Profiling great schools and conversations with effective school leaders leads to one overarching conclusion–culture is key. A powerful culture makes teachers better and kids smarter. Yet “Culture is one of those things that all organizations say is important, but it is easily ignored or forgotten in the daily grind of running a business, non-profit, or school district,” said a recent HBR article.

Our summer homework helped us identify the following 10 key ingredients of a high performance culture:

Every school has a culture. In big chaotic schools, kids drive many of the behavioral norms. In contrast, deeper learning environments are intentionally hand crafted around an intellectual mission; they are made fresh and visible in word and deed every week.