To learn well, students must experience their schools as caring communities in which they are well known and taught in ways appropriate to their individual strengths, needs, and experiences. Learning is a function of the whole child. About Schools Good schools show a proactive commitment to equity by working to ensure that students of different genders and from different racial, class, cultural, and language backgrounds achieve similar educational successes. Good schools are self-consciously principled and caring communities that share a sense of purpose and hold a clear vision of good teaching and learning. This vision and sense of purpose are shared by many leaders, including parents, teachers, students, administrators, and others.
Good schools expect teachers to meet high standards.
Because challenging and productive classrooms require teachers to be active learners, the school provides its teachers with access to outside expertise and with the time and resources needed to develop a deep understanding of their subjects, to expand their repertoire of instructional strategies, and to work with colleagues to develop a coherent program for their students. Good teachers expect students to demonstrate deep understanding. They use multiple assessments of student learning, applying what they learn to adjust their instruction to students' learning needs. Good schools practice shared inquiry to improve the learning of all students, and have a focused strategy for improving instruction. They use data from multiple assessments to constantly and carefully evaluate what programs and instructional strategies work, adjusting the school's program in response.