How Three School Districts Are Solving Problems and Driving Student Excellence

Daily Huddles

Hemet Unified School District

Superintendent Dr. Christi Barrett champions continuous improvement at Hemet Unified School District (CA) through focused strategies like daily huddles, which provide real-time insights into progress and challenges.

Unlike traditional staff meetings, daily huddles are brief and highly targeted, enabling leaders to address critical issues and remove obstacles. In Hemet, these huddles emerged from the need to reduce student aggression—a widespread challenge in schools.

Since their implementation, daily huddles have become what Dr. Barrett calls a “transformational” practice. Not only have they significantly reduced student aggression, but they have also reshaped how leaders approach problem-solving. Dr. Barrett explains on the Accelerate Your Performance podcast, “We have had exceptional gains related to student discipline. The reduction, honestly, is astounding. And it’s not because we are ignoring or no longer suspending students. It’s because the problems don’t exist. We’ve moved from the Band-Aid approach of solving problems to solving to root…”

Hemet’s approach to problem-solving encourages its leaders to look beyond individual actions and examine the systems that influence outcomes. This has naturally led to more proactive problem-solving. By shifting its focus from surface-level fixes to systemic solutions using daily huddles, the district has significantly improved student behavior and overall school climate.

Building Leadership Capacity Through Daily Huddles

Listen as Dr. Christi Barrett shares how daily huddles have reshaped her district’s approach to student behavior, improved outcomes, and strengthened leadership capacity.

Short Cycles of Improvement

Estacada School District

Estacada School District (OR), led by Superintendent Dr. Ryan Carpenter, prioritizes student outcomes using short cycles of improvement.

For example, when changes to elementary and middle school start and end times inadvertently caused behavioral challenges among middle school students waiting for buses, district leaders quickly identified the issue as a systemic problem. They gathered feedback from bus drivers and implemented a solution to adjust routes—picking up middle schoolers first and elementary students last. This solution worked but created a new challenge: elementary students loitering while waiting for buses. This issue prompted another short cycle of improvement. Again, leaders gathered feedback, and the middle school times were adjusted by five minutes to reduce loitering. Now, district leaders are collecting data to assess the impact of this adjustment.

Estacada applies this short-cycle approach to various challenges. During the 2023-2024 school year, data revealed that 72 teachers had experienced aggression from students. Leaders acted immediately, implementing a short cycle of improvement. In just five months (August 2024 to January 2025), incidents of student aggression toward teachers dropped by 87%.

By using short cycles of improvement throughout the district, Estacada cultivates a culture where challenges are addressed swiftly, data informs decisions, and trust is built among students, staff, and families.

Create Momentum with Short Cycles of Improvement

Listen as Dr. Ryan Carpenter, Superintendent of Estacada School District, shares how short cycles of improvement build momentum, achieve results, and lead to continuous progress

Scorecards and PDSAs

Burton School District

When you walk into Principal Lori Phillips’ office at Oak Grove Elementary School (Burton School District, CA), the first thing you’ll notice is the school scorecard hanging prominently behind her desk. For Principal Phillips, this scorecard is essential to her leadership, providing a shared tool for tracking progress and promoting transparency and collaboration among her students and staff. It provides a framework for discussions with parents, faculty, staff, and even students, ensuring alignment across the school.

At Oak Grove, teachers and staff dove into the work of continuous improvement by creating the scorecard to track specific measures. With their goals established and their scorecard created, teachers began reviewing the data to assess progress. Each week, this information is shared and discussed among the team so they can celebrate successes and identify areas where they need more support. They also incorporate PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) cycles, refining strategies based on real-time data.

As a result, Oak Grove has seen impressive results and measurable improvements in test scores, increased student attendance, and a decrease in student disciplinary incidents.

Principal Phillips credits her team’s dedication for these results, stating, “Coaches don’t win games; teams do.” By fostering a culture where everyone is invested in student success, she ensures that all team members are, as she says, “rowing in the same direction.”

Drive Student Achievement with Scorecards

Listen as Principal Lori Phillips shares how a schoolwide scorecard empowers students to set learning goals, track their progress, and foster collaboration to improve achievement, attendance, and behavior.

Despite differences in size and location, these schools and districts share a commitment to continuous improvement and data-driven decision-making—both essential for achieving student excellence. Whether through daily huddles, short cycles of improvement, or scorecards, these strategies empower education leaders to drive meaningful change.