INTRODUCTION Learning from Highly Effective Teachers

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson Essays: First Series

IN MOST SYSTEMS THERE ARE ONE OR MORE POSITIVE OUTLIERS—PEOPLE who are subject to the same constraints as others but who exceed expectations. This means that they, in some way, think and behave differently. Their thinking is somehow more complex than conventional thinking, their behavior is somehow more adaptive than conventional behaviors, and their outcomes are more generative than conventional outcomes. Some of these people work in our public schools. They are highly effective teachers who accelerate learning and change lives.