A Key to High Achievement

By Continued

When a group of researchers drew up case studies of urban schools that were making progress in revamping education, the scholars noticed something different about the most successful schools in the bunch: They all had teachers with a strong sense of community and a shared mission.

In those schools, teachers had time to plan and talk together, to observe one another at work, and to reflect on their practice. And the educators tended to focus as a group on the learning of all the students in the school.

"We figured if teachers feel more responsible for student achievement, maybe student achievement actually goes up," says Karen Seashore Louis, a professor of educational policy and administration at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, who led the team of researchers. But no studies at the time could...