What if schools could become places where the people closest to the work were not simply recipients of feedback but essential sources of knowledge for improvement?
That question sits at the heart of the Schools That Learn Institute, an upcoming two-day offering from Partners, led by Andrew Volkert and Kerry Lord, that will take place in March 2027. The institute is designed for instructional leaders—from teachers to superintendents—who want to step outside the traditional hierarchical model to think together about how schools can best learn, improve, and respond to the people they serve.
The institute is grounded in the idea that complex systems do not improve through one-way feedback: the people closest to the work often have the most relevant knowledge about what is happening, what is getting in the way, and what might help.
This is more than a change in technique—it’s a paradigm shift, from seeing schools as systems of inspection and judgment to seeing them as systems of improvement and development.
Andrew describes the distinction simply. “Inspection locates quality at the end of the line: build the thing, check it, sort acceptable from unacceptable. Improvement locates quality in the design of the work itself: study the process, test changes, learn from what happens.”
He says each approach can become self-confirming. A surveillance system can produce the compliance that appears to prove teachers need surveillance. A learning system, by contrast, can produce the candor, initiative, and professional judgment that demonstrate what people are capable of when they are trusted to contribute to improvement.
“That is where practical measurement comes in,” says Andrew. “We obsess about the data. And we’re mad at it because it’s not telling us anything especially useful for improving day-to-day practice. It’s important to interrogate how we use data within this profession, what kinds of data can support real change in practice, and whether the data we pay attention to provide information we can actually use to learn about how things are working, and for whom.”
Collecting data is not the same as developing knowledge—the harder question is what a school does with that information once it enters the system. Rather than relying solely on large-scale assessments or formal evaluation processes, educators can develop ways to learn from what is happening on the ground—and then use that information to identify and remove barriers in real time.
“What does it look like to rebuild through the lens of improvement versus the lens of inspection?” Andrew asks. “Because it’s not the inspection itself that forces improvement; it’s our inquiry. We have to ask what we can learn from what is happening and use that learning to improve.”
That means rethinking the role of feedback itself. Instead of feedback being something extracted from teachers, students, or schools, it becomes a source of vital information that helps the system learn.
This shift requires cultural change: leaders must reconsider whose wisdom they value and create conditions in which teachers and students can share concerns and contribute to solutions, rather than being positioned as problems to be fixed.
This paradigm shift ultimately means that everyone in the school community sees themselves as a participant in the system, working together for the benefit of children, rather than as individuals who hope their needs will be addressed by a “heroic” leader.
“We have nothing to lose by shifting the way we do business. Let’s think differently, go out and use it, then come back and talk about what we learned,” says Kerry.
The institute will give participants a chance to explore this approach through activities, conversation, and reflection—and to see what becomes possible when schools step outside traditional models and engage in truly collaborative systemic improvement. Instead of asking only, “How are we doing?” participants will consider a more powerful question: “What can we learn from what is happening—and how can that learning help us improve, together?”
To find out more about the Schools That Learn Institute, contact Andrew or Kerry.
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