Schools That Think

But Pully came to the job with the conviction that education could be -- had to be -- better. Not only did a fast-paced economy demand more-innovative education; but the changing community of North Jackson was calling out for it. The once relatively affluent neighborhood was becoming less so, evidenced by the proportion of children receiving free or reduced-price school lunches. When Pully came, the percentage was already on the rise: It reached 50% in 1994; today, it stands at 69%. And research, Pully says, shows that "with poverty comes children who have not had exposure to a high level of literacy, children who don't come to school ready to learn."

Pully knew exactly what kind of changes she wanted to see at North Jackson. None had anything to do with what she dismisses as "little boxes and kits" -- the programs that all too often pass as reform in the nation's classrooms. Pully's vision, similar to that of other cutting-edge reformers, was rooted in research showing that real learning takes place through methods that break the mold of the old assembly-line model of education, such as those described in the following examples.

Thematic teaching. Pully wanted to replace rote textbook learning with "thematic teaching," creative instruction that ties together several disciplines -- math, reading, art, and science, for example -- around a single theme, such as the Renaissance or ancient Greece.

Cooperative learning. Pully's plan for cooperative learning had students sitting in pairs or in small groups, collaborating on assignments. Pully doesn't think single-row seating is completely useless: It can be good, say, for independent tests. But it's hardly the stuff of a model classroom. Get students out of neat rows and into small learning groups.

Continuity in learning. Pully's model involved keeping students and their teachers together for at least two years. Continuity, she insists, gives students stability and makes teachers accountable.

Pully's was a huge agenda for change, and she began putting it into practice in an unconventional way: For the first year, she did nothing. "I knew that in order to really effect change, you don't change anything for a while," she says. "Change is difficult; that's a given. You're asking people to come out of a comfort zone."

So instead of charging ahead with her plans, Pully first worked to build trust. She talked about her ideas, many of which she had put into practice in California, and she shared current research about learning and the brain with her staff. She listened carefully to teachers' concerns and involved them in decision making. She promised them that they would be trained before she asked them to try new approaches to teaching. She made it clear that her expectations were  high -- "Her expectations are about here," says fourth-grade teacher Megan Price, 30, holding her hand above her head -- but she also encouraged her staff to take risks, not to fear failure.

"There's a caring in the way she administers," says first-grade teacher Mildred Burnett, 49, who has worked under every principal at North Jackson since it opened in 1981. "She assured us that our ideas were much needed and that she would respect us."

Pully introduced thematic teaching in her second year at the school. "It was very gradual," says second-grade teacher Lynn O'Dell, 56. "We had professional development to help us make the change. We weren't beat over the head with it. We were encouraged to do thematic units, and she would point out those of us who were doing that -- right in front of the others. She'd kind of brag about us."

The change meant more work, says O'Dell: It involved planning units of study that weren't textbook driven. But the hard work also offered personal rewards. "It's all cut-and-dried. This new method seems more fluid. You can go your own way. You can ask yourself, 'How can I best teach this so that children master it?'"

As changes continued to be implemented over the next several years, Pully kept all of her promises. Out of the school's 31 teachers, 5 eventually decided to go work elsewhere. And Pully helped each one of them land a job at a different school. "What I was asking was a little too much for some people," she admits. "This method is not for every teacher. But I won't hang anyone out to dry. If you're honest, and you come to me and sat that it's too much for you, I'll help you make a change."

Today, every one of Pully's changes has taken hold at North Jackson. And the result? A school that was once a quiet model of tradition is now alive with learning. Walk through the school on any day, and you'll be hard pressed to find a single neat row of desks or a teacher standing in front of a class. Instead, you'll see students engaged in all kinds of learning -- writing a first-person story from the point of view of a Chinese immigrant in America and then building a diorama to illustrate the story; working out math problems in small groups; discussing the importance of the Statue of Liberty and other symbols; doing independent research projects on Native Americans; even learning the Bill of Rights by doing a bit of creative word juggling and performing it as a rap song.

"You have to change the way you think," Pully says. "You have to think outside the box. You can't sit there and wait for somebody else to do something for you."

Sara Terry [saraterry@mindspring.com], a frequent contributor to Fast Company, also writes for the Christian Science Monitor and the Boston Globe.