Five Levers to Improve Learning

<p>Why have decades of school reform had so little measurable effect on student achievement? Why have billions of dollars spent on technology small-school initiatives and school-choice options failed to improve our schools?</p><p>Too often educators are simply pulling the wrong levers say Tony Frontier and James Rickabaugh. They explain that the various components of schooling fall into five categories: <em>structure</em> <em>sample</em> <em>standards</em> <em>strategy</em> and <em>self</em>. Understanding how these five levers work--and their relative power--can help unlock the potential for lasting improvements in teaching and learning.</p><p>The authors show readers that changes to <em>structure</em> and <em>sample</em> (how schools are organized and how students are grouped) will not be effective without changes to <em>standards</em> (expectations for student learning) <em>strategy</em> (instructional strategies to engage students in meaningful learning) and <em>self</em> (the set of beliefs teachers and students have about their capacity to be effective).</p><p>At the heart of this book is a simple message for teachers administrators board members and education policymakers at all levels: the key to success is not doing <em>more</em> work and making <em>more</em> changes but doing the <em>right</em> work and making the <em>right</em> changes.</p>