Schools define themselves by state metrics. But when we dig down into the numbers, questions remain: Do good schools get positive numbers despite good instruction, or because of it? Do lower performing schools get negative numbers because of subpar instruction, or something else? How does school leadership factor into these outcomes? Which characteristics of the building's community determine a school's success? Amy M. Dujon's The Gritty Truth of School Transformation: Eight Phases of Growth to Instructional Rigor answers these questions and more by revealing how schools of all shapes, sizes, and socio-economic and academic backgrounds can achieve real faculty and student growth. How? By implementing rigorous instruction in the classroom and empowering school leaders to establish and grow a vision of excellence that involves both teachers and students. Additionally, district and school leaders can use this book to: - Take any school to new levels of success within the new standards - Overcome the fact that new standards have made it more challenging to improve good schools - Get actual results with the proper programs and tools - Buck the trend of high performing schools producing the lowest learning gains - Ensure that students in all schools are measurably benefitting from instruction