Let's take a step back in time. It's not a big step; in fact, our time travel will take us back only a half-dozen years. The location is Anderson Elementary School, which sits on a quiet street in downtown Reno, Nevada. The school isn't particularly striking, but it has a diverse student population representative of the changing educational landscape in the United States, with the 500 students in grades preK through 6 representing a variety of cultures and backgrounds.

A statistical look shows that some 80 percent of the students at Anderson are members of a racial "minority," nearly 90 percent come from homes in poverty, and fully two-thirds speak a language other than English at home. The school carts along the usual baggage that accompanies schools with low-socioeconomic-status populations: Title I designations and programs, a high transience rate (upwards of 70 percent), some chronic discipline issues, and a history of academic underperformance. It is, all in all, a rather typical school.

When Pete Hall had the good fortune to be named the new principal of Anderson Elementary School, such was the state of affairs. The building was in an "OK neighborhood," most students were wonderfully polite and eager to participate, and the staff members were positive and enjoyed coming to work every day. But academic achievement rates were dismal, and those around the school knew it could do better—much better. Even in Reno, the "Biggest Little City in the World," in the glow of the casinos and the settling dust of another rodeo, the quest for educational excellence was alive and well.

Over the next two years, the staff and leadership team at Anderson made monumental changes, both structural and philosophical. First and foremost, the staff universally embraced a student-centered, achievement-based focus. Next came an all-out focus on literacy skills, including a second 90-minute block every day for every student, which extended and invigorated the site's literacy programs. Every available employee was pulled into a classroom or hallway to teach a reading group, and budgetary decisions followed suit: Every available penny went toward bolstering the site's reading program, which included the purchase of new classroom materials, an increase in technological applications, and the hiring of new instructional assistants and intervention teachers.

The school tried a variety of programs to strengthen its collective pedagogical skills and knowledge. Several outside consultants came and worked with the staff, and first one and then two certificated reading specialists came on board to work with teachers. The staff investigated and began to use a full battery of literacy assessments, and several groups of teachers engaged in some early-stage action research projects. At the same time, the school modified its schedule to create time for teachers to meet in teams on a regular basis—the beginnings of a professional learning community.

Initial Results

The early results were positive. After just those two years, Anderson Elementary School, once the only school in the state to have secured a spot on the "Failed to make adequate yearly progress" list for four consecutive years, had sprung back to life and earned recognition as Nevada's only high-poverty school to receive a "High Achieving" designation for student achievement. The story of Anderson's turnaround is told in greater detail in the Educational Leadership article "A School Reclaims Itself" (Hall, 2005a).

Change may have been quick, but it was not easy. Growth may have been dramatic, but it was not complete. The approaches may have been effective, but they were not refined. Quite simply, despite the gains and accolades, there was a ton of work yet to be done. Oodles of children were still in dire need of better learning.

The early changes implemented at Anderson were not unlike those carried out at hundreds, if not thousands, of schools nationwide. The staff instituted a slew of technical fixes, solving problems at a surface level without digging deep into the heart of the issue. The gains were significant partly because there had been so much room for improvement. When you're on the ground looking at the bottom rung, up is really the only choice.

Taking the Next Difficult Steps

The excitement surrounding the initial phase of the school improvement process at Anderson quickly faded, and staff began to confront a number of key questions:

• What else is possible with these students?
• Where is the ceiling for us as teachers?
• What more might this school achieve?
• Where should our focus be?
• After all the initial growth, what's next?
• How do we keep the momentum?
• Can we continue to redefine ourselves as we grow?
• What help do we need to accomplish this work?
• Why are we still talking? Let's get on with it, for heaven's sake!

At the beginning of the third year of Anderson's renaissance, the school hired Alisa Simeral to complete a team of three on-site instructional coaches. Alisa's arrival at Anderson added a new dimension to an already-roaring action research project, which focused on three questions:

1. How can we best build the capacity of our teachers?
2. What kind of support do we need to provide teachers to help them reach their potential?
3. How can we make the best use of teachers' individual and collective contributions to our school improvement efforts?

These questions inspired us to write this book. As we began our process of investigation, we communicated with colleagues, pored through literature, and consulted with various other school leaders across the country. We realized that everyone was asking the same questions: not just educators at our school but educators in general.

Concurrent questions rattled around in our heads. What should the administrator's role in student achievement be? In school improvement? In professional growth? In collaborative development? And what part should an instructional coach play? At Anderson, the job was becoming more of a teacher-focused position than a subject-focused position. We had on staff a site-based staff developer, an instructional coach for teachers in the building. It was an exciting time to investigate what that meant and how the position related to the work the administrator was doing.

What follows are the current results of our investigation. We write current because as education evolves, information expands, and experience accrues, our understandings of the work we do will continue to change and evolve as well. We'll never know everything we need to know, and we may never achieve our ultimate goal. But the beauty of this work is that while we strive, we make a difference.

We have written this book for an audience of educators, both instructional coaches and building administrators. Although we speak directly to coaches in Part II and directly to administrators in Part III, school improvement is built on educators in these roles working together in partnership, and each partner will benefit from insight into the other's efforts. Throughout this text, we, the authors—one of us a principal and the other a coach—also add our individual two cents to the discussion. Sometimes telling an anecdote, sometimes going into a bit more detail, Pete Hall (in "Pete's Perspective") and Alisa Simeral (in "Alisa's Approach") share experiences and outlooks in the first-person singular. Our hope is that these asides will add flavor and resonance.

We also want to note that various forms in this book are available for download in a password-protected PDF format from the ASCD Web site: www.ascd.org. Follow the Publications link to the Books page, select "Browse by Title," and then select this book's title. To access the PDFs, enter the case-sensitive password ASCD109002.

None of the work we do would be possible without the solid ring of help surrounding us. We are forever indebted to our friend and colleague Derek Cordell for his insight, wisdom, and challenges. We must also share our gratitude with the legions of educators with whom we've worked over the years: those who came before us, those who have worked alongside us, and those who are yet to arrive. This is truly the noblest of professions, and we're humbled by the impact a single educator can have.

As we've proceeded through the writing process with this project, we cannot say thank you enough to the wonderful folks at ASCD, namely, Scott Willis, Carolyn Pool, Julie Houtz, and Katie Martin—all of whom have made us not only feel like we know what we're doing but look like it, too. To Pete's wife, Mindy, and Alisa's husband, Dave, thank you for putting up with the long, exhausting phone calls while we pored over ideas and text. This book is truly a collaborative effort.

As you read on, we challenge you to critically reflect upon your thinking and your work; we urge you to continuously strive for excellence; we encourage you to cultivate collaborative relationships; and we commend you for making a difference.