"Mid-level staff spend little time in direct communication with school staff and feel burdened with district meetings and paperwork" (p. 3).

Burch, P. & Spillane, J. (2004). Leading from the middle: mid-level district staff and instructional improvement. Chicago, IL: Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform.

“Engineers think of models as learning devices. You implement a model with the expectation that you will learn from the attempt, not with the expectation that it will work."

Payne, C.M. & Kaba, Mariame (2007). So much reform, so little change: building-level obstacles to urban school reform. Social Policy, 37(3/4), p. 30-37.

"They rejected the traditional one-time workshop approach to developing their teachers' skills. Instead, they implemented coherent, district-organized strategies to improve instruction" (p. 6).

Togneri, W. & Anderson, S. (2003). Beyond islands of excellence: what districts can do to improve instruction and achievement in all schools -- a leadership brief. Washington, DC: Learning First Alliance.

"The main mark of successful leaders is not their impact on student learning, but rather the number of good leaders they leave behind who can go even further" (p. 44).

Fullan, M., Bertani, A., & Quinn, J. (2004). New lessons for districtwide reform. Educational Leadership, 61(7), 42-46.

“[The superintendent] met with representatives of the potential donors, explained the district’s strategy, and made it clear that he would not accept funds that distracted the district from carrying out its strategy” (p. 68).

Childress, S., Elmore, R., & Grossman, A. (2006). How to manage urban school districts. Harvard Business Review, 84(11), 56-68.