Whereas a few years ago it was not cool to do well academically, now our best students are more self-assured and more of them are quite proud to do well. We tried to get away from the lecture style and tried to have the student as a more active participant. In several schools, teachers are somewhat frustrated that the teaching-learning environment has deteriorated. Work habits have deteriorated and assignments are incomplete. For example, you might get 15 projects complete out of 35.
Good performance is looked at as nerdy.
There is a growing frustration among all teachers regarding the poor work ethic and classroom discipline problems. At School 11, the principal identified technology and student evaluation as the primary foci. In spite of this, neither she nor other teachers noted these as initiatives that influenced classroom practices. It is difficult to implement when people do not see it as important. It is reasonable to conclude that those schools that adopted emerging models of leadership and worked toward becoming learning organizations were more focused on improvements in classroom practices and appeared more successful in their efforts.