How Change Happens

The Natural Learning Research Institute

How We Work With Schools

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How We Work With Schools

School Renewal for High Standards

Schools are not just mechanical systems with parts that can be "fixed" or replaced.  Schools are complex systems where everything influences everything else.

Success and high standards come from helping a school develop the capacity to change itself from the inside, based on leading edge research about how people learn, what great teaching looks like and how powerful learning communities function.

Benefits from this approach

• Test scores climb;
  

• Achievement gaps decline;
  

• Discipline problems are reduced;
  

• Attendance increases;
  

• Many costs are reduced; and
  

• School is enjoyable for staff and students.
  

Critical factors that we address in the following pages

1.  Develop a common understanding of how people learn.

2.  Create a professional learning community.

3.  The focus of Standards and Curriculum is to make       

     deep understanding and higher order functioning 

     central.

4. Outcomes and Assessment  Multiple forms of

    assessment are used to document student achievement.

5.  Provide ongoing professional development for

    teachers and administrators.

6.  Create in-house leadership capacity.

7.  Stakeholder support within the system.