Improve leadership impact by reducing organizational drag

Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Sarah Green Carmichael.

When linking teacher pay to student achievement, the devil is in the details. Be aware of potentially explosive issues when exploring a performance pay policy for your district

Responding to data, evaluating employees fairly, and constantly assessing your district’s performance are just some of the ways you can make a merit system work

Professional learning communities have a track record of helping teachers make sense of student performance data, but they can — and should — do more to support meaningful changes in teaching practice.

Imagine a gardener who sees row upon row of beautiful flowers in a nursery. He enthusiastically loads a cart to overflowing in anticipation of placing each new plant in a special place in his garden.

It is not difficult to find factors outside of school that have enormous influence on student performance and education opportunity.

Like many districts, Indiana’s Elkhart Community Schools faced a host of challenges due to the recession. So how did the district manage to thrive despite hard times?

Discover constructive ideas for the teacher shortage.

We don't need to speculate about the causes of the teacher shortages that have been playing out in many parts of the country.

Evaluting your superintendent is important, but rankings are often ambiguous or politicized. How can you make superintendent assessments a valuable tool for change?

One demands evidence before embracing change, while the other resists it at all cost. Here’s why you should listen to the skeptics and avoid the cynics when making crucial decisions

In a recent address to the California Board of Education, Professor E.D. Hirsch offered a number of insightful comments with regard to educational reform generally and performance assessment specifically.

When you are sorting through competing theories and multiple sources of data, take Einstein’s advice: Make everything ‘as simple as possible, but not simpler’

The criticisms of academic standards are well established. Some states have established standards that are too voluminous, too specific, not specific enough, and most of all, linked to the tests that critics love to hate.

Suggesting grading reform can be risky business. Here’s how to keep the discussion productive and on track.

What you can do to redesign public education from the ground up

Why the zero on the 100-point scale is inaccurate and destructive.

This is not a trick question. If you are using a grading scale in which the numbers 4, 2, 2, 1 and 0 correspond to grades of A, B C, D and F, then what number is awarded to a student who fails to turn in an assignment?

There is a prevailing mythology of change leadership that if we just find the right blend of persuasion, research, and emotional appeal, then the staff will embrace the changes that leaders wish to make.

Although the demand for 21st century skills has spawned a good deal of enthusiasm, the reality of curriculum in K–12 education remains firmly rooted in the traditions of past centuries.

To create the most positive classroom environment possible, education leaders must consider not only what happens inside the classroom, but also everything that affects students throughout the day. Extracurricular experiences are an important ingredient in this recipe.

Why PLCs Fail to Meet their Potential

Although many schools around the world have claimed to embrace the professional learning community (PLC) process, it would be more accurate to describe the current state of affairs in many schools as PLC Lite. Educators rename their traditional faculty or department meetings as PLC meetings, engage in book studies that result in no action, or devote collaborative time to topics that have no effect on student achievement — all in the name of the PLC process.