The K-12 educational landscape is changing faster than ever before; from blended, online, and personalized learning, districts are looking for transformative measures to impact student success. At the same time, the stakes have never been higher - and the challenges that schools face are real and often daunting. America's schools are running up against the limits of the traditional, adult-centered structures that have defined what education looks like in our country; in order to move forward, we need to rethink our existing models and strive to build increasingly student-centered learning structures. Leadership, at all levels, is the primary lever to making the kind of deep change that allows all children, regardless of zip code, to develop their talents to the fullest.

However, achieving significant change in the teaching and learning process requires systemic, sustained effort. This is the challenge facing schools and districts today. The Institute for Teaching and Leading's (i4tl) new book aims to take the findings of our recent research into blended and personalized learning models and the lessons we have learned from helping districts across the nation engaged in this work in order to help schools rethink, innovate, and empower toward the goal of preparing all students for success. Without innovative models, exemplars, and success stories - and a focus on the specific strategies, competencies, and actions that made these models achievable - there is no roadmap forward and no impetus for change. This book provides that roadmap for education leaders at all levels. With the advent of COVID-19, this work becomes more, rather than less, timely and critical for schools, leaders, and students.

Each chapter of this book focuses on a different aspect of the journey to more student-centered learning models, with an especial focus on the pivotal role of leadership as it impacts all stakeholders. We explore leadership, teaching and learning, school operations, technology, professional development, and community engagement in depth and illustrate our findings with on-the-ground lessons learned and case studies from a variety of contexts across the country exploring how particular schools or districts have addressed specific problems of practice in each area.