We partner with school districts to tailor a phased implementation plan based on adoption science that is designed to build momentum, deepen expertise, and generate rapid success for students.

Our evidence-based implementation model successfully transforms academic classrooms from teacher-directed, passive, and lower rigor learning to highly engaging and rigorous student-led, team-based deeper learning environments.

This transformation of Tier 1 instruction allows the rigor of the curriculum to be obtained by all students, resulting in closing gaps while raising achievement in all subjects.

At Instructional Empowerment, we believe in scaling success and starting with volunteer teachers and leaders. The following is an overview of the adoption science phases of implementation that build a robust capacity within the district to scale and successfully sustain the implementation.

This process typically starts with offering the same 1-day workshop for principals that district leaders have already experienced – Leading to Your Why: Determining Your Destination Vision for Instruction. In the workshop, school leaders process the research, identify their personal Why for students, and determine their bold vision for instruction. Afterward, volunteer principals are asked to lead a group of volunteer teachers in their schools to implement the Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning.

Volunteer principals and volunteer teachers form the coalition of the willing to be the first to implement the transformation of their classrooms. Only this first cohort receives professional development, resources, and expert coaching to implement Phase 1, rather than bringing all teachers into the implementation at once.

It is critical that volunteers are truly motivated volunteers and not “voluntold.” Volunteers are essential because the first cohort of implementors will set the bar and prepare the path for others to replicate their success. This volunteer group is energized to achieve the vision for students and commits to doing the work because they believe it is right for their students. This coalition of the willing creates a safe place for both the school leaders and teachers to learn how to implement the model successfully with expert coaching provided by Instructional Empowerment. Expert implementation coaching is crucial to success.

As classrooms rapidly transform and teachers begin to see positive changes in students, they soon become advocates for the initiative within the school. The principal also gains greater confidence knowing what to expect and how to lead the implementation with the next cohort of volunteer teachers.

Another key practice is for implementing teachers to visit classrooms that are having early results with students. Teachers in this first cohort share best practices and encourage each other, forming a teacher community of practice for deeper learning within the school. This generates faster results and builds expertise within the volunteer cohort. The principal also invites implementing teachers to share success stories with the entire school’s faculty, building momentum for the next cohort of volunteers.

In Phase 1, district leaders and their executive sponsor attend select teacher professional development sessions and visit the volunteer schools to better understand and support the implementation. Instructional Empowerment provides executive coaches for district leaders to start building their capacity to lead the expansion of the implementation. The coaching emphasizes implementation integrity with accurate metrics, ensuring the scaling of success and not compliance.

The first cohort of principals, along with some of the district leaders, form a community of practice for implementing school leaders to share successes and collaborate on how to overcome common challenges.

The most successful implementing volunteer principals are selected to share their learning and successes with non-implementing principals at district principal meetings and/or regional/network meetings for larger districts. This lays the foundation for other principals to become volunteers in the next cohort of schools to join the coalition of the willing.

We strongly encourage districts to have their implementing teams of principals and select teachers share their first-hand success stories with the school board. This shows progress and generates greater commitment to the district’s bold vision for instruction. District communications also begin to feature success stories of students, teachers, and principals within the greater district community. All of this develops a sense of energy and momentum with the realization that this level of transformative change is doable. People realize, “This can work in our district’s schools, for our students.”

In Phase 2, the principals from the first cohort begin to cultivate the next group of volunteer teachers in their schools. This group of teachers may be ready to join but were hesitant to be among the first group. To expand the coalition of the willing, non-implementing teachers within the school are invited to visit the implementing classrooms to see the amazing student results for themselves and hear from the implementing teachers. This builds excitement for the next group of volunteer teachers to form a motivated second cohort of implementers within the school.

The second cohort of volunteer teachers then receives professional learning, resources, and expert coaching from Instructional Empowerment. This second cohort also has the additional benefit of learning from the first cohort of teachers to replicate their successes. This builds an internal capacity within the school to expand and sustain the work.

The principal, with the support of an expert leadership coach provided by Instructional Empowerment, begins aligning the instructional systems of the school to support the growing coalition of teachers implementing the model. This includes expanding the community of practice, aligning the common planning and professional learning communities to the implementation, and ensuring all implementing teachers are receiving effective coaching feedback from instructional coaches, school leaders, and early adopting teachers within the building.

While teachers in the second cohort are learning to implement the model with their students, teachers from the first cohort are progressing to more advanced implementation levels and continuing to develop the capacity of their students for even more rigorous learning with greater student agency.

The district continues to build on the previous communications featuring powerful stories of students, teachers, and principals implementing the model. They also host principal meetings in well-implementing schools to walk classrooms and hear from students, teachers, and principals themselves. District leaders then solicit a second cohort of volunteer principals to start implementation with volunteer teachers, and the cycle starts again with this new group of schools.

The difference for the second cohort of volunteer principals is that they can now join an established community of practice of implementing principals where the transfer of experience, best practices, and mentorship accelerates their implementation. This develops a deep bench of principal expertise and mentors within the district, which is a vital capacity to scale successfully.

Volunteer teachers in the second cohort of volunteer schools visit the first cohort’s best implementing classrooms. Seeing classrooms in action provides the visual experience to replicate and greatly accelerate their implementation success. Success generates greater success and more momentum for later adopters.

At the same time, classrooms in the first cohort of implementing schools are starting to reach the level where they are ready to be certified by Instructional Empowerment as Demonstration Classroom for Deeper Learning. This rigorous review and certification process for select classrooms sets the implementation standard for other teachers to emulate.

One of the key aspects of the partnership between district leaders and their Instructional Empowerment executive coaches is establishing quality control metrics to ensure implementation integrity in all classrooms and all schools.

Instructional Empowerment executive coaches help develop the capacity of district leaders to:

• Facilitate the community of practice for district leaders to successfully lead and sustain the implementation of the Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning.
• Calibrate and accurately measure the implementation integrity using the provided research-based metrics and dashboards.
• Troubleshoot and resolve challenges with best practices, utilizing access to Instructional Empowerment’s vast network of national experts and Applied Research Center.
• Align district systems to support high rigor and high agency classroom instruction.
• Ensure coherence of district department initiatives to the district’s Destination Vision for Instruction.
• Institutionalize the Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning within new teacher induction, alternative certification, leadership pipeline development, and other district processes and systems.

In Phase 3 and beyond, the goal is to create a sustaining capacity within the district to reach its Destination Vision for Instruction for all schools, classrooms, and students. To keep this page brief, we have not included details on Phase 3 and the additional phases that follow. Our expert educators are happy to explain the phases in greater detail and answer questions about how the best practices described here can apply to your particular situation.

Schedule an Introductory Consultation at no cost to learn more about how to successfully adopt the Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning districtwide. Together, we can ensure ALL students have access to rich, rigorous, and engaging student learning experiences that drive increased achievement and success.