How Schools and Districts Meet Rigorous Standards Through Authentic Intellectual Work: Lessons from the Field

Meet challenging standards by promoting students′ authentic intellectual work

Educators have long called for more rigor and engagement in classroom work, alongside calls for enhancing equity. Yet classroom practices and student outcomes have been slow to change.
A promising solution is the research-backed, real world-tested potential of the Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) framework to meet intellectually challenging standards including Common Core. This book provides

• Richly detailed case studies of successful AIW implementation at the statewide, districtwide, and individual school levels 
• Illustrations of collaborative teaming to advance higher-order thinking, disciplined inquiry, and value beyond school
• Exemplars of how AIW transforms professional development and evaluations and increases coherence and alignment of initiatives

There is no such thing as a simple formula for school improvement, but the AIW approaches presented in this book will help school- and district-based teams improve the quality of instruction, assessment, and curriculum for more rigorous and more equitable student learning

"It is inspiring to read these educators’ testaments to the profound personal and professional impact of their efforts to promote students’ authentic intellectual work."
―Fred M. Newmann, Emeritus Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison

"AIW is an instructional game changer. It has brought coherence across our district’s schools as we help our teachers help students become 21st-century learners."
―Michael Duncan, Superintendent
Pike County Schools, GA

Dr. M. Bruce Kingis a Faculty Associate with the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work in ELPA concentrates on teaching courses on instructional leadership and teacher capacity, coordinating the Wisconsin Idea PhD cohort program in K–12 leadership, and building effective partnerships between the department and schools and districts.

Bruce has been a researcher with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, where he contributed to two studies focused on Authentic Intellectual Work, the Research Institute on Secondary Education Reform for Youth with Disabilities and the Center for Organization and Restructuring of Schools. He received his PhD in curriculum and instruction from UW-Madison and taught upper elementary, middle, and high school for 11 years in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Quito, Ecuador.

Bruce has been a research fellow at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, and has consulted on two research projects in Australian schools that extended the body of research on AIW. He serves as associate editor for the international journal Teaching and Teacher Education, and has published in national and international research and practitioner journals. Currently, he provides professional development as an AIW coach in Wisconsin and Georgia.

Along with colleagues Fred Newmann and Dana Carmichael, Bruce recently published a companion book to this volume, Authentic Intellectual Work: Improving Teaching for Rigorous Learning (Corwin, 2015).