Equity Champions: Brian Rainey

EQUITY CHAMPIONS Brian Rainey Real champions inspire us because we know they give everything to make a difference. Through this column, we are helping make known real champions in the lives of children and youth. At NCUST, we are thankful for all the many equity champions who are, each day, changing lives, changing schools, and […]

Caring Enough to Know and Value Individual Students

Caring Enough to Know and Value Individual Students An excerpt from the Second Edition of Teaching Practices from America’s Best Urban Schools. Available now at all book retailers. Hattie (2009) synthesized over 800 studies of factors that influenced student achievement. He found that teacher-student relationships have a major influence on student learning, more powerful than most […]

Why Apply? A message from NCUST Executive Director Joseph F. Johnson, Jr.

WHY APPLY? At NCUST, it has been our honor to visit and learn from over 150 amazing schools that achieve multiple evidences of outstanding learning results for every racial/ethnic/income group of students they serve.  We look forward to recognizing, celebrating, and learning from more urban schools during this coming year. Why do we invest the […]

Leadership Moves…Specifying Who Will Benefit from Change

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Leadership Moves…Specifying Who Will Benefit from Change. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text] While each high-performing urban school might have emphasized different details as they framed reasons for change, they all shared surprising consistency and impressive clarity as they emphasized that change efforts were intended to benefit all students. Leaders made extra efforts to clarify that the proposed efforts […]

Making Students Feel Valued and Capable

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Making Students Feel Valued and Capable [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text] Part 2 [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text] An excerpt from the Second Edition of Teaching Practices from America’s Best Urban Schools. Available now at all book retailers. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text] A group of six high school students from Dayton Business and Technology High School met with a researcher from the National Center for Urban […]

Connecting with Student Interests, Backgrounds, Cultures, and Prior Knowledge. Part 2.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Connecting with Student Interests, Backgrounds, Cultures, and Prior Knowledge [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text] Part 2 [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text] Not Simply for the Sake of “Interesting” [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text] It is important to note that in high-performing schools, lessons are rarely designed or pursued simply because they are likely to be interesting to students or because they are likely to relate to […]

Acquiring and Responding to Evidence of Understanding | Part 4: Observing and Adapting

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Acquiring and Responding to Evidence of Understanding [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text] Part 4: Observing and Adapting [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text] In high-performing urban schools, teachers check for understanding because they want to know how each student is proceeding toward mastery of the lesson’s specific objective. They ask questions to determine which concepts are understood by which students and which concepts […]

Leadership Moves…Leadership that Influences the Desire to Change.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Leadership Moves… Leadership that Influences the Desire to Change. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text] It’s all about leadership. She [the principal] came in here with a vision and the rest of us followed suit. She came with a vision. She changed patterns, she changed mentalities, and she changed perceptions. Students started buying into it. Teachers started buying into […]

Connecting with Student Interests, Backgrounds, Cultures, and Prior Knowledge

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Connecting with Student Interests, Backgrounds, Cultures, and Prior Knowledge [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text] Building Connections [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text] As usual, the conversations in this sophomore English class at one high-performing urban school we studied, were intense. Groups of three or four students (mostly Latino and African American) were leaning in, talking to each other with an air of urgency. […]

Leadership Moves…Opening the Door of a Model Classroom in a High Performing Urban School

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Leadership Moves… Opening the Door of a Model Classroom in a High Performing Urban School [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text] Whether it’s inside a brand new building with modern architecture, or an older school with lots of character, opening the door of a classroom in a high performing school has common characteristics that make it educationally magical. In […]