Despite the structures put in place to foster success, schools who have it all (ample resources, accomplished leaders, skilled teachers and support from families and the community) can still fail as a system. The reason is this; a culture of isolation at the classroom level exists. To combat this, The Center for Educational Effectiveness (CEE) staff surveys measures what we call the “I vs. They” gap. This gap represents the difference in what a person believes about themselves (positive for most individual teachers) and what they perceive about their colleagues’ behavior (less positive). We judge ourselves by our intent and others by their behavior.

Inherently, educators set student achievement goals. We put structures in place to monitor academic data attempting to meet those targets (policy driven) and end up distancing ourselves from the vital school conditions that lead us to significant changes in student achievement. This may explain why school improvement policy efforts in the United States have failed over the past two decades.