Thomas McKean High School was one of ten secondary schools in Delaware to enter year one of restructuring in the 2008-2009SY. Of the ten schools, McKean was the only one to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress. McKean’s success is attributed to an aggressive restructuring plan including the implementation of: 9^th and 10^th grade academies, school-wide advisory, more inclusive settings, common quarterly assessments and a block schedule to support these initiatives and allowing for daily common plan time for all instructional staff.

This paper is focused to demonstrate that the process used to construct and implement the common quarterly assessments changed teacher practice resulting in an improved culture of teaching and learning as demonstrated by standards-based instruction, assessment of and for learning and individual student interventions and opportunity for re-assessment. Analysis of teacher survey data, student survey data, common quarterly assessment scores and Delaware State Testing scores support a change in teacher practice occurred. Data indicate teachers struggled with the resources provided for student interventions and the time within the student day to implement student interventions with fidelity. Overall findings indicate the focused teacher collaboration resulted in great professional growth for teachers that will have long-lasting effects that will continue to improve the culture of teaching and learning at McKean High School.