Welcome to our home on the web!

The National School Reform Faculty^® (NSRF^®) is a professional development initiative that focuses on increasing student achievement through skillful use of collaborative professional learning communities called Critical Friends Groups^®, or CFGs^®.

Critical Friends Groups use protocols and activities that result in meaningful and efficient communication, problem solving and learning. At the heart of NSRF’s program and essential to successful CFGs are the concepts of Facilitative Leadership and Critical Friendship. We have learned that Critical Friendship is best achieved through applying protocols, structured ways to work and communicate that promote adult growth and are directly linked to student learning. Facilitative Leadership skills are needed to engage school communities in this practice, and are valuable for all leaders—school leaders, classroom teachers and district administrators.

This site is designed to give you information about Critical Friends Groups, keep you updated with news from CFG coaches worldwide, inform you about upcoming trainings, and make resources available to you, including how you can become a CFG Coach.

If you're completely new to the idea of protocols and Critical Friends Groups, we encourage you to click the links at the right for our Self-Guided Tour to CFGs and our short CFG Training promotional video.

Otherwise, you can navigate via the link list in the left column to learn much, much more, purchase materials, download free protocols and activities, and discover many opportunities to receive coaches training and keep up-to-date with us.

Welcome!