table that follows.
• Talent & Leadership: Includes practices related to a school’s approach to recruiting, retaining, developing, and supporting educators and staff. It also captures schools’ approaches to setting and implementing a mission and vision and distributing leadership across stakeholders.
• Teaching & Learning: Includes practices related to the approaches, materials, and supports that schools use and provide to ensure students gain the knowledge and skills necessary for success.
• School Climate & SEL: Includes practices related to a school’s environment and the extent to which the school is a positive setting for learning, achievement, and students’ development of essential mindsets, habits, and skills that lead to success in life.
• College & Career Readiness: Includes practices related to the opportunities and curricular offerings that schools provide to ensure students graduate with the knowledge, strategies, skills, and techniques necessary to successfully transition into and succeed in the workforce and/or postsecondary institutions.
• Family & Community Engagement: Includes practices related to strategies, partnerships, and supports that schools implement and provide to ensure caregivers and communities are continuously and meaningfully engaged in the education process.
• Operations: Includes practices related to the leadership strategies, policies, and tools that schools use to structure their environments and support teaching and learning.
• Continuous Improvement: Includes practices related to the processes, systems, and tools schools employ to collect and track data, set goals, and identify areas for improvement over time.
Talent and Leadership
Flexible Staffing
Co-Teaching
Instructional Aides
Hiring
Mission-Driven Recruitment
Leadership Structure
Centralized Leadership
Distributive System
Leadership
Mission and Vision
Clear Mission, Vision, and Values
Co-teaching is a practice where two or more teachers share the responsibility of instruction in a classroom. It differs from models using instructional aides in that both are typically credentialled teachers and take on responsibility for planning, instruction, and assessment. Co-teaching has been used successfully to support special populations of students in the mainstream classroom and to provide more individualized instruction for all students.
Instructional aides are second adults in the classroom who support classroom management, individual or small group instruction, clerical tasks, etc. Some research suggests that students in classrooms with instructional aides perform better academically.
Intentional recruitment occurs when schools seek to fill open vacancies with applicants who meet specific qualifications and have certain mindsets.
Schools with centralized leadership often have leaders with a transformational, charismatic, authoritative, or transactional leadership style. These leaders are strong advocates for the mission and vision and provide clear direction to their staff.
When leadership is collaborative or distributed, school activities and decisions are managed by a network of formal and informal leaders across an organization. Research suggests that distributed leadership can have a direct effect on teacher efficacy and job satisfaction.
School leaders ensure that all stakeholders are aligned on the organization’s vision, mission, and core values. Communication regarding the school’s vision, mission, and core values is consistent and appears in discussions, school documents, and public-facing materials. Research strongly suggests that leaders communicating a clear vision is one of the more robust paths linking school leadership to strong school outcomes.
Talent Development and Support
Collaboration, Support, and Feedback
Collaboration refers to teachers observing each other and working together to lesson plan, review data, or address student, class, and school issues to improve their practice and student outcomes. Research has found that high-quality teacher collaboration can positively impact teacher attitudes and student outcomes.
Teaching and Learning
Applied Learning
Inquiry-Based Learning
Makerspace
Inquiry-based learning is an educational approach where students use methods and practices similar to professional scientists to investigate the world around them and build knowledge. Typically, inquiry projects can be divided into five phases: Orientation, Conceptualization (which includes: Questioning or Hypothesis Generation), Investigation (which includes: Exploration or Experimentation leading to Data Interpretation), Conclusion, and Discussion (which includes: Reflection and Communication).
A makerspace is a collaborative workspace where students can engage in "making", construction, design, and experimentation, often, but not always, with the support of advanced technology. There is no robust research on the impacts of makerspace on student learning, although some descriptive studies show that students find instruction in a makerspace to be engaging and motivational.
Place-Based Learning
Project-Based Learning
Place-based learning is a pedagogical approach emphasizing the importance of the local environment and community as a primary resource for learning. This approach intewgrates the unique history, environment, culture, economy, and problems of the local community into the educational process, offering students a deep understanding of their community, which can include their school, neighborhood, town, region, or broader contexts. Place-based learning is sometimes linked to indigenous ways of knowing and environmental education. Descriptive research has demonstrated positive impacts of place-based learning on student engagement and achievement, as well as on school-community connections.
Project-based Learning is a teaching approach where students learn by engaging in authentic, complex problems over an extended period, gaining skills and knowledge through practical investigation.
Service Learning
Asset-Based Pedagogies
Service learning is a pedagogical approach that involves students engaging in activities that support the larger community. Service learning can be distinguished from community service in that it 1) identifies learning objectives for service; 2) involves students in selecting or designing the service activity; 3) there is a theoretical base supporting how the service will improve learning; 4) service is integrated with the academic curriculum; and 5) there are opportunities for students to reflect on their service. Service learning may impact student academic achievement, civic engagement, sense of self, and attitudes towards school.
Culturally Responsive Teaching Culturally responsive teaching is an instructional approach where teachers use a student's customs, characteristics, experiences, and perspectives to engage and connect with students.
Instructional Methods
Instructional coaching involves a coach, peer, leader, or expert regularly observing teachers' instruction and providing them with feedback to help them improve. Regular, high-quality coaching has been shown to impact teacher practice and student outcomes positively.
This refers to schools offering access to professional mental health services (e.g., counseling, access to psychologists or psychiatrists) as part of a staff members' benefits package. This might be through an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), include as part of a health insurance package, or through other structures.
High Quality
Instructional Materials
High quality instructional materials (HQIM) are resources, materials, or content designed and developed to facilitate effective teaching and learning experiences. HQIM are characterized by several attributes: alignment with learning objectives, accuracy and reliability, clarity and accessibility, engagement and interactivity, adaptability and flexibility, pedagogical soundness, assessment and feedback, relevance and context, durability and accessibility, research and evidence-based. Research shows that using HQIM in combination with aligned supports can have positive impacts on student learning.
Personalized
Learning
Mastery-Based Grading
Grading based on mastery refers to an approach to grading that involves providing students with a clear list of learning targets, objectives, or standards, an assessment of mastery instead of points or credit, and multiple attempts to demonstrate mastery and are not penalized for failing to demonstrate mastery on earlier attempts.
Self-Paced Learning
Student-Led Goal Setting
Self-paced learning refers to a flexible learning approach that allows students to progress through the curriculum at their own pace, rather than at a pace set by the teacher or the educational system. This approach is designed to cater to the individual learning speeds and needs of students, enabling them to spend more time on challenging concepts and advance more quickly through areas they understand well. It emphasizes learner autonomy and personalized learning paths. Additionally, it often leverages technology to facilitate access to resources and assessments that support self-directed learning progressions.
Student-led goal setting in education is a practice where students actively participate in setting their learning objectives. Research shows that letting students set learning goals can significantly influence their motivation, self-regulation, and academic achievement.
Specialized Language Support
Dual Language Immersion
Heritage Language Instruction
In language immersion programs (most typically, dual language immersion programs) students study core academic content areas such as language arts, math, science, and social studies in their non-native language. The new language is the medium of instruction and the object of instruction. Research has shown that dual language immersion programs, where students learn content in both a home language and an additional language, can have positive impacts on all student's achievement and English learners' English language proficiency. At the same time, some authors report that dual language programs in the United States tend to benefit native English speakers over students learning English as an additional language.
Heritage language programs are designed to address the needs of heritage language learners/speakers (e.g., in the US, this might be children who are English-dominant and live in a Spanish-speaking household) and prevent community language loss. Heritage language programs may be at any level or setting, including community-based, K-12, higher education, or camps. They vary in terms of the populations they serve, goals and approaches to teaching, curriculum, and materials used for instruction, funding sources, and other factors. Some research suggests that heritage language instruction can strengthen student ethnic identity formation.
Newcomer Multilingual Learner Support
Tiered Support
Small Group Support
Newcomer multilingual learner support includes specialized classes, schools, or programs to meet the particular needs of recent immigrants who are learning English as an additional language. These initiatives focus on language acquisition, academic support, and social integration, leveraging culturally and linguistically responsive teaching practices to enhance students' learning and adjustment experiences.
Small group support provides teachers with the opportunity to deliver targeted and differentiated instruction to meet students' needs. During small group instruction, teachers can reteach or reinforce concepts to students who have not yet reached proficiency or provide more challenging material to students who have demonstrated mastery. Research shows that small group instruction can have positive impacts on student achievement.
School Climate and SEL
Individual Whole Child Supports
1:1 Mentorship
Mental Health Services for Students
Schoolwide SEL Culture
1:1 mentorship refers to a personalized learning relationship in which one educator or mentor provides individualized guidance, support, and coaching to a single student. Research has shown that students with strong mentoring relationships have better academic and attendance outcomes.
Professional mental health services refer to schools providing access or referrals to mental health professionals who can diagnose and treat mental health needs, as different than school counselors who offer short-term support to students in navigating academic and social issues that impact their educational experience.
Advisory Models/Circle Time
Community Building Practices
Identity Affirming School and Classroom
Under advisory models/circle time, teachers meet with small groups of students during regularly scheduled periods to advise them on academic, social, or future-planning issues. Advisory periods/ circle time often occur at the beginning or end of the school day and include structured discussions around students’ individual needs and those of the school community in general. Advisory/circle time can be most impactful when there are opportunities for children to communicate with their peers. Practitioners typically use the term advisory model when referring to upper grades and circle time for lower grades.
Community building practices are intentional pedagogical choices (e.g., advisory periods, group reflections, clubs) designed to promote social interaction and collaboration in educational settings. Schools that build community can improve a student's sense of belonging, which research has found to be related to improvements in achievement and motivation.
Identity affirming learning environments, also called identity-safe classrooms, are educational spaces that celebrate and honor students' identities to foster psychological safety and inclusive educational experiences.
Restorative Practices
Restorative practices, including restorative justice, are approaches to discipline that focus on repairing harm through inclusive processes that engage all stakeholders. Restorative practices shift the focus of discipline from punishment to learning and from the individual to the community. Schools implementing restorative practices may see improved school climate, discipline, conflict resolution, and pro-social behaviors among children.
Schoolwide SEL Data Tracking
Schoolwide SEL data tracking is a structured method used to collect, analyze, and manage data related to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs and initiatives. These systems are designed to monitor and assess the progress and effectiveness of SEL interventions and inform decisionmaking and improvements in SEL implementation.
Student-Led Support
This practice refers to time that is reserved for students to receive additional support from teachers in particular areas or to extend their learning. Unlike small group support, this time is typically student-driven and self-paced. Popular models include "What I Need" or "WIN" periods, and tutorials. Like tutoring and small group support, there is evidence that suggests that this dedicated time can have positive impacts on student achievement.
Tutoring refers to providing additional academic and/or skills development support to a student from a more experienced person. This support can be provided by a student’s classroom teacher, another school staff member, a professional tutor, or even a peer. Research has shown consistent positive impacts of tutoring on student achievement in math and reading, particularly for students in earlier grades.
Schoolwide SEL Goals
Schoolwide SEL is a systemic approach to integrating social and emotional learning across classrooms, the school building, and in collaboration with families and community partners. Schools that build strong schoolwide SEL set goals related to SEL outcomes and track SEL data to provide intervention where needed and for continuous improvement.
Teacher Training on SEL
Teacher training on SEL is essential for strong implementation and should occur in teacher preparation and in-service PD. Strong SEL support includes coaching on SEL competencies and engaging teachers in SEL practices and routines.
Tutoring
SEL Instruction and Classroom Climate
High Quality SEL Program
SEL Integration Into Tier 1 Instruction
Structured educational programming and materials designed to help students develop and hone their social-emotional skills and competencies. Effective SEL curricula are sequenced, active, focused, and explicit.
SEL integration refers to embedding evidence-based SEL instruction into academic learning instead of siloing SEL instruction into a distinct class period. SEL integration provides students opportunities to engage with and practice SEL skills and competencies in authentic situations.
College and Career Readiness
Career Education and Exploration
Career Pathways
Trauma-Informed Teaching Practices
Trauma-informed teaching refers to teachers understanding trauma, recognizing the symptoms of trauma in students, and responding in a way that minimizes re-traumatization and is informed by their knowledge of trauma. Trauma informed teaching practices are often part of a larger school-wide trauma informed approach. Some research suggests that individual and group-based approaches to addressing student trauma may be more effective than school-based approaches; other research points to the lack of rigorous evidence of the impact of school-based trauma informed approaches.
Career and Technical Education
Career Pathways provide training and preparation for students to enter a specific career field after high school. Career pathways typically provide a mapped series of courses that are aligned to necessary industry skills and credentialing. Students often have multiple choices of career pathways, allowing them to select pathways that align with their interests. There is evidence that career pathways models enhance students' academic self-efficacy and sense of preparedness for college and/or careers.
Career and Technical Education (CTE) Programs work with industry partners to provide students with educational pathways that prepare them for specific industries and occupations. CTE programs offer a mix of academic instruction and hands-on learning. The programs aim to equip students with the skills needed to succeed in an occupation immediately after high school. In a study of Arkansas CTE programming, students who participated in a concentrated CTE programs were more likely than their peers to graduate high school.
Individualized Learning Plans
Work-Based Learning
Earning College Credit
AP and International Baccalaureate Courses
Individualized learning plans are intended to empower students in their education. Individualized learning plans tailor student coursework and academic careers to their unique interests, goals, and academic needs. Students with individualized learning plans work with educators to help identify skills and interests, match these with majors, jobs, and careers, set specific college, job, and career goals, and choose classes and activities to help achieve those goals.
Work-based learning gives students hands-on learning experiences by integrating classroom learning and real-world experiences. Work-based learning can take many forms including internships, cooperative employment, apprenticeships, and shadowing. In order to students to maximize these learning experiences, schools often allow students to participate in work based learning and earn high school credit for their participation.
AP courses are rigorous, college-level courses students participate in during high school. Similar to AP courses, International Baccalaureate (IB) programs are internationally recognized for their rigorous courses that aim to develop knowledgeable and inquisitive students from a global perspective. For both AP and IB courses, only students achieving proficiency and above on the standardized AP and IB exams can receive college credit for their participation in the course. Participating in AP courses is related to students earning higher first-semester college GPAs.
Dual Enrollment
Early College High School
Dual enrollment refers to partnerships between school districts and institutions of higher education that allow high school students to enroll in college courses and earn transferable college credits. Research shows that dual-enrollment can accelerate the achievement of high-achieving students and have positive effects on college degree attainment for low-income students.
Early Colleges (ECs) programs allow students to earn up to 60 college credits in high school through dual-enrollment coursework. ECs typically target historically underrepresented students in postsecondary education and provide additional resources such as college advising, summer bridge programs, and other academic supports. Students who enroll in Early College are more likely to attend college and graduate with an associate's or bachelor's degree.
Family and Community Engagement
Caregiver Engagement
Caregiver Support
Frequent and Intentional Communication
Schools offer information, seminars, or classes for parents and families that include parenting strategies, wrap-around services, etc. Parenting supports are strongly associated with positive academic outcomes and enhance parent satisfaction.
Communicating as a practice involves designing school-to-home and home-to-school communication related to school activities and child progress. A randomized field experiment showed that frequent teacher–family communication significantly increased student engagement as measured by homework completion rates, on-task behavior, and class participation.
Learning at Home
Volunteering
Learning at Home occurs when schools offer information, support, and instructions on how to help students learn at home or incorporate learning into home life. Learning at Home is positively associated with academic outcomes, particularly among students from low-income backgrounds.
Schools and staff ask parents and families to volunteer to support school activities, increase parent engagement, and provide transparency around school processes. By actively participating in school and community activities, school leaders hope to foster a stronger connection between the school and families. Research indicates that volunteering can influence student academic outcomes.
Community-School Partnerships
Collaborating With Community
Schools collaborate with the community via school-community partnerships. These partnerships can include partnering with businesses, volunteer programs, mentorship programs, and community service programs. Schools collaborate to enhance students’ educational experiences as well as to address broader societal needs and connect with the local community.
School Activities to Support Communities
Wrap-Around Services
Schools can engage in activities that support the community at large, fostering a sense of responsibility among students and contributing positively to the overall community welfare. Some examples of school activities that support the community include community service, environmental initiatives, educational workshops that are open to the community, and partnerships with local businesses.
Wrap-around services include the comprehensive services schools provide to students and families to meet their academic, physical, emotional, and behavioral needs. Wrap-around services are coordinated by the school and typically delivered by an external partner. Some wrap-around services may include financial assistance, mental health support, food assistance, health services, tutoring, courses for parents, and intervention support for students with specific learning disabilities. Wraparound services are a cost-effective approach to supporting students’ diverse needs.
Affinity Groups for Families
Coalition Building
Schools can create affinity groups grounded in any identifying characteristic, including race, sexuality, or socio-economic status. Schools create affinity groups for parents to create a safe space for families with shared identifying characteristics to come together and share experiences. There is little research on the impact of affinity groups on families in schools.
Coalition building refers to strategies and activities designed to bring individuals and groups together to create partnerships and work toward a common purpose. The goal of coalition building in schools is to foster cooperative relationships across and between families and the school to build buy-in and support. It allows caregivers and families to be heard and give feedback, promoting inclusivity and equity.
Historically, decision making has been a centralized process where the school staff and leaders make decisions that affect students and families. Schools involve families in decision making by incorporating families in conversations (e.g., through town halls), distributing surveys asking for parent/family input, and involving parents in unique education decisions to support their students. Schools aim to enhance student success and well-being by involving families in the decisionmaking process.
Family Empowerment
Decision Making
Extended Time
Extended Day
An extended day refers to the additional hours that schools add to the beginning or end of the school day to extend students' instructional time. Extended day schedules aim to increase students' hours of instruction and/or provide enrichment activities during the school day. Extending school time can support student learning, specifically for students who need additional remediation support.
Continuous
Improvement
Data-Driven Decision Making
Year-Round School
Multi-Age Classrooms
Year-round school refers to school year schedules that include a series of short breaks throughout the year instead of a longer summer break. This strategy is used both to increase instructional time and as an academic improvement strategy that avoids the "summer slump.”
Modular classrooms are spaces that are flexible and can be modified to meet the needs of students. Modular classrooms often allow students to focus on hands-on learning with technology integration and can facilitate a more personalized learning approach. Schools aim to integrate practical experiences by creating an authentic learning environment. These physical learning environments are known to significantly impact student’s educational outcomes.
Multi-age classrooms are classrooms that include a range of student ages or grades. This approach aims to create a natural learning environment for students that mimics the ways children learn from their siblings and neighbors outside of school. When multi-age classrooms are structured so that students remain with the same teacher for several years, students may experience increased stability and a deeper teacher-student relationship. Research is mixed on the effects of this classroom structure on student learning.
Virtual schools offer virtual instructional programs to students who may have difficulty accessing or attending traditional brick-and-mortar schools. Virtual schools allow students to attend school remotely, which provides students more flexibility in their learning schedules. While virtual schooling can increase administrative efficiency and improved educational access, research shows that it does not support student achievement at scale. 1:1
1:1 computing refers to the provision of an electronic device to every student in an educational program. Because the pandemic caused a mass shift to emergency remote and hybrid instruction, the landscape of 1:1 computing expanded exponentially between 2020 and 2021. Research studies have found mixed results on the impact of 1:1 computing on student academic achievement.
Specialized instructional technology specifically support and enhance learning for individuals with unique educational needs or expand students’ hands-on learning experiences. Many schools rely on specialized instructional technology to re-create or mimic the technological environments that students will use in their careers. Specialized instructional technology can range from computers to specific software programs (e.g., CAD) to 3-D printers or laser cutters.
PDSA Cycles
Data-driven decision-making is a school-wide practice where school leaders reference qualitative and quantitative sources of evidence to support their decisions. Often, leaders use multiple data sources to guide a variety of decisions. These decisions can range from daily choices about instructional practices to broader decisions about school policies.
The Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) is a continuous improvement process. This cyclical model involves planning a change (Plan), implementing the change (Do), studying or evaluating the results (Study), and deciding on the next steps based on the evaluation (Act). Research describes that PDSA cycles can facilitate a reflective approach to teachers and learning, potentially leading to improved student outcomes.
Professional Learning Communities
Response to Intervention
Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are spaces where educators can meet to regularly discuss best practices, analyze student data, and share strategies. PLCs are a collaborative approach to continuous improvement. Research indicates that well-developed PLCs can positively impact teaching practice and student learning.
Response to Intervention (RTI) is an instructional framework that provides students exhibiting learning and behavioral needs with early intervention support. RTI components include universal screening, tiered intervention, and continued progress monitoring. Studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of RTI in enhancing student performance, especially in reading and math.
Virtual Schools
COMPLEMENTARY PRACTICE
Supporting small-group instruction through datadriven practices
SCHOOL EXAMPLE
Teachers and administrators at Sojourner Truth Public Charter School (PCS) in Washington, D.C.:
• Organize daily small-group instruction to provide more individualized academic support to students.
• Review student data to determine how to group students.
• Make real-time adjustments in instruction.
• Meet for a “data dive” meeting after each administration of the NWEA MAP Growth assessment.
• Use data to identify competencies students are struggling with and plan for how they can support those students.
SCHOOL COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE
“[Data analysis] is done at every level, … and [it’s] not just all [NWEA] MAP. … We do data dives with the [NWEA] MAP data and with the skills check data. … That informs [student] groupings and lesson assignments.”
—Staff Member, Sojourner Truth PCS
Building a diverse and inclusive environment for all students and families through hiring, identity-affirming schools and classrooms, and community-building practices
Marin’s Community School leaders:
• Engage in intentional hiring of a diverse staff that reflects the student body.
• Promote students’ identities within the physical school environment by displaying flags of Central and South American countries, empowering posters, and messages of acceptance.
• Promote belonging and inclusion by incorporating student interests within the curriculum.
• Create community by maintaining small classrooms.
“I think we’ve been successful at creating a school where students see themselves in the curriculum and feel like they have a say in what they do. … I think we’re culturally responsive in our pedagogy … in building a community, creating a sense of belonging, and helping students get re-grounded and figure out what’s next in their lives.”
—Staff Member, Marin’s Community School
Using project based learning and communityschool partnerships to connect students with the community
Catalyst Bremerton leaders:
• Focus on student development and leadership development through its project-based learning program.
• Embed student-led projects in the community of Bremerton and surrounding areas.
• Connect parents to the community via community-school partnerships to learn empowerment strategies and improve public safety in the area surrounding the school.
”They’re always very much integrated into the community and making sure that it’s not just our Catalyst community, but the community around us. [They] really empower our children to think more than just being an elementary school student and how they’re going to impact and change the world. The empowerment that comes along with it is something that’s very powerful. And that’s what definitely keeps us coming back every year.”
—Parent, Catalyst Bremerton Appendix D: Detailed
This study was approved by a fully accredited institutional review board (IRB) at Solutions IRB in 2023 as a Minimal Risk Study. Bellwether researchers reviewed schools’ applications for NewSchools funding and school artifacts (e.g., school websites, newsletters, media posts) to understand the programming and policies of schools in the NewSchools portfolio. In addition, where available, the Bellwether team reviewed participating schools’ summative and formative academic achievement data; student survey data of essential mindsets, habits, and skills; and schoolwide perceptions about the culture and climate of learning environments.
Before site visits, Bellwether identified school design practices using desk research and known school programming across the NewSchools portfolio. In collaboration with NewSchools, Bellwether developed a list of school design practices that research suggests drive student success. Throughout the fieldwork portion of this 10-month study, Bellwether identified when specific practices were observed or discussed.
During each site visit, Bellwether used purposive and snowball sampling to identify and interview teachers, school staff, school leaders, students, and caregivers. Bellwether also observed multiple classrooms to understand school design practices, how they are implemented, and their impact on student outcomes.
After each site visit, Bellwether conducted a qualitative data analysis to identify patterns and trends in schools’ design choices and develop and refine hypotheses. For each school visited, Bellwether researchers completed a detailed debrief guide to highlight themes and identify supporting evidence related to each research question. After all site visits were completed, Bellwether researchers looked across debrief guides to identify cross-school trends as well as outliers. Once all data were collected, Bellwether finalized the Catalog of Innovative Practices to illustrate the variety of school models, designs, and innovations within a sample of the NewSchools portfolio.
The Catalog of Innovative Practices is based on real-world insights, ensuring its relevance and comprehensiveness, and is meant to be a living document, open to revisions and updates as new data and insights emerge. The final catalog includes 65 specific practices that are organized within 26 drivers of success under seven pillars:
• Pillars are derived from research on effective schools and the Bellwether school health framework.63
• Drivers and practices are derived from reviews of schools’ models as well as research on innovative and effective schools.
• Using a grounded theory approach, Bellwether revised and refined the pillars, drivers, and practices based on the data collected for the study.
1 Garcia, E., & Weiss, E. (2017, September 27). Education inequalities at the school starting gate: Gaps, trends, and strategies to address them. Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/ publication/education-inequalities-at-the-school-starting-gate/
2 Reeves, R. V., & Kalkat, S. (2023, April 18). Racial disparities in the high school graduation gender gap. Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/racial-disparities-inthe-high-school-graduation-gender-gap/
Reber, S., & Smith, E. (2023, January 23). College enrollment disparities: Understanding the role of academic preparation. Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/collegeenrollment-disparities/
3 Allegretto, S., García, E., & Weiss, E. (2022, July 12). Public education funding in the U.S. needs an overhaul. Raising America’s Pay. Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/publication/ public-education-funding-in-the-us-needs-an-overhaul/
U.S. Department of the Treasury. (2023, June 9). Post 5: Racial differences in educational experiences and attainment. https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/post-5-racialdifferences-in-educational-experiences-and-attainment
4 Berman, S., Chaffe, S., & Sarmiento, J. (2018, March 12). The practice base for how we learn: Supporting students’ social, emotional, and academic development. Aspen Institute. https:// files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED585501.pdf
5 NewSchools Venture Fund. (2023). NewSchools 2021-2023 impact report. https://issuu.com/ newschools1/docs/newschools_2021_-_2023_impact_report_final
6 NewSchools Venture Fund. (n.d.). Expanded definition of student success. https://www. newschools.org/edss/
7 Ibid.
8 Learning Policy Institute. (2019, October). A whole child approach to school improvement under ESSA: Support for students in low-performing schools. https://learningpolicyinstitute. org/sites/default/files/product-files/Community_Schools_CIS_ESSA_RESOURCE.pdf
9 Cipriano, C., Strambler, M. J., Naples, L. H., Ha, C., Kirk, M., Wood, M., & Durlak, J. (2023). The state of evidence for social and emotional learning: A contemporary meta-analysis of universal school-based SEL interventions. Child Development, 94(5), 1181–1204.
10 NewSchools Venture Fund. (2023). NewSchools 2021-2023 impact report. https://issuu.com/ newschools1/docs/newschools_2021_-_2023_impact_report_final
11 NewSchools Venture Fund. (2020). How to Meet Students’ Social-Emotional and Academic Needs When Schools Reopen. Insight Brief. Vol 4. July 2020. https://www.newschools.org/wpcontent/uploads/2020/07/EDSS_Insights_3_FINAL.pdf
12 Bellwether worked with NewSchools to identify a pool of 49 district and charter schools from the NewSchools portfolio that (a) showed the majority of students meeting growth goals on most NWEA MAP assessments and/or demonstrated favorable school culture and climate outcomes (measured by student surveys) and/or (b) represented a unique innovative school model (e.g., an aviation high school, a bilingual school, a Career and Technical Education [CTE] school, an early college model). Following outreach inviting them to join the study, 29 schools from this pool ultimately opted to participate.
13 Pate, C., Pfister, T., & Ripma, T. (2023). Creating a culture of care: A guide for education leaders to develop systems and structures that support educator well-being. WestEd. https://www.wested.org/ wp-content/uploads/2023/05/CISELSS_Creating-Culture-of-Care-guide_FINAL-ADA.pdf
Walls, J., Ryu, J., & Johnson, J. (2018). A culture of caring and engagement. The case of school leadership at Cedarlane Academy. In D. L. Bickmore & M. A. Gawlik (Eds.), The charter school principal: Nuanced descriptions of leadership (pp. 29–47). Rowman & Littlefield.
14 Gold, T., Beach, P., Steel King, M., & Newby, L. D. T. (2023, September 26). Shared strategies: Strengthening the educational ecosystem. Bellwether. https://bellwether.org/wp-content/ uploads/2023/09/SharedStrategies_Bellwether_September2023.pdf
15 Third Future Schools. (n.d.). Achievement results. https://thirdfuture.org/achievement-results/
16 Willcoxon, N., & Marken, S. (2023, June 14). K-12 schools struggle to prepare, excite Gen Z about learning. Gallup. https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/507053/k12-schools-struggle-prepareexcite-gen-learning.aspx
17 Malkus, N. (2024, January 31). Long COVID for public schools: Chronic absenteeism before and after the pandemic. American Enterprise Institute. https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/longcovid-for-public-schools-chronic-absenteeism-before-and-after-the-pandemic/
18 NewSchools Venture Fund. (n.d.). Innovative schools. https://www.newschools.org/what-we-fund/ innovative-public-schools/
19 Buckley, K., Subedi, S., Krachman, S., & Atwood, J. (2018). Measurement properties of student social-emotional competency and school culture-climate surveys in the NewSchools Invent Cohort (ED605383). ERIC. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED605383.pdf
20 A written list of schools with their location, grades served, governance structure, and primary innovation is available in Appendix A.
21 Bellwether used purposive and snowball sampling when selecting school leaders, teachers, and students for interviews. Bellwether used snowball sampling when selecting families and school staff to participate in interviews. Throughout the visit, school leaders first selected the teachers, students, and families for interviews. As hypotheses emerged, researchers also reached out to educators at the schools who could address questions and the emerging hypotheses.
22 Pate, C., Pfister, T., & Ripma, T. (2023). Creating a culture of care: A guide for education leaders to develop systems and structures that support educator well-being. WestEd. https://www.wested.org/ wp-content/uploads/2023/05/CISELSS_Creating-Culture-of-Care-guide_FINAL-ADA.pdf
Walls, J., Ryu, J., & Johnson, J. (2018). A culture of caring and engagement. The case of school leadership at Cedarlane Academy. In D. L. Bickmore & M. A. Gawlik (Eds.), The charter school principal: Nuanced descriptions of leadership (pp. 29–47). Rowman & Littlefield.
23 Quin, J., Deris, A., Bischoff, G., & Johnson, J. T. (2015). Comparison of transformational leadership practices: Implications for school districts and principal preparation programs. Journal of Leadership Education, 14(3), 71–85.
24 Butler Academy.(n.d.) Our mission, values & model. https://butleracademy.us/mission-values-model
25 DC School Report Card. (n.d.). The Sojourner Truth School PCS. https://schoolreportcard.dc.gov/ lea/323/school/1144/report#measure-100
26 The Sojourner Truth School PCS. (n.d.). Design principles, mission, and philosophy. https:// thetruthschool.org/mission-and-philosophy
27 Sojourner Truth Montessori. (2019). Application to Establish a Public Charter School in the District of Columbia. 21, 73
28 Tschannen-Moran, M. (2014). Trust matters: Leadership for successful schools. Jossey-Bass. Louis, K. S. (2007). Trust and improvement in schools. Journal of Educational Change, 8, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-006-9015-5
29 Quin, D. (2017). Longitudinal and contextual associations between teacher–student relationships and student engagement: A systematic review. Review of Educational Research, 87(2), 345–387. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316669434
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30 Indiana Department of Education. (n.d.). Indiana GPS: School summary for Purdue Polytechnic High School North. Indiana GPS. https://indianagps.doe.in.gov/Summary/ School/6050
31 Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. (n.d.). Community building. https://schoolguide.casel.org/focus-area-3/classroom/a-supportive-classroom-environment/ community-building
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32 Gray, C., Wilcox, G., & Nordstokke, D. (2017). Teacher mental health, school climate, inclusive education and student learning: A review. Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne, 58(3), 203–210. https://doi.org/10.1037/cap0000117
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33 Sovde, D., James, K., Waters, J.(2019, March). Integrating Social, Emotional, and Academic Development: An Action Guide for School Leadership Teams. The Aspen Education & Society Program.(pp. 2)
34 Tennessee Department of Education. (n.d.). Valor Voyager Academy: About this school. Retrieved July 29, 2024, from https://tdepublicschools.ondemand.sas.com/school/001908080
35 Tennessee Department of Education. (n.d.). Valor Voyager Academy: Overall state achievement rate. Retrieved July 29, 2024, from https://tdepublicschools.ondemand.sas.com/school/001908080/ performance/academicAchievement
36 Thierry, K. L., Kim, T. E., Page, A., & Randall, H. (2023, December). School leader engagement strategies to support effective implementation of an SEL program. Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy, 2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S2773233923000207#sec0090
37 Catalyst Public Schools. (n.d.). Mission, vision, values. https://www.catalystpublicschools.org/ mission-and-vision
38 Kraft, M., Blazar, D., & Hogan, D. (2018). The effect of teacher coaching on instruction and achievement: A meta-analysis of the causal evidence. Review of Educational Research, 88, 547–588.
39 South Carolina Department of Education. (n.d.). Butler Academy. SC School Report Cards: South Carolina Public Charter School District | 2021-2022. https://screportcards.com/overview/academics/ student-progress/?q=eT0yMDIyJnQ9RSZzaWQ9NDcwMTA2MA
40 Timperley, H. S. (2005). Distributed leadership: Developing theory from practice. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 37(4), 395–420.
Liu, Y., Bellibaş, M. Ş., & Gümüş, S. (2021). The effect of instructional leadership and distributed leadership on teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction: Mediating roles of supportive school culture and teacher collaboration. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 49(3), 430–453.
Gronn, P. (2002). Distributed leadership. In K. Leithwood & P. Hallinger (Eds.), Second international handbook of educational leadership and administration (pp. 653–696). Kluwer Academic. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-94-010-0375-9_23
Bastea, A., Catalano, H., & Dohotaru, A. I. (2023). An overview of distributed leadership and its shortcomings in educational settings. Educatia 21 Journal, 25, Article 12. https://educatia21.reviste. ubbcluj.ro/data/uploads/article/2023/ed21-no25-art12.pdf
41 McClure Health Science High School. (n.d.). Vision and mission. https://mcclurehealthsciencehs. gcpsk12.org/about-us/vision-and-mission
42 Gwinnet County Public Schools. (n.d.). School profile dashboard: McClure Health Science High School. Retrieved August 4, 2024, from https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiNTU4YmZjODgtOTI1Zi00YTI3LWE2MGEtZGVlZGM3ZTQ4YWM5IiwidCI6IjdkZTY1Y2Y5LTNmMmUtNGU2Ny1hNDY5LTk2NWIwZDA4NWZiYiIsImMiOjF9
43 California Department of Education. (2023). Cohort graduation rate [Data set]. DataQuest. https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqcensus/CohRate.aspx?agglevel=school&year=202223&cds=19647330132282
44 Ednovate. (n.d.). About East College Prep. https://www.ednovate.org/east
45 Atherton, M. C. (2014). Academic preparedness of first-generation college students: Different perspectives. Journal of College Student Development, 55(8), 824–829.
Cataldi, E. F., Bennett, C. T., & Chen, X. (2018). First-generation students: College access, persistence, and post-bachelor’s outcomes (Stats in Brief, NCES 2018-421). National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018421.pdf
Cortez, A., Beach, P., Lee, N., Graziano, L., Robinson, B., & Beals, K. (2023). An investment, not a gamble: Creating more equitable and effective postsecondary pathways. Bellwether. https:// bellwether.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/AnInvestmentNotAGamble_BetaByBellwether_ April2023_Final.pdf
46 Tableau. (n.d.). What is a data culture? https://www.tableau.com/why-tableau/data-culture
47 Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Formative and summative assessments. https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/Formative-Summative-Assessments
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Hamilton, L., Halverson, R., Jackson, S., Mandinach, E., Supovitz, J., & Wayman, J. (2009). Using student achievement data to support instructional decision making (NCEE 2009-4067). National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/ dddm_pg_092909.pdf
48 DESSA refers to the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment which measures social and emotional competencies.https://www.apertureed.com/
49 Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership. (n.d.). https://sezp.org/
50 Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership. (n.d.). School profile: Discovery High School. Retrieved July 31, 2024, from https://sezp.org/schools/sezp-schools/discovery-high-school/
51 Tableau. (n.d.). What is a data culture? https://www.tableau.com/why-tableau/data-culture
52 National Equity Project. (n.d.). https://www.nationalequityproject.org/education-equitydefinition
53 Learn more about the Expanded Definition of Student Success: https://www.newschools. org/edss/.
Atwood, J., & Childress, S. (2018). Embracing and measuring an expanded definition of student success (NewSchools Venture Fund Insight Brief). https://www.newschools.org/wp-content/ uploads/2018/08/NSVF_080318_EDSS_Insight_Brief_003-rev.pdf
54 ELM Learning. (2022, September 14). Building a learning organization. Developing a Learning Culture. https://elmlearning.com/blog/what-is-a-learning-organization/
55 Great Schools Partnership. (n.d.). Mission and vision. In Glossary of education reform. Retrieved July 24, 2024, from https://www.edglossary.org/mission-and-vision/
56 Pate, C., Pfister, T., & Ripma, T. (2023). Creating a culture of care: A guide for education leaders to develop systems and structures that support educator well-being. WestEd. https:// www.wested.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/CISELSS_Creating-Culture-of-Care-guide_ FINAL-ADA.pdf
Walls, J., Ryu, J., & Johnson, J. (2018). A culture of caring and engagement. The case of school leadership at Cedarlane Academy. In D. L. Bickmore & M. A. Gawlik (Eds.), The charter school principal: Nuanced descriptions of leadership (pp. 29–47). Rowman & Littlefield.
57 Buck Institute for Education. (n.d.). What is PBL? PBLWorks. https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl
58 Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning. (n.d.). Fundamentals of SEL. https:// casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/
59 Shapiro, E. (n.d.). Tiered Instruction and Intervention in a Response-to-Intervention Model. RTI Action Network. https://www.rtinetwork.org/essential/tieredinstruction/tiered-instruction-andintervention-rti-model
60 Great Schools Partnership. (n.d.). Mission and vision. In Glossary of education reform. Retrieved July 24, 2024, from https://www.edglossary.org/mission-and-vision/
61 Learning Policy Institute. (n.d.). Whole child education. https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/topic/ whole-child-education
62 Note: Although researchers visited 29 schools, this list includes only 28 of the schools that took part in this study. The remaining school wishes to be anonymous and was therefore removed from this list.
63 Gold, T., Beach, P., Steel King, M., & Newby, L. D. T. (2023, September 26). Shared strategies: Strengthening the educational ecosystem. Bellwether. https://bellwether.org/publications/sharedstrategies/
Acknowledgments
This report is based on a study funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions or policies of the Gates Foundation. We thank the Foundation for the generous support of this project.
We would like to thank the many individuals who shared their knowledge to inform our work, including the school staff, students, and family members who were generous with their time, invited us into their school communities, and participated in interviews and focus groups.
We would also like to thank our Bellwether colleagues Melissa Steel King, PhD, Lynne Graziano, Paul Beach, PhD, Jessica Slaton, PhD, and Hailly T.N. Korman, J.D. for their input, and Kaitlin Beeson for her support. Thank you to Amy Ribock, Kate Neifeld, Andy Jacob, Zoe Campbell, Julie Nguyen, and Amber Walker for shepherding and disseminating this work. Thank you also to Super Copy Editors, Rachel Howell at Copia Consulting, and Ashley Campbell at Trek Consulting.
We would also like to thank our NewSchools colleagues Frances Messano, Delicia Jones, and Jason Atwood for their support in steering this work. Thank you to WendyAnn Dixon-DuBois and Eddy Ramirez for their input and disseminating this work, and Dan Segal for his support. Thank you also to Brandi Mebane at Mebane Design Studio.
This study surfaced many rich and illuminating examples of strategies in practice. We are eager to share more in conversation about how this study can catalyze your school design and development of new learning environments. We invite you to reach out to invent@newschools.org to discuss and learn together.
The contributions of these individuals and entities significantly enhanced our work; however, any errors in fact or analysis remain the responsibility of the authors.
About the Authors
Kristen Carroll
Kristen Carroll, Ph.D., is an associate partner at Bellwether in the Policy and Evaluation practice area. She can be reached at kristen.carroll@bellwether.org.
Brian Robinson
Brian Robinson, Ph.D., is a senior analyst at Bellwether in the Policy and Evaluation practice area. He can be reached at brian.robinson@bellwether.org.
Ebony Lambert
Ebony Lambert, Ph.D., is an associate partner at Bellwether in the Policy and Evaluation practice area. She can be reached at ebony.lambert@bellwether.org.
Daniela Torre Gibney
Daniela Torre Gibney, Ph.D., is a senior associate partner at Bellwether in the Policy and Evaluation practice area. She can be reached at daniela.torregibney@bellwether.org.
Mia Howard
Mia Howard, J.D., is the managing partner of innovative schools at NewSchools. She can be reached at mhoward@newschools.org
About Bellwether
Bellwether is a national nonprofit that exists to transform education to ensure systemically marginalized young people achieve outcomes that lead to fulfilling lives and flourishing communities. Founded in 2010, we work hand in hand with education leaders and organizations to accelerate their impact, inform and influence policy and program design, and share what we learn along the way. For more, visit bellwether.org.
About NewSchools
NewSchools is a venture philanthropy that builds a better education system by connecting people, resources, and ideas. We bridge the gap between those with capital and those with the courage to put that capital to work on the frontlines of education. We believe that by working together, we can power a future where all students have what they need to thrive, in school and life — and that philanthropy has an important role to play. We leverage our unique position to invest in promising leaders and ideas, amplify solutions and success stories, and build broader and better coalitions for change. For more, visit newschools.org
© 2024 Bellwether and NewSchools
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Suggested Citation. Carroll, K., Robinson, B., Lambert, E., Torre Gibney, D, & Howard, M. (2024). Building better schools: Insights from Innovative Public Schools. Bellwether and NewSchools Venture Fund. Retrieved from newschools.org.
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