The Partners Blog2021-10-14T15:57:39+00:00

The Partners Blog

The Partners Blog is written primarily by Partners’ executive director Richard Lemons. Through these letters, Richard shares resources, tools, and research relevant to leading organizations, prompting large-scale instructional improvement, and disrupting inequity.

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1009, 2019

Making your Mediocre Strategy Matter:  Strategic Implementation

September 10, 2019|

I’d much rather you implement a mediocre strategy well than a “perfect” strategy half-heartedly.  This may seem like heresy in the modern era of research-based interventions and metanalyses that show effect sizes, but I’ve been saying this to district leaders for years, and I still believe it.   Recently, while facilitating a
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1503, 2019

Richard Lemons’ Contribution to CT Viewpoints in CT Mirror

March 15, 2019|

CT Center for School Change's Executive Director, Richard Lemons wrote a commentary about the higher education scandal which was published in the CT Viewpoints section of the CT Mirror on Friday, March 15, 2019.  Read the publication below or click here to read it on the CT Mirror website. Privilege games
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1203, 2019

Repeat After Me: Strategy Before Plan

March 12, 2019|

As I write, policymakers and professional educators in CT are debating the opportunities and challenges of district consolidation.  At the federal level, we’ve just learned that the President has proposed a 10% reduction in Department of Education spending, an elimination of well-established funding streams (Titles II and IV), as well as
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802, 2019

Getting Micro: Leadership, Dialogue and Moments

February 8, 2019|

Over the course of five hours, I had the opportunity to shadow a leader I have long admired.   I sat in this superintendent’s meetings, followed her as she strolled corridors, observed her conversations with educators, and listened to how she spoke with leadership teams.   It was mesmerizing.   While this leader has
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1801, 2019

Taking Instructional Improvement to Task (Part 2 of 2)

January 18, 2019|

Thank you! Before the holidays I posted a blog about the importance of academic tasks within classrooms.  Drawing from both learning theory and research on improving instruction, I argued that there tends to be wide variation in the cognitive demand asked of students in the tasks provided by their teachers.  To
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1312, 2018

Taking Instructional Improvement to Task (Part 1 of 2)

December 13, 2018|

I live a privileged professional life. Each year, I am invited to visit dozens of school districts and spend time in hundreds of classrooms kneeling next to students aged 4 to 20.  Whether through the formal process of Instructional Rounds or more casually dropping into classrooms, I am typically working with
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