October 14, 2026
Contributing Author: Allyson Apsey
We are really good at finding things to fix in our schools. And because our students deserve the very best, everything can feel urgent. We see opportunities to improve student learning, strengthen instruction, and better support teachers, and we want to act on all of them. Before long, we’ve added another program, another strategy, and another priority to an already full plate.
Our intentions are good, and many of these initiatives are worthwhile. But when everything is a priority, we risk making less progress on the things that matter most.
Dr. Douglas Reeves and Robert Eaker explored this issue in their article, “Getting More Urgent About Change Leadership”. After reviewing more than 2,000 school improvement plans, they found that schools making the greatest gains in student achievement consistently had six or fewer priorities. Meanwhile, some schools had dozens of priorities, and some districts had more than 100!
Their research reinforces the importance of focus. Meaningful improvement requires more than introducing a new strategy or program. Educators need time to learn, practice, receive feedback, collaborate, and adjust their approaches based on what students are learning.
The article, “Don’t Overwhelm Your Team With Too Many Initiatives”, published by Monday 8AM, offers a similar message. Although written for business organizations, the lessons apply directly to schools. Initiatives tend to accumulate over time, and we often keep adding new expectations without removing existing ones. The result can be overwhelmed teams, competing priorities, and less progress than we hoped for.
The article offers several practical recommendations:
- Take inventory: Identify everything your team is currently expected to implement and consider the time and resources each requires.
- Prioritize together: Involve the people doing the work in determining what matters most.
- Make it okay to stop: Regularly examine which initiatives are producing results and which could be simplified, combined, or eliminated.
- Think before adding: Consider what a new initiative will require and what might need to come off the plate to make room for it.
Take Aways
1. Focus helps us accelerate improvement.
When we concentrate our efforts on a few important priorities, we can move from planning to action more quickly. Reeves and Eaker remind us that significant improvement can happen in as little as 100 days. We can identify a specific challenge, try a promising practice, examine the results, and make adjustments without waiting until the end of the school year to see if our efforts are working.
2. Align our actions with our priorities.
Once we’ve identified what matters most, our professional learning, PLC meetings, coaching, and resources should reflect those priorities. Every opportunity to collaborate and learn together can help us make progress toward our shared goals. When everyone understands the priorities and how their work contributes to them, we can create momentum and celebrate meaningful progress along the way.
Our time and energy are precious, and so is the time we have with students. When we focus our collective efforts on a few important priorities, we create more opportunities to make meaningful, lasting progress.
Sources:
Reeves, D. B., & Eaker, R. (2023). Getting more urgent about change leadership. Educational Leadership, ASCD.
Don’t overwhelm your team with too many initiatives. Monday 8AM.
Learn more by contacting Allyson Apsey, Associate for Creative Leadership Solutions