These elements must work together. If a strategy includes incentives, every adult's performance matters. This element encourages schools in which students learn because the people who work in them are rewarded, and children are removed from situations in which they are not learn- ing. If a strategy includes increasing school capabilities, the school's ca- pacity to function in its basic role is enhanced. The community invests in new ideas, new methods of instruction, teacher training, and recruit- ment of new teachers.
Schools get help devising improvement plans and assessing their progress.
If a strategy increases opportunities for school freedom, creativity is encouraged to blossom. School leaders and teachers, relieved of rules that limit instruction and make it routine, are free to use staff and money in innovative ways. Just as all three features must work together, all three are essential. Each reinforces the others. Incentives highlight the importance of per- formance, investing in capacity building raises aspirations, and freedom removes the excuses for failing to strive for high standards.