Turning Average Instruction into Great Instruction
details a clear and concise approach to school improvement, focusing school leaders on the critical factor that has the greatest impact on student achievement—classroom instruction. Decades of research demonstrate that what happens between teachers and students in our nation's classrooms has the greatest impact on how well those students learn. The current trend in school reform is to tackle all aspects of a school in order to improve student achievement, forcing school leaders to attempt to focus on the school culture, use of materials, community relations, teachers' pre-service training, the school's physical design, classroom decorations, and instruction. Unfortunately, such a wide scope leads to a lack of focus among school staff. With his singular focus on classroom instruction, what O'Connor suggests is an antithesis to that approach. School leaders will develop a common understanding of the high-impact instructional components that should be seen in every classroom. O'Connor maps out how school leaders can align all personnel to systematically build training, support, and monitoring mechanisms that ensure that effective instruction becomes part of every classroom routine.