Robert J. Marzano in What Works in Schools: Translating Research Into Action (2000) wrote that a “guaranteed and viable curriculum” (p. 22) is the school-level factor that most impacts student achievement. While anything is refutable and debatable in education, few disagree with Dr. Marzano’s research.

We now have resources like John Hattie’s book Visible Learning to help us continue this debate and others. I’d like to propose a few questions we can potentially use for professional dialogue around the factors that most impact student achievement:

• What is the team-level factor that most impacts student achievement?
• What is the principal-level factor that most impacts student achievement?
• What is the teacher-level factor that most impacts student achievement?

While the following are strictly my opinions, they are grounded in some of the best and most powerful research we have in education. Let the debate begin!

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