There is a lot of federal money available for training and professional development for teachers but no systematic federal strategy that I can discern for turning that money into systems of the kind top-performing countries use to support long-term, steady improvements in teachers' professional practice
Knowledge workers would fail unless they were managed like professionals: given a lot of autonomy, trusted to make the right decisions and supported rather than directed.
Pink draws on four decades of research to argue that most workers are capable of much more and better work than they currently do, but they will be motivated to do it not by the old extrinsic rewards and punishments, but rather by the intrinsic motivation that comes from being treated like the true professionals described by Drucker.
Turnaround Case Studies by ERS Strategies: Denver Case Study
Education Resource Strategies analyzed strategies to turn around low-performance schools undertaken by six large urban districts and four education management organizations and then developed 10 case studies. The attached case study is about school turnaround in Denver Public Schools.
This paper examines one essential tactic for making school turnaround more effective: community engagement. To explore community engagement in action, the Reform Support Network (RSN) conducted reviews between April and August of 2013 of 11 States and districts, urban and rural, engaged in the communities surrounding low-performing schools. The enquiry yielded five primary lessons or takeaways about successful community engagement: make engagement a priority and establish an infrastructure, communicate proactively in the community, listen to the community and respond to its feedback, offer meaningful opportunities to participate, and turn community supporters into leaders and advocates.