Transforming Sanchez School

By Raymond Isola, Jim Cummins

This book is the result of a 20-year collaboration between a school principal (Raymond R. Isola) and an educational researcher (Jim Cummins). Together, they document how the Sanchez Elementary School successfully implemented evidence-based instruction to transform the learning experiences of students from a low-income and linguistically diverse community in the Mission District of San Francisco. The Sanchez School story shows the positive impact of using shared leadership and the results-oriented cycle of inquiry to implement school-based policies designed to activate students’ talents and intellectual power within the classroom. Over the course of 13 years, from 1999 to 2012, test scores improved dramatically. The school’s average annual academic growth was more than 20 points, much more than the 11-point average growth for elementary schools in California. When Dr. Isola became principal, the school was performing in the lowest quartile of California’s Academic Performance Index. Contrary to top-down formulaic approaches, Principal Isola used a horizontal leadership system that engaged all stakeholders—including teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, parents, community members, businesses leaders, and students themselves—in the project of improving student learning and school reform.

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