As featured in the Washington Post, Greg Anrig of The Century Foundation, a non-profit research organization based in Washington D.C. recently set forth the theory that struggling schools can make improvements by collaboration between labor and management.  In his post, Anrig references studies by the Consortium on Chicago School Research and the National Center for Educational Achievement, and management studies from the manufacturing and health care fields.

Anrig highlights the importance of trust and collaboration between stakeholders in education based on his review of research.  For example, he cities the Consortium on Chicago School Research’s finding of five pillars of successful schools:

1. a coherent instructional guidance system, in which the curriculum, study materials, pedagogical strategies, and assessments are coordinated within and across grades with meaningful teacher input;

2. an effective system to improve professional capacity, including making teachers’ classroom work public for examination by colleagues and external consultants to  enable ongoing support and guidance to teachers;

3. strong parent-community-school ties, which closely integrate the network of people focused on enabling each student to learn;

4. a student-centered learning climate that identifies and responds to particular difficulties any child may be encountering; and

5. leadership focused on cultivating a growing cadre of stakeholders (teachers, parents, and community members) who become invested in sharing overall responsibility for the school’s improvement.

For more information, see the full post in the Post or read more about the cited studies, Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago, and The 20 Non-Negotiable Characteristics of Higher Performing School Systems