Last week, The New York Times published an article in which 37 education researchers evaluated and ranked 30 ideas for reversing the decade-long slide in reading and math achievement in US schools. Some of the most proven ideas for school improvement, like small-group tutoring and paying teachers more, were also some of the most expensive. But when weighing impact against cost, accountability and high-quality curriculum rose to the top.
So what does accountability look like in practice? It means documenting, monitoring, and communicating progress on core goals. We've seen its power firsthand in our strategic planning work with schools. But following through and holding people accountable is hard to sustain, especially for overloaded administrative teams. California charter schools, for example, face the same compliance and administrative load as district schools with far leaner teams. School leaders often tell us they feel like they're "starting over every year," lacking documented processes and stuck in reactive mode instead of proactively supporting their staff and communities.
That's where command centers come into play (Colton explains them here). A command center makes accountability manageable. It pulls your goals, data, and deadlines into one streamlined view, so leaders can monitor progress in real time, spot problems early, and communicate clearly with their team and board, without hours of manual reporting. And because every automation we build starts with a documented process, schools stop starting over every year.
The same goes for curriculum. High-quality curriculum only works when it's implemented with fidelity. Imagine being able to monitor implementation across every classroom and seeing which students and classrooms need support. We can build that curriculum command center, along with other dashboards and automated processes for key areas of school operations: LCAP metrics and budget reporting, compliance deadlines, enrollment, and professional development and coaching.
One last note: AI ranked dead last, but only as a student-facing tool. We would argue that used the right way behind the scenes, AI can help schools execute the strategies that work.
Let's huddle up on meaningful, responsible AI use that strengthens accountability and delivers high-quality education to every student. Reach out for a 30-minute conversation to get a running start.
Source: The New York Times, The Upshot: 30 Ideas for Fixing U.S. Schools, Ranked by Experts (Sarah Mervosh, Francesca Paris and Claire Cain Miller, September 28, 2026)