We intentionally use a wide lens. Students from traditionally underserved communities, socio-economically disadvantaged students, racially diverse students, students with disabilities, and LGBTQ students would all be considered “high-needs.”

High-quality instructional materials (HQIM) are core curriculum in ELA/SLA, math, and/or science that provide students with standards-aligned, engaging, affirming, and meaningful grade-level content.

Key points about high-quality instructional materials

● Standards-aligned: Materials are carefully crafted to match the specific learning objectives outlined in state or national academic standards.

● Evidence-based practices: Materials incorporate teaching strategies supported by research to maximize student learning.

● Student-centered: Materials are designed to actively engage students and meet their individual needs.

●  Accessible: Materials are readily available and presented in a way that is easy for students to use and understand.

●  Culturally responsive: Materials take into account the diverse backgrounds and experiences of students.

Visit edreports.org to search by curriculum/program name and see how they are rated based on EdReports’ review criteria. EdReports.org is a non-profit organization that provides independent, evidence-based reviews of instructional materials for K-12 education. Their reviews are conducted by expert educators using tools that assess materials against criteria for standards alignment and usability. Reviews are based on research from curriculum experts, rubric developers, and other organizations. The results of the reviews are published as free reports on EdReports.org.

Yes.

School communities engaged in the design process will have access to broad, interlocking, and protected school-level flexibilities and autonomies (related to people, time, money, and program). These autonomies will enable school teams to design new approaches to teacher teams, distributed leadership, and differentiated compensation. 

For example:

● Talent flexibility allows schools to rewrite job descriptions, develop new types of roles, and set their own working conditions to enable novel approaches to teacher teams and distributed leadership.

●  Schedule and calendar flexibility allows schools to increase and customize collaboration and professional learning opportunities focused on implementing HQIM.

● Budgetary flexibility allows schools to support differentiated and sustainable compensation and fund novel roles, supports, and costs associated with HQIM adoption, implementation, and professional learning.

● Programmatic flexibility allows schools to integrate academic design work and redesigned teacher roles with the overall school program.

Yes. Any district serving students in grades K-8 may include K-12 or K-8 districts; high school-only districts are not eligible.

This opportunity is for 3-5 schools within a district, so the district needs to be large enough to have a subset of 3-5 schools to be eligible.

School leaders can apply with sign-off from a district leader, with confirmation that at least two other schools in the district are interested.

District leaders can apply with sign-off from at least 3 school leaders.

Charter schools can apply if a district authorizes them and their students count as district enrollment. Independent charter schools are not eligible.

Yes, K-12 schools are welcome to apply. However, the focus grades are K-8 for design and initial implementation work.

Yes! We welcome a group of small districts to work together in a local geography.

● Three years of dedicated funding and technical support.

● Up to $1 million of technical assistance provided through Empower Schools and Teacher-Powered Schools.

● Up to $650,000 in start-up resources to support educator planning and design, as well as for leadership stipends, release time, capacity building, retreats. We expect approximately $60,000 per school will go toward educator stipends to compensate for design, implementation, and PD time.

● Two facilitated site visits (including travel costs) to innovative school models for district and school-level educators during years 1 and 2.

District teams:

● Commit to a minimum 3-year partnership with Empower Schools and Teacher-Powered Schools to design, implement, and continuously improve work at selected school sites. Begin spring 2025 and continue through spring 2028.

● Twice-monthly meetings with a district decision-maker responsible for this project.

●  Hold a learner mindset.

● Be a supportive partner to school educator teams.

● Be willing to redesign district systems to meet school needs.

● Over the 3-year process, the team will commit to identifying, adopting, and implementing HQIM (if not already in use).

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School teams: 

● Commit to scheduled time to meet with a Teacher-Powered Schools coach and complete activities between coaching sessions.

◼ Spring 2025: Two hours per month.

◼2025-2026: Design year; 3-4 hours per month, one PD day prior to the school year and one half-day at the end.

◼2026-2027: Implementation year; same commitment as prior year.

◼2027-2028: Continuous improvement; Two hours/month, one PD day prior to the school year and one half-day at the end.

● Hold a learner mindset and be reflective. The process isn’t linear, and there will be times of frustration; willingness to work through that as a team will strengthen your collective ability to lead and adapt.

● Communicate openly with each other, your Teacher-Powered Schools coach, and the school community where appropriate. This includes timely responses, transparency, and active listening.

• Participation in a Community of Practice including one in-person gathering per year with other Inspired Teaching, Exceptional Learning grantees.

• Data sharing agreement between the schools, district, lead organizations, and the research partner for the Inspired Teaching, Exceptional Learning grantees.