In the complex US education system, factors that either directly
or indirectly impact students’ college and career readiness extend
beyond teacher and student learning environments. The NRC’s
(2011) report entitled Successful K-12 STEM education emphasizes
the importance of school-level variables. Some scholars also argue
that the failure to be mindful of school system complexity and
variables outside the classroom is the ‘‘. . .single best explanation
for the historical failure of planned change in schools’’ (Leithwood,
Aitken, & Jantzi, 2006, p. 58). The partnership identified two
school-level outcomes that have been demonstrated to have
bearing on multiple levels of the theory of change: collective
teacher efficacy and transformational leadership.