Research & Insights / Holmes Innovation School: A 2026 School on the Move Semifinalist

Holmes Innovation School: A 2026 School on the Move Semifinalist

The ten semifinalists for the 2026 School on the Move Prize are excellent examples of the conditions of sustainable school improvement EdVestors’ research has identified. Please join us at the Prize Ceremony on November 10th!

The Holmes Innovation School is a full-inclusion elementary school in Dorchester serving 300 students. Once a school in crisis facing state turnaround status, the Holmes has evolved into a thriving ecosystem of learning and liberation, cultivating a culture where joy, rigor, and excellence coexist. Over the last three years, the Holmes has made deliberate changes to shift outcomes for students furthest from opportunity. Through culturally responsive, high-quality professional development, distributed leadership structures, and a commitment to equity-centered instructional practice, the school has experienced transformative growth over three years, as demonstrated by 76% cumulative progress toward accountability targets, compared to the district average of 48%.

The Holmes recognized that improving outcomes for Black students, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities required more than academic interventions alone: it required transforming adult mindsets and habits to shift school culture. Through experiential learning activities, affinity groups, instructional rounds, and reflective dialogue, all grounded in research, educators critically examined questions around equity, rigor, culturally responsive teaching, and access for historically marginalized students. These conversations were embedded in coaching cycles, common planning time, and schoolwide instructional conversations, ensuring that improvement efforts became part of the school’s daily fabric, rather than disconnected initiatives.

Favorable staff responses around school climate increased from 35% to 96%, while Holmes now ranks among the highest in the district and among the top 1% nationally in adult culture and climate measures. More importantly, students increasingly began to see themselves as scholars capable of excellence, a shift that is now reflected in stronger academic outcomes and improved instructional coherence across classrooms.

The Holmes recognized that sustainable improvement could not depend on a single leader or initiative and instead required distributed leadership structures. Lasting transformation would require leadership to be distributed across the organization so that educators closest to students could actively shape instructional priorities, solve problems collaboratively, and drive continuous improvement. Staff teams became active engines of school improvement, with instructional decision-making, data analysis, and problem-solving moving fluidly across the school.

Finally, the Holmes recognized that their approach to professional development needed to shift. From disconnected workshops, the school shifted to Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) focused on identifying problems of practice, analyzing student data, researching instructional strategies, conducting peer observations, implementing new practices, and measuring impact over time. Staff favorability responses for professional learning increased from 24% to 96%, and school climate ratings increased from 35% to 96%.