Report
Research to Practice Labs, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
9 August 2026
The Better Schools Report is an annual review of research evidence relevant to leadership and governance in independent schools. This first edition synthesizes peer-reviewed scholarship, government data, and policy research from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom across four domains: faculty retention, family experience, graduate outcomes, and the classroom adoption of generative artificial intelligence. It is written from inside a school, by a practitioner-researcher, for heads of school, senior administrators, and governing boards.
The report's central argument is that schools study their students closely but rarely study whether what they themselves offer works. Several findings illustrate the cost of that gap. Canadian longitudinal evidence following a national cohort from ages 15 to 23 finds the raw academic advantage of private-school students is overwhelmingly explained by the socioeconomic characteristics of the students those schools enrol, with little measurable school effect; a British Columbia study of post-secondary outcomes finds that variation within the independent sector is wider than the gap between independent and public schooling. American federal data show independent-school teachers leaving the profession at higher rates than their public-school counterparts, while exit interviews — the sector's standard instrument for understanding departures — prove an unreliable source of candour, particularly in close-knit school networks where reputation travels quickly. On generative AI, the report finds widespread concern but almost no evidence base: two-thirds of teachers report their school has no formal policy on student use, and no rigorous research yet establishes what effective practice looks like. Together these findings point to a common conclusion — the meaningful variation in school quality sits at the level of the individual school, and it is not visible from destination lists, enrolment growth, or satisfaction surveys alone. The report makes the case for systematic inquiry by schools into their own practice, a practitioner-scholar stance modelled on the teaching hospital, and closes with a nine-point credo for evidence-informed school improvement.
independent schools; faculty retention; teacher turnover; teacher attrition; graduate outcomes; alumni outcomes; family experience; parent satisfaction; school climate; school leadership; educational leadership; generative AI; grade inflation; practitioner research; Canada
Lambersky, J. (2026). The Better Schools Report 2026/2027. Research to Practice Labs. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21864023