HOME / RESOURCES /

Case Studies & Research Notes

PELP case studies illuminate systems-level leadership challenges in large urban districts and education-related organizations. Together with research notes and teaching notes for instructors, the PELP case library is an extensive body of working knowledge for academics and practitioners alike.

The Case Library at Harvard Business School Publishing

The following cases are publicly available to access below. For the multimedia cases (PEL-097, PEL-098, PEL-099), when redirected to Harvard Business Press, make a free educator's account, create a coursepack, select "institution pay" (cost remains free), add the multimedia case to the coursepack, add an enrollment number, and publish the coursepack to access the multimedia case link that you can share with students/participants. Harvard Business Publishing can answer additional questions about accessing multimedia cases. For the multimedia cases, printer-friendly accessible versions are available upon request by emailing pelp@gse.harvard.edu.

Teaching Notes (available upon email request)

  • PEL-094: Access, Autonomy, and Accountability: School Governance Dilemmas in Post-Katrina New Orleans (A) & (B)
  • PEL-088: The Nike School Innovation Fund: Scaling for Impact in Oregon Public Schools
  • PEL-086: Denver Public Schools: Innovation and Performance?
  • PEL-075: Organizing for Family and Community Engagement in the Baltimore City Public Schools
  • PEL-072: Career Pathways, Performance Pay, and Peer-Review Promotion in Baltimore City Public Schools
  • PEL-069: Central Falls High School
  • PEL-066: Managing Schools for High Performance: The Area Instruction Officer at Chicago Public Schools
  • PEL-065: Baltimore City Public Schools: Implementing Bounded Autonomy
  • PEL-060: Learning to Manage with Data in Duval County Public Schools: Using the Case in an Education Entrepreneurship Course
  • PEL-059: Taking Human Resources Seriously in Minneapolis
  • PEL-058: Memphis City Schools: The Next Generation of Principals
  • PEL-057: Focusing on Results at the New York City Department of Education
  • PEL-052: Southwest Airlines: Using Human Resources for Competitive Advantage (A) - Using the Case with Education Administrators
  • PEL-049: Bristol City Schools
  • PEL-048: Using Data to Improve Instruction at the Mason School
  • PEL-046: Race, Accountability, and the Achievement Gap (A) and (B)
  • PEL-042: Managing at Scale in the Long Beach Unified School District
  • PEL-040: The STAR Schools Initiative at the San Francisco Unified School District
  • PEL-036: Meeting New Challenges at the Aldine Independent School District
  • PEL-035: Reinventing Human Resources at the School District of Philadelphia
  • PEL-034: Managing the Chicago Public Schools
  • PEL-032: New Leadership at Portland Public Schools
  • PEL-031: Staffing the Boston Public Schools
  • PEL-023: Long Beach Unified School District (B): Working to Sustain Improvement (2002-2004)
  • PEL-022: The Campaign for Human Capital at the School District of Philadelphia
  • PEL-021: Learning to Manage with Data in Duval County Public Schools: Lake Shore Middle School (A) and (B) Series
  • PEL-020: Long Beach Unified School District (A): Change That Leads to Improvement (1992-2002)
  • PEL-019: Pursuing Educational Equity at San Francisco Unified School District
  • PEL-018: Aligning Resources to Improve Student Achievement: San Diego City Schools Case Series
  • PEL-017: Compensation Reform at Denver Public Schools
  • PEL-016: Bristol City Schools