Before Theresa Lambert joined Mariano Castro Elementary, the school had some of the lowest levels of academic performance in Mountain View – though that could be hard to see. Castro’s students were split between a traditional program serving mostly Latino students from the neighborhood and a bilingual immersion magnet program that drew mostly white, affluent students from across the district. But when they separated the data, the district saw that scores for students in the traditional program were far lower than the rest. A report by a district task force found that mostly white, affluent students in the dual immersion program were more than twice as likely to score proficient in reading and math. 
After spotting this huge gap, the district invested in turning the neighborhood school around. In the 2015-2016 school year, they made each program its own school with its own principal: the neighborhood program kept the legacy name of the school remaining Mariano Castro Elementary and the dual-immersion program became Gabriela Mistral Elementary. Lambert became the principal of the Castro Elementary, joining Innovate Public Schools’ Fellowship program to receive coaching and support as she undertook the project of turning the school around.
Under Lambert’s leadership, the school has made steady progress for students in both reading and math. In the 2014-2015 school year, the year before the restructuring, 19% of students in the traditional program at Castro Elementary were meeting or exceeding standards in English. Under Lambert’s leadership, by the 2016-2017 school year, that number rose to 45%. In math, students progressed from a 17% proficiency rate to 41%.
Any school turnaround requires a tricky balance. The staff must acknowledge a sense of urgency, without also getting demoralized by negativity. The administration must validate teacher struggles, while also committing to a philosophy of “students first.” And school leaders and districts must hold teachers accountable, while also providing the support necessary to teachers so they can realistically accomplish their goals.
Lambert’s team at Castro Elementary proved achieving this balance was possible. Here’s how they made it work.
Build time into the school schedule for staff collaboration
Lambert carved out space in teacher schedules for them to collaborate. Before the turnaround, teachers had two district-provided annual planning days. Lambert increased this to eight. To ensure these extra days of planning didn’t amount to extra days of work, the school provided substitute teachers for planning days so that teachers could receive support or have collaboration time during normal working hours. 
Lambert also changed the school schedule to create one more hour per week of collaboration time, in addition to the hour already provided by the district through the early dismissal. Teachers also attend a retreat each summer where they establish goals for the year and review new initiatives.
Throughout the school year, teachers also participate in “instructional rounds.” Once a month, four teachers join Lambert and the school’s instructional coach to visit every classroom in the school and collect data on a specific initiative the staff has agreed to implement. For example, when the school agreed on an initiative to use “collaborative strategies,” teachers observed in each classroom how students work in groups. This involves teachers in school-wide commitments, while also providing time for their own professional development.
“The idea that we are holding each other accountable is what makes a difference,” says Lambert.
Share student data
Lambert often cites a favorite quote by Anthony Mohamed that she tries to live by each day: “Accountability without support leads to frustration. And support without accountability leads to entitlement.”
“In order to support my teachers, I have to always involve them in solutions,” she says, “But our end goal is not negotiable.”
This means at Castro, staff collaboration is paired with full transparency about student progress. Teachers have meetings every six to eight weeks where each grade level reviews their data. These meetings give the teachers and administrators a shared understanding of the progress in each grade level and provide time for teams to collectively come up with solutions. 
“At many schools, teachers may share ideas, a good lesson plan, make extra copies for each other. But that’s a different conversation than ‘Let’s look at the data. My kids didn’t do so well on this standard, how did yours do?’” says teacher Beth Smith, “That’s the way you go from, ‘Well, they need help with subtraction’ to, ‘Let’s look at this specific question because we’ve both given the same test on the same day, and we’ve scored them together.’”
Lambert also implemented a program called “WIN (What I Need) Time.” Teachers use data to determine which students are falling behind in different skills. Then, for a period each day, students break off into different groups for targeted support in whatever skill set they need. By analyzing data at this level, teachers have a precise understanding of what students across grade levels know and do not know.
Redefine “parent engagement”
Lambert also invested heavily in finding different ways to encourage all families to get involved. With her team, the school created a “Coffee with the Principal” event, where parents can connect with administration, ask questions and voice concerns. They brought in Project Cornerstone, a nonprofit program where teachers invite parents into their classroom to read to students in different languages. The school also hired a Parent and Volunteer Liason to manage these activities and work directly in this area. Inspired by the success of this approach, the district allocated resources district-wide for every school to have a similar position. 
Teachers at Castro also emphasized that “parent engagement” isn’t defined as coming to PTA meetings. Instead of viewing parent engagement as extra volunteer work for parents to support the school, teachers view it as what parents can integrate in the time they have with their children already.
“I always tell parents that just having a conversation with your kid about their day counts as engagement,” says Smith, “It doesn’t mean you have to physically be here doing things all the time or leading committees. It can look like a lot of different things.”
Make reforms relevant, not extra work
Perhaps most importantly, teachers at Castro trust all these changes coming from leadership, because they have observed how they have ultimately improved outcomes for students.
“When Theresa pushes me to do something a certain way, it’s for the right reasons. If you know it’s for the right reasons then you can, you can get onboard with that,” says Smith, “Here, I always feel like I can justify what I’m doing. If someone were to come and view my classroom, I have the confidence that if they ask me why I was doing it, I could give them a reason why.”