Students Achieve More (SAM) – Boston

Piloted in the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years, SAM-Boston was designed to support whole-school improvement and develop potential school leaders through an unconventional approach. Based on a program developed by New York’s New Visions for Public Schools and Baruch School of Public Affairs/CUNY, SAM-Boston begins with the idea that, with support to develop their skills as leaders, staff in schools are the best people to determine effective approaches to improving their schools. SAM-Boston is also unusual in that every school team begins with an intensive focus on accelerating the learning of a small group of students in order to make systemic changes that, ultimately, have the power to transform the whole school.

“Teacher leaders learn how to do the work by doing the work.” — Richard Elmore

How it works

Each school participating in SAM-Boston selects a team of up to five people that includes the principal and at least three teachers. That group commits to an intensive inquiry process that is grounded in and driven by student performance data and guides changes in classroom and school practice. Over the course of two years, the team sets performance goals for a target group of students who are currently unsuccessful, decides on high-leverage instructional interventions in literacy or math, implements them, measures the effect, refines the work, and embeds it in the school. The goal is to stem patterns of student failure by speading practices that work to other content areas and grade levels.

Teams participate in weekly seminars with other schools, where they gain exposure to research and theory-based approaches to leadership and school improvement. Their course assignments are based on real challenges they are trying to solve in the areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Participants receive graduate credit for the work, and some may choose to do a full leadership “apprenticeship” during the second year to earn initial principal licensure.

Why it matters

SAM-Boston builds on Boston's previous whole-school improvement work and takes it to a deeper level. By showing that inquiry and leadership skills can be learned and that the best way to learn them is by doing the work, SAM-Boston counters the myth that it takes exceptional people to lead school-wide improvement or to accelerate the learning of struggling students. Grounding leadership development in real challenges that teachers and leaders face every day, SAM-Boston allows for deep study of school improvement strategies that are relevant to participants — and that can make a difference to students right now. This job-embedded approach to professional development results in immediate gains for students and an increased sense of efficacy among school staff. SAM-Boston also builds networks of professionals seeking the same goals, within teams and across participating schools.

The Boston Plan piloted the SAM-Boston model because of its potential to address school capacity issues district wide. With a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, the Boston Public Schools and the Boston Plan are now partnering to implement SAM-like processes in 15 middle and high schools participating in the  Accelerating Improvement through Inquiry (AI²) initiative. AI² focuses on improving graduation rates by using structured, school-based cycles of inquiry to track student performance to data and accelerate improvements in student learning.

Contact: Lisa Lineweaver, Program Director, School-Based Inquiry