Schools today face a dual challenge: students are disengaged and educators are stretched thin. School leaders often respond by trying to solve these problems separately, focusing either on improving student outcomes or addressing teacher burnout through wellness initiatives.
But a growing number of schools across the country are doing something different. They treat the development of adults and the development of young people as interconnected. These schools have built adult cultures and staffing structures that mirror the very conditions they want for students — defined by collaboration, shared responsibility and continuous learning. And they’re getting results for students furthest from opportunity.
Over the past year, we partnered with Transcend to help four district and charter schools capture the intentional school designs that are reimagining learning for students and educators. Our hope is that other innovators can learn from these models as they seek to make teaching more effective, sustainable, and joyful.
- Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART) in California, where collaborative teacher teams lead career-connected, project-based learning.
- Ember Charter Schools in Brooklyn, a teacher-led school where educators take on increasing levels of leadership as they demonstrate growth.
- Internationals Network, a national network of public district schools supporting multilingual learners through interdisciplinary team teaching.
- Washington Latin Public Charter Schools in Washington D.C., where shared leadership and teacher autonomy shape school culture.
While each model is distinct, the premise is the same: improving the student experience requires reimagining the adult experience. The schools highlighted below offer examples of how this idea is taking shape in practice, with full case studies available at the end of this post.
From Isolation to Teacher Collaboration
Teachers often experience isolation and work alone: one adult, one classroom, one group of students. In contrast, all four schools treat teaching as a team sport.
At CART, collaborative teaching teams share two groups of 70 students across daily three-hour lab sessions that blend academic content and career-connected learning. Teaching teams have two hours of daily collaboration time to design projects that require students to work together as they apply knowledge to solve real-world problems.
Serving newcomer students nationwide, Internationals Network organizes five to six teachers around a shared cohort of 75–100 multilingual learners. Teachers meet weekly and often daily to coordinate language development across subjects and personalize support for students. This increases students’ sense of belonging and helps ensure that every student is fully known and supported.
Teaming is not an add-on at these schools. It is a core design principle.
From Hierarchy to Shared Leadership in Schools
These schools also rethink leadership and decision-making structures. Rather than concentrating authority in administrative roles, leadership is shared with teachers.
Ember Charter Schools operates as a teacher-led “Firm,” where experienced educators called Partners teach while also serving as organizational leaders. School-wide responsibility is earned through demonstrated growth and impact. This creates pathways for teachers to shape school decisions and earn greater compensation while continuing to teach.
At Washington Latin Public Charter Schools, the principle “We Are All Teachers” means every staff member, including the Head of School and Chief Financial Officer, teaches students. This shared responsibility helps ensure that leadership decisions are grounded in classroom realities.
Schools within the Internationals Network rely on distributive leadership structures, including teacher councils that help make decisions about school design and instructional priorities.
At these schools, shared leadership flows from teaming. When teachers feel part of a collective, they are more invested in the success of all students and motivated to take on responsibility for the whole.
From Episodic Professional Development to Continuous Learning
These schools also approach adult learning differently. Instead of relying on periodic professional development, they embed adult learning into daily practice.
At Internationals Network, five core principles guide both student learning and teacher development. Teachers engage in the same inquiry-based and collaborative learning structures used in classrooms.
At Ember, six Leadership Index attributes, such as self-confidence and empathy, anchor teacher and student development. Adults begin each day with shared reflection, while students practice these same habits as part of their daily learning.
At Washington Latin, teachers participate in book groups and regular “soirees,” or facilitated discussions around a text chosen by a faculty member. These practices aim to mirror the intellectual curiosity and engagement that teachers seek to foster among students.
At CART, new teachers engage in a two-year onboarding experience, have multiple assigned mentors, and participate in cross-lab observations as well as facilitated reflection and planning within their lab teams.
Across all four schools, adult learning is not episodic. Instead, it is embedded in teachers’ daily experience.
What These School Models Signal for the Field
Improving outcomes for students furthest from opportunity shouldn’t require burning teachers out. Instead, it requires rethinking how educators work. The schools highlighted here offer examples of what that can look like in practice.
The results are visible. Washington Latin has a 91% annual teacher retention rate and some of the strongest academic results in Washington, D.C.. Across the Internationals Network, multilingual learners consistently outperform peers in neighboring schools, and the network reports a 92% teacher retention rate. CART graduates enroll in college at higher rates than matched peers, and the average teacher tenure is 13 years. At Ember, student subgroup performance exceeds city averages, and over 90% of lead teachers return each year.
Together these schools show what is possible when collaboration, shared leadership, and continuous learning are built into the daily work of teaching.
To learn more about these models, visit the case studies:
