Recovering the Lost Legacy of a School System

Community School District 2’s collaborative approach led to a teaching and learning culture dedicated to continuous improvement a generation ago

As school districts nationwide continue to recover from the devastating impact of COVID-19 — with its related learning losses, student mental health crises, teacher losses and dwindling financial resources — ideas abound for quick fixes aimed at filling the gaps and restoring a sense of equilibrium.

But before school system leaders jump into the “next hot idea,” they might do well to study success stories from the past and take note of the road signs other districts have left behind. If we study the evolution of successful initiatives — what the leaders did, the path charted for personal interactions and other subtleties of implementation — we may find that the next hot idea is one that has worked in the past only because of moves and decisions opaque to those who want quick results.

The nuanced story of New York City’s Community School District 2 is one success story that provides relevant lessons for school leaders today.

Significant improvement efforts with sustainable results never are simple. Such initiatives are complex and need systemic support to take flight.

District 2, which includes Hell’s Kitchen, the Lower East Side as well as more affluent Tribeca, went from somewhere below the middle of the pack to the top-performing district in the city in the 1990s. Its coaching results became nationally lauded, and it inspired the spread of coaching throughout the country. Yet its framework for bringing math coaching to scale was not studied or replicated by most districts that adopted teacher coaching.

The district’s story offers a roadmap for other districts seeking to initiate and sustain significant improvement by doing it right.