Subject Area: Education

Low-income schools are complex organisations. Performance at these schools is often lower than in schools in higher-income neighbourhoods. At different times, policymakers, parents, school leaders, and teachers have attempted to improve these schools, from the outside in and from the inside out, with mixed results. We will examine the different ways policy has been enacted and plays out in schools and classrooms. Against this policy backdrop, we will study practical, research-based approaches to reforming schools from within as well as the theoretical underpinnings of these approaches. Most of the methods we will examine will focus on interventions around the instructional core—the interaction between teacher, student, and instructional material.