Engaging Schools to Improve Ninth-Grade Outcomes: CORE's Approach

Abstract

Busy educators are often faced with a dilemma--staying up to date with evidence-based practices and initiatives that support their professional growth while combating a constant barrage of superficial ideas from other contexts. Continuous improvement approaches to change offer methods for testing new ideas and adapting them to local contexts. If seen as add-ons to educators' roles, however, these approaches are unlikely to yield deep engagement and sustained improvement. This practice brief explains the CORE Districts' five-driver model, a modified approach that deepened educators' ownership of the work and positioned schools to sustain improvement over time.