As educators dive into spring breaks and spring cleaning, it’s also the perfect time for school leaders to do some strategic spring cleaning of their own – clearing out the clutter that’s blocking alignment and coherence in student learning. While the school year isn’t over yet, the foundation for next year’s success starts now. In her podcast School Leadership Reimagined, host Robyn Jackson introduces a powerful planning approach called 5 In/5 Out, which is a strategy every principal should consider implementing before the year ends to lay the groundwork for meaningful progress next school year. 

This deceptively simple yet powerful prioritization tool helps drive clarity and coherence across grade levels, shifting the focus toward mastery of what matters most and setting students up for success. It begins with teams (organized by department or grade level) collaborating to identify the five most important concepts, skills, or understandings students need coming into the grade, and the five they must master to be ready for the next. These become non-negotiables that every teacher agrees to guarantee for all students. The impact grows even stronger with vertical articulation, ensuring that one grade level’s outputs (5 out) aligns with the next grade’s 5 in, creating a seamless progression of learning. Ken Williams refers to identifying essential learning outcomes as starting with the crown where “the crown represents the essential learning outcomes every student must master. The crown identifies where all students must go in a particular content area. Teachers hold the crown above the head of their students and grow each student tall enough to wear the crown.”

By engaging in this collaborative process, leaders help clear out the clutter and focus on the most essential and non-negotiable learning outcomes for student success. This work not only sharpens vertical articulation but also ensures smoother transitions from one grade to the next. From there, teams can proactively identify gaps between the “5 outs” and “5 ins,” building systems for early intervention and creating a shared vision of what success looks like at every level.