Many school districts find themselves with pockets of excellence: schools that stand out from the pack because their students are doing better than others in the district. Such uneven results are attributable to a number of factors. A common one is a patchwork of instructional approaches across schools. That was the situation Brandon White and Ivette Rivera found themselves in when they began their jobs as superintendent and director of curriculum and instruction, respectively, in Illinois’ Cary Community Consolidated School District 26 in 2023.

The two leaders immediately dug into data and listened to the concerns of colleagues and community members. Comparing notes, they found a common thread: a lack of consistent expectations and research-based practices for effective instruction across schools.

“Cary 26 has very committed educators, but I think it had never been articulated what good instruction looks like and what the research-based and evidence-based tools are that we believe in, that we’re grounding the work in, and that we’re using to support good instruction,” White said.

Rivera, now the district’s assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, described a “disjointed” approach to teaching across the district. “You could be in third grade at one of our schools and not be exposed to the same content information” as third graders at a nearby school, she said. And it wasn’t just the leaders who noticed. Junior high students participating in the district’s strategic planning effort said they could tell which school each of their classmates had attended even without being told. “They saw themselves that instruction was not equitable across the district,” Rivera said.

White and Rivera recognized that their district needed an instructional framework and an aligned set of tools and resources to support its implementation. Just two years after they began this effort, the district has seen student achievement improve. Students have gone from a growth rate of 30% higher than peers across the nation to 55% higher, thanks to clarity, collaboration, and professional learning.

Designing for improvement

An instructional framework provides a school system with a vision for teaching and learning, defining what and how students and educators will learn. Such a framework gives all educators a common language and encourages consistency and coherence across schools and classrooms, promoting access to excellent teaching and learning for all students (Psencik et al., 2020).

Cary 26 wanted the new instructional framework to provide a solid foundation from which to make evidence-informed curricular decisions and guide teaching and learning practices across all content areas and grade levels. Ideally, the document’s throughline would be its shared commitment to instructional excellence for all students and continuous growth across all classrooms in support of district strategic goals.

But White was careful not to rush the process of creating the framework. Having led through the COVID-19 pandemic, when districts were deluged with enticements to purchase ready-made solutions and pilot new programs, he had learned to take time to lean into research and reflect on the challenge at hand with input from multiple voices.

Key considerations, he said, included asking, “First, what do we believe good instruction is?” Then, “What are the tools that we know?” And only then, “Now let’s talk about what the tools are that align with what we believe and know is true around good practices.”

White and Rivera also made an intentional commitment to hearing all stakeholders’ voices. Cary 26 has a “phenomenal staff with a deep-rooted desire to do well,” Rivera said. Educators are invested in the community and in their students — they consider their work to be more than just a job. That positioned them well to contribute to the new effort. White also saw the importance of empowering them to do so, saying, “I wanted to make sure people weren’t doing things because the superintendent was telling them to do it.”

A collaborative effort

Cary 26 engaged Learning Forward as a partner in the instructional framework design. White had worked with Learning Forward senior consultant John Eyolfson previously, and “knew Learning Forward to be a great partner to help us organize our work and ground it in good practices and protocols.” White is a Learning Forward Academy graduate and devotee of the Standards for Professional Learning (Learning Forward, 2022) and the associated tools and improvement strategies that shift instructional practice and improve student achievement. He learned about many of these tools in the academy, which is a 2 1/2-year cohort-based leadership development program focused on high-quality educator professional learning contextualized around a participant’s problem of practice.

Eyolfson met with White’s team in October 2023 and devised questions for nearly a dozen focus group interviews that Eyolfson would conduct and synthesize to inform the framework’s design. “They wanted to create their own instructional framework, not adopt one, and construct it with people on the ground using research-based materials,” Eyolfson said. “My job was to facilitate their thinking, coach them, give them protocols to consider, and provide models such as a logic model and a KASAB (knowledge, attitudes, skills, aspirations, and behaviors) model. They took it all to heart.”

By January, work on the draft framework was well under way. Around the same time, the state of Illinois released a comprehensive literacy plan. White, who is committed to using the Illinois Learning Standards to guide instructional goals for student learning and outcomes, recognized that “we were far away from what the ideals were around good instruction — especially around literacy instruction and all the things that have come out through the research around reading science. So we started there as our content launch point.”

Literacy is the gateway into all other content areas and understanding, Rivera agreed. “Through the support of our instructional framework, knowing that we wanted a standards-based learning and teaching environment, we started creating curriculum maps in literacy.”

Priming for success with professional learning

White and Rivera knew they needed more than a well-designed document to make change in classrooms. It was essential to provide resources and support for schools to implement the framework. White infused the district office staff with an ethos of working in service to the schools, set a clear vision for instructional excellence, and committed resources and support to educators to help them apply the framework and make it a living document.

Professional learning was and continues to be a big part of that support. “In education we constantly talk about what students need to do differently, but it truly begins with what adults need to do differently,” White said. “And you do that through effective professional learning.”

The Standards for Professional Learning guide this support. Throughout his work with the district, Eyolfson provided opportunities for deeper learning about the standards through collaborative learning sessions and coaching conversations.

White is working to shift perceptions of professional learning through the standards and by using precise language about high-quality adult learning. He distinguishes between professional learning and traditional professional development or training. “Professional learning takes you on a journey that is going to help you continue to build and grow as a professional, as an educator,” he explained. In contrast, training is an opportunity to learn about policies and non-negotiable procedures like safety drills and bullying policies. White emphasizes that “there is a place for training, and that’s OK — but call it training,” not professional learning or professional development.

White and Rivera recognized it was important to first devote professional learning time to clarity within the instructional framework project team, starting with what an instructional framework is and how it can be used to systematically address critical aspects of how the district directs curriculum, assessments, and instructional strategies.

The next piece became, according to Rivera, deciding how to disseminate the common language to the teachers in the district and, ultimately, bring the framework to action.

“We looked at the different stakeholders who would be interacting with the instructional framework and (determined) what level of understanding they would have to have,” Eyolfson said. “A school board member might just need a surface understanding, whereas an instructional coach would need to have a deep understanding.”

Cary 26 distilled the massive framework document into a 26-page PDF, a shareable brochure, and a district-built interactive teaching and learning intranet resource hub. They dedicated professional learning time to elicit teacher input to continually inform the framework’s evolution.

Professional learning about how to apply each component in the instructional framework involved working with teachers on identifying the look-fors in teacher behaviors and implementation. “If you walk into a classroom, what would you see if this was truly being implemented?” Rivera said they asked teachers. “What would we see with our students? What would we see at the schools?”

Through observation along with Eyolfson’s focus groups and Rivera’s meetings with teachers, the district gained valuable information to create an authentic summary of the district’s current reality, Rivera said. It was important that the district leaders “do this work with the teachers instead of doing to the teachers,” she explained.

Rivera said as the work unfolded, “all things stemmed back to the focus groups” that Eyolfson had held early in the process. “That’s where it started, and we continued to build upon that feedback,” she added.

“I really like that portion of our instructional framework because teacher voice is embedded within it,” White agrees.

Building leadership capacity for change

The Cary 26 instructional framework necessitated new ways for principals to build their skills and knowledge in order to lead and assess the intense instructional work designed for high-level student learning.

Through deep engagement with the Standards for Professional Learning, Cary 26 principals reflected on past practices and planned how to make changes. It became clearer, White said, that they weren’t making traction “because we had not been grounding our work in an understanding of what adult learning looks like or what needs to happen to make it effective. This year, I’ve seen a huge shift.”

White said the district helped redesign the principal professional learning community, and he was able to secure resources to hire assistant principals to help with building management and operations.

Principals are relishing the opportunities to grow and collaborate. After one professional learning session a principal shared with White that it was a valuable use of time, and she was excited about making walk-throughs a meaningful part of the work. “I don’t need an exit ticket” to show the session made a difference, he said, adding, “I just need those kinds of text messages that let me know that yes, that was effective.” Rivera added that teachers no longer see their principals as “building managers” but as instructional leaders, an important shift for the district.

Progress indicators, early wins

As he works to close out the current school year, White is energized by early indications that the investment in the new instructional framework is paying off in stronger instructional practices and a more cohesive, supportive learning culture for students and educators.

The district’s Cary Forward strategic plan dashboard — a graphic representation depicting the district’s progress in its five areas of focus — is showcasing the “good things that we’re now seeing in the district,” White said. “Goals #1 (empowering student growth) and #2 (building a learning culture) speak to the work within the instructional framework.” (The dashboard can be found at cary26.org/our-district/strategic-plan/strategic-plan-dashboard.)

In Goal #1, for example, student scores on the district’s benchmark growth assessment for ELA and math content, the Star assessment, is exceeding the district’s improvement target. Previously, students were at approximately the 30th percentile for growth, meaning that on average they were improving more rapidly than 30% of academically similar students across the country. White and his team set a goal to increase that growth rate to the 50th percentile and already exceeded that at 55% in the first year.

White also said the district has seen a 100% increase in students who were able to exit English Learner services this year and go on to less intensive supports in mainstream classrooms. He said this “is unheard of — I think the average in this state is 6.2 students per year and we had 24 students exit. That is huge and it really (speaks to the value of) the instructional framework.”

Data suggests that improvements in professional learning are likely contributing to these positive results for students. About 25% of teachers were engaged in coaching cycles during the first year they were offered. And end-of-year surveys show most teachers report that coaching, curriculum maps, and other tools and strategies grounded in the instructional framework are helping them improve their practice.

A stronger team, a stronger district

The Cary 26 instructional framework was developed through a collaborative and reflective process that included research, data analysis, professional dialogue, and a shared vision for high-quality instruction across all content areas.

“At the district office, it gave us a common goal, common language, common direction,” Rivera says. “We are a stronger team today than we were a year ago as a result of this process.”

At the same time, district leaders still consider the document a draft so educators can engage in ongoing feedback that will be used to inform revisions and address future needs.

White has announced he is leaving Cary 26 and assuming the superintendency at Harvard Community Unified School District in Illinois. He plans to start the 2025-26 school year the same way he did at Cary 26 — by dedicating the initial months to listening and learning, with an eye toward instructional coherence and the tools to support it.

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