What Is School Improvement?
What is school improvement? Simply put, it’s progressing your school to the next level. At the Model Schools Conference, we define this as double-digit gains in student growth. Each year, we interview educators from across the country who share their expertise and we learn about the strategies that have produced rapid growth.
List of School Improvement Ideas
After conducting thousands of interviews with hundreds of schools, districts, and teacher leaders who have shared their success at the Model Schools Conference over the past 10 years, the following list represents the most common strategies that have led to school improvement.
1. Build a Culture Focused on Your Students
Not all schools have the same culture, nor should they. Schools with a positive, student-focused culture are much more likely to thrive. These schools have a built-in growth mindset, high teacher retention rates, high attendance and graduation rates, and strong academics. A strong school culture knows their "why," or reason for doing the work. Model Schools that truly value the importance of “why” have transformed their cultures. For inspiration, listen to this Teachers in America podcast where Cypress-Fairbanks ISD teacher Sherrye Scott encourages all teachers to remember their “why,” especially if they start to feel burnt out.
Consider these questions: Does leadership have a particular “why” they can articulate? Is it written on the walls? Shared during announcements? Can others repeat it? Are you hiring teachers who believe in this “why?” Bringing this culture to life in your school will result in positive outcomes not only for kids but for adults.
2. Cultivate Mindful Breathing Routines
Seriously, take a deep breath. The ability to focus your mind, self-regulate your emotions, and be ready for learning depends on it. Neuroscience research supports mindfulness and when working in schools, anxiety, stress, and emotions can run high. School improvement is possible through a learning environment that integrates mindful breathing and other mindfulness routines, such as meditation, into daily classroom practices. As a result, students and staff are more focused on learning and able to regulate their emotions which leads to higher levels of academic productivity.
3. Connect with Your School Community
Before the school year begins, gas up the school minivan and get your teachers together for a home visit blitz. Drive around the community and visit the homes of your students. Greet them with big smiles wearing school T-shirts. Meet their caregivers and other family members. Let them know that you can’t wait to see them at school in the coming days. This sets the tone for the school year, increases family engagement, and provides educators with a little insight into the home lives of their students.
If this is not feasible, there are many alternate ways to connect and engage with students and families before your back-to-school kickoff. Mail a letter and encourage students to send one back to you. Send an email that details the exciting things you hope to complete with your students this year.
4. Increase Family Engagement Through Perception Data
Determine the top two or three priorities you want feedback on from family members. Create a short survey (5-6 items) asking for key feedback related to the school year and goals. Be sure to include an open-ended question for sharing other ideas. Follow up with results and next steps so family members know their voices are being heard. Consider having a focus group with some of the parents or caretakers and/or other stakeholders who completed the survey to dig a little deeper into the feedback and find topics that you want to address.
5. Recognize Team Members in Meaningful Ways
Celebrate the wins of your staff on a regular, intentional basis. This can be in the form of a handwritten note expressing gratitude, leaving snacks in a mailbox with a sticky note of encouragement, or any simple yet impactful act of kindness that lets staff know that you care. Strong leaders are bucket fillers; they give staff the support they need and create a culture where educators want to work. They go the extra mile to support their school community. Research suggests that showing gratitude improves your mental health, too. For example, think of someone you are grateful for. Take 10 seconds, create a video on your phone of yourself expressing your gratitude, and send it! You can encourage the recipient to follow your lead and send a similar video to a coworker.
6. Visibly Represent School and Self Pride
As teachers and leaders, we can lead by example. Try boosting school pride in your own way and ask yourself these questions: Are school staff visibly wearing school pride attire? Do students know that you look to support them? Tell them. A simple yet transformative practice is for leaders to be visibly active and engaged at the bus loop, during transition time in hallways, and in the cafeteria. Love a particular sports team? Obsessed with a particular book or TV series? Lean in and let the school community latch on to those traits that make you (the adults in the building) unique. Not only are they an opportunity to build relationships, but also they create a sense of belonging.
7. Simplify Educators’ Lives
Center for Model Schools Senior Fellow Eric Sheninger would agree: we need to simplify educators’ lives. Let teachers focus on what they do best: leading the classroom! Reduce teacher prep time, focus on teachers teaching, and streamline communication between teachers, students, and family members. Automate routine tasks that can generate insight into student learning patterns, and identify gaps in teaching and learning. Central City Elementary School in Cabell County, West Virginia, shifted its schedule to address the needs of students during intervention time. Teachers are assigned certain students based on which standard they teach best. This creates a win-win. Teachers can focus on helping students who are deficient in a particular standard improve (based on student performance data), and students have access to the best teacher for their needs. Educators’ lives are simplified and students benefit.
8. Provide Personalized Education Pathways with Adaptive Content
Let's be frank: a high school diploma is not a blanket guarantee of a successful transition into adulthood. What can almost guarantee success? Transferable soft skills and a system of support. For example, Model School Oakmont High School prepares students beyond the diploma by focusing on microcredential training in resiliency, initiative, and collaboration. Model School Quest Academy Middle School creates personalized learning pathways through immersive digital pedagogy. Model School Holman Middle School took steps toward using personalized and mastery-based learning to close persistent ELA and math achievement gaps, helping all students succeed. Leaders in these schools understand how to give teachers the support, tools, and freedom they need to bring personalized practices to their classrooms and take the school to the next level.
9. Make Learning Relevant
Relevance is about making learning connections. Model Schools that focus on meaningful work and learning connections through relevance increase student growth. Two strategies that support this are project-based learning and inquiry-based learning. For example, Queensborough Elementary School of Shreveport, Louisiana, shared strategies at the Model Schools Conference on boosting student and staff engagement with culturally relevant pedagogy. Quail Hollow Elementary in Wesley Chapel, Florida, has created a hands-on, minds-on approach to ignite curiosity through an inquiry model.
4 Ideas to Improve Schools and Inspire Administrators
All the listed strategies will help to improve student outcomes, but if you are looking for ideas to inspire administrators, see below for four big ideas.
1. Tell Your Story and Increase Attendance
Social media is a tool that can greatly benefit the school or district when there is a clear plan and approach. This could mean sharing small updates on athletics, community events, and other school-related celebrations on social media. Start small and begin to build a routine for what you share and how often.
If you want to take a more advanced approach to social media, this will require vulnerability. For example, Model School Principal Brian Atkinson from Logan Middle School in West Virginia started his own TikTok to share announcements and engage his school community. Similarly, Model School’s Epic Educator Georgeanne Warnock, superintendent of schools for Terrell ISD, significantly increased her district’s pride by sharing her experiences as a substitute teacher in her district. Model School BrewTech High School in Alabama uses social media to showcase its school brand and school recognition. As a result, student attendance increased.
2. Structure Professional Learning Communities Based on Students' Needs Identified by Data
Professional learning communities (PLCs) are an integral part of K–12 academic practices. When PLCs focus on data-driven decision-making teachers can identify more effective instructional strategies and thereby improve schools and student outcomes. The goal of the PLC process is to consistently increase the academic and behavioral capacities of students with varied backgrounds and experiences. It helps when PLCs are fully embraced by staff and championed by administrators. Consider the following questions: What common formative assessment data do you have to inform instructional decisions? What do you anticipate the results will indicate? What will we look for in student behavior? What can we do to respond to what the data is telling us?
3. Create Theme-Based Professional Development Experiences
Increase the “stickiness” of your professional development through creative, theme-based experiences. Pick a theme—this could be a book series, movie franchise, or even Taylor Swift or Beyoncé— and use it through the planning process and beyond. Collective teacher efficacy is a high effect size strategy. When teachers come together with their collective expertise to build their capacity in meaningful ways, they are more likely to transfer this knowledge into their daily practice. Don’t be afraid to make PD fun!
4. Connect with Colleagues at the Model Schools Conference (or another Professional Learning Event)
Send a team to Model Schools Conference and hear personal takes on some of the strategies shared above, as well as some new improvement strategies. Groups of five or more can take a strategy or two from the network of like-minded colleagues, make it their own, and rapidly improve their school. As the Associate Partner of the Center for Model Schools, I have seen it firsthand and am always proud to welcome back past attendees as Model Schools within just a few years.
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Join more than 5,000 educators in 100+ sessions at the 33rd Annual Model Schools Conference in Washington, DC, from June 22–25, 2025, where you can learn more about school improvement plans.
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