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This particular attendance award may have been especially flawed because rather than rewarding workers for exceptional performance, it rewarded them for fulfilling a basic job expectation.

hat awards are more effective when they recognize good behavior in the past, rather than behavior going forward

ou can't put a price on that. The recognition of hearing you did a good job and that others are hearing about it is worth more than money

First, successful change leaders clearly articulate the need for change to a variety of audiences in ways that are intellectually coherent and emotionally compelling. The ability to do this requires that change leaders immerse themselves into radically different worlds

nderstand deeply is the world for which they are preparing their students

what skills, what habits of mind, and what dispositions

Nearly every study of employer needs over the past 20 years comes up with the same answers. Successful workers communicate effectively orally and in writing and have social and behavioral skills that make them responsible and good at teamwork. They are creative and techno-savvy, have a good command of fractions and basic statistics, and can apply relatively simple math to real-world problems like financial or health literacy.

All students should master a verifiable set of skills, but not necessarily the same skills. High schools fail so many kids partly because educators can't get free of the notion that all students -- regardless of their career aspirations -- need the same basic preparation. As states pile on academic courses, they give less attention to the arts and downplay career and technical education to make way for a double portion of math.

ducators, not programs, have the responsibility to educate students beyond just getting them to behave.

He found that most had few or no memories of their parents pushing or prodding them or getting involved at school in formal ways. Instead, students described mothers and fathers who set high expectations and then stepped back. “These kids made it!,” Robinson told me. “You’d expect they’d have the type of parental involvement we’re promoting at the national level. But they hardly had any of that. It really blew me away.”

n middle-class households, kids learned to ask critical questions and to advocate for themselves—behaviors that served them well in the classroom.

by as much as eight points on a reading or math test—is by getting them placed in the classroom of a teacher with a good reputation. This is one example for which race did seem to matter: white parents are at least twice as likely as black and Latino parents to request a specific teacher.

The first world that change leaders must understand deeply is the world for which they are preparing their students.

They realize that the world no longer cares how much students know, but rather what they can do with what they know.

he second world effective change leaders understand is the world of students