Simply Better: Doing What Matters Most to Change the Odds for Student Success, Aug/2011

Drawing from the research base that informed the ASCD best-selling series of What Works In Schools titles, this book identifies key principles at the heart of what it takes to help all students become successful learners. Education research expert Bryan Goodwin separates the school improvement ideas that really work from those that just appear to work and provides you with a What Matters Most Framework that focuses your school on how to change the odds for under-served children by

Guaranteeing challenging, engaging, and intentional instruction.

Ensuring curricular pathways to success.

Providing whole-child student supports.

Creating high-performance school cultures.

Developing high-reliability district systems.

To guide your implementation of these principles, Simply Better describes lots of strategic touchstones to keep in mind, such as

Why teachers must both challenge and nurture students in order to boost achievement.

How curriculum can be standardized across systems yet personalized to individual student needs and interests.

What to do to counter the negative effects of poor motivation, health issues, unsupportive home environments, and insufficient background knowledge.

How principals can take immediate steps to reduce the variance in teacher quality in their schools.