Next Steps – Eastern Middle School - DEMO

Sustaining and Deepening School Improvement Efforts

"The idea of KEYS is powerful because we are learning from research what makes a good school is complicated... KEYS is a comprehensive lifetime strategy."
—Dr. Ann Leiberman, Stanford University

You and your colleagues probably remember the point at which your school community first embarked on significant school improvement. Rest assured, you will not be able to mark an endpoint for this work. School improvement is a continuous process— one that requires you to regularly ask: "Are we doing the right things to address our goals?"and "How can we continue to get better at what we are striving to do?"

That is what KEYS is all about.

You have now spent time working with one, several, or all of the KEYS. This section will highlight some of the building blocks that you've laid as you've done this work. These building blocks will help you sustain your school improvement work into the future. By providing a capsule of these building blocks, we hope to provide another vantage point for you to reflect on where you are and where you need to go.

There are four broad areas of school culture and operations that are critical to continued success:

• Creating a culture of reflection and collaborative inquiry
• Making important decisions together
• Making continuous improvement second nature
• Building partnerships and community support

These are reflected throughout the KEYS. In this section, we will briefly describe some of the essential elements and point out the KEYS indicators that relate to them.