Institute for Strategic Leadership and Learning

Our mission is to promote innovation and meaningful change in public education through strategic leadership and learning within and across all levels of the  education system. We believe that all members of society - students,  parents, educators, organizations and policymakers - have an important  role to play in developing and implementing strategies that will improve educational outcomes for all. 

We work to cultivate strategic leadership and learning, construct a policy environment conducive to innovation and successful implementation of effective strategies, and engage in meaningful evaluations of the various strategies and interventions employed to support teaching and learning.

NEW! Targeted School Reviews and Survey of Professional Interactions and School Capacity

See our District and School Improvement page for additional information.   

Over the past 15 years, INSTLL has worked closely with multiple state departments of education and local school districts to develop and enact strategies leading to accelerated improvement in student achievement. In collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, we researched and co-developed a set of Turnaround Practices that provide a framework for planning and support, including a variety of research and practice-based publications and guides.

• The final Turnaround Practices in Action policy analysis and practice guide, which details the specific practices used by turnaround schools that led to dramatic increases in student achievement.
• The Turnaround Practices Field Guide, which provides additional, and school-specific, examples of practices used by schools that experienced rapid improvement.
• The Massachusetts Turnaround Practices Research and Evaluation Report site and summary Research on Effective Practices in School Turnaround are excellent resources and summarize much of the research in digital form. 

Our recent work (2014-2021) has focused on the use of leadership networking and improvement science methodology to explore how to accelerate improvement efforts within and across school districts. 

• In our 4th year partnering with a large urban school district, we have developed and offer a multi-year set of professional development and networking supports that engage all district schools, school leaders, and coaches and teachers in a comprehensive approach to improving instruction and building capacity for sustainable improvement.  Focus areas include culturally responsive practices, teaming and professional learning communities, and use of data to drive instructional improvement. 
• We recently completed a multi-year partnership with a network of five urban districts and over 20 schools working on a shared problem of practice and we have since expanded this work by focusing on building networks of schools within districts.  The five-district Gateway to College Success initiative led to the publication of a policy brief, Using Networked Improvement Communities to Accelerate Improvement, and a detailed Technical Report that provides the research and evidence base for the brief. school turnaround

Three recent evaluation reports showcase our approach to providing customized and rigorous evaluation support to organizations, state departments of education, and districts: 

• Implementation evaluation of the Bay State Reading Initiative as part of a five-year Investing in Innovation (i3) grant.
• The Improving School Initiative Final Evaluation Brief: A three-year evaluation of Boston-based school improvement effort, focusing on coaching, data-use, and building teacher and leadership capacity in three urban schools.
• Achieving College Success: A multi-year evaluation of the impact of an Advanced Placement STEM and English Initiative on students' matriculation, persistence and success in college. 
• The proceedings from the 2014 College Success Research Forum provide an integrated policy and research agenda for improving the college attendance and persistence of minority and low income students. Bringing together national and state leaders (Massachusetts), this document summarizes the key findings, challenges, and action items for improving college success.