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Essential strategies for school trustees and superintendents. Addressing the urgent challenges of school leadership in our divided, post-pandemic landscape, The Governance Core 2.0 is an essential guide for school trustees and superintendents dedicated to making a meaningful difference in their districts. Davis Campbell, Michael Fullan, and Babs Kavanaugh provide useful tools and techniques to improve local governance culture, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between board members, district leaders, and school staff to support the success and wellbeing of every student. This thoroughly updated edition is now structured around three pillars–Governance Mindset, Governance Culture, and Governance Infrastructure–providing a comprehensive framework that addresses the core principles and responsibilities of effective school governance. Additional features include: Practical strategies for fostering collaboration, onboarding new trustees, and leading transformative change in a school district New real-world examples of effective board governance A board planning calendar and self-evaluation tools A new'Suggestions for Implementation'section to support the application of lessons from the book Offering guidance on developing a shared moral imperative and systems thinking and establishing clear norms and protocols, this book is a necessary resource for both new and experienced trustees, superintendents, and district leaders.

The transition to mid- and top-level educational leadership is often full of unexpected turbulence, confusing conversations, and mind-boggling navigational dilemmas that can send even the best leader into a tailspin. In her book, Against the Wind: Leadership at 36,000 Feet, Dr. Donya Ball helps administrators learn to face these challenges with courage and resilience. Several experienced top-level leaders join Dr. Ball in sharing their experiences, lessons, and advice. With hope, wisdom, and humor, they provide strategies for preventing problems, developing charisma, and facing adversity with confidence.

People typically misunderstand how power works in schools. Common thinking says that things like high-stakes testing, school reform efforts, and political mandates exert the most power on schools. The reality, however, is that power comes from everywhere. It isn't a thing that only certain people possess, nor does it operate linearly, as in simple actions and reactions. Instead, power acts more like a web: if you exert power in one part of a school, the effects often spread across the rest of it. The usual emphasis on big, easy-to-see influences causes schools to focus on the wrong concerns (the big public ones) instead of the ones which make the most impact (the small daily ones). This book examines everyday phenomena inside schools to reveal the complexity and nuance of power and makes practical suggestions for how schools can manage power more effectively to maximize students'learning.

Staff turnover is the most pressing issue facing school leaders today. Unfortunately, everyday administrators have a limited arsenal of weapons with which to fight turnover, And yet, fight they must. School leaders must not only onboard high numbers of new staff, but also maintain their programs, policies, and procedures in the face of turnover. New teachers aren't the only ones needing coherent, on-demand systems. Even veterans cite lack of institutional support as a factor in their departure; they deplore constant changes in practices, unpredictable responses from leaders, and opaque processes for would-be simple tasks. Clear, consistent systems are an administrator's best response to turnover, and they help leaders maintain standards across an organization. Clean systems ease teachers'burdens by saving time and providing stability. The benefit to leaders, moreover, is obvious: well-maintained systems generate more faithful implementation. Dealing With Staff Turnover: Systems that Make Schools More Resilient in Times of Change lays out a process for organizing, publishing, and promoting systems. It explains how to frame and embed them into teachers'practice. It is a manual for those with boots on the ground who want to survive this period of high turnover while maintaining consistent practices.

School leaders are busy, overwhelmed, and may not always be cognizant of the latest cutting-edge theories and practices in the field of instructional improvement. Drawing from research, Creating a Culture of Excellence is a resource that serves as a guide to the best practices in teaching, curriculum, professional development, supervision, and evaluation. Attending to these five processes, utilizing best practices in the field of research and practice, will ensure high-quality instruction in any school. This book is replete with engaging learning activities and vignettes to reinforce ideas and concepts.

Coping with Educational Crises: Approaches from School Leaders Who Did It provides readers with perspectives and research-based strategies regarding the leadership approaches employed by school district administrators at all levels of organizational responsibility including superintendents of schools; assistant superintendents; program directors and coordinators; principals; assistant principals; and teacher leaders to confront unexpected major crises in school operations such as that created by the COVID-19 global pandemic.This book consists of eight chapters written by practicing administrators, leadership researchers, and experienced educators who present their analyses and insights about managing the people, things, and ideas of educational organizations during crisis situations. They articulate various approaches that they and other educational leaders employed to abate the deleterious impact of crises on their respective organizations.Coping with Educational Crises also provides recommendations to current and future school leaders who may face similar crises during their careers. Additionally, the editors and contributing authors offer sage advice to educational policymakers, school administrators, parents, and community leaders to recognize the collateral opportunities associated with any crisis including reforms to the pre-crisis traditional educational system since some of its key foundations, procedures, and expectations may have been significantly changed forever.

Essential principles, practices, and structures for multilingual learners Much has changed in the ten years since this book was first published. A celebrated triumph, it provided state, district, school, and teacher leaders with a comprehensive guide to support multilingual learners to reach their full potential. From selecting the appropriate program model to partnering with families and infusing federal and state laws governing the education of multilingual learners and the rights of their families into all we do, the key messages that made the first edition of this book a renowned success have been re-examined in the second edition with a robust lens to meet these demanding times. This second edition supports educators to design and enact policies, practices, and structures for multilingual learners (MLs) to feel a sense of safety, belonging, value, and competence. Topics explored in the book include: a discussion of the changes to federal and state policies and their impact on MLs and their families strategies to move from a deficit- to an asset-based approach that values multilingualism nine principles to design and deliver high-quality lessons in multiple languages and across disciplines practices to identify and support MLs with learning differences and disabilities steps for building long-lasting family-school partnerships Reflecting changing trends in leadership, this new edition supports superintendents, principals, curriculum supervisors, coaches, mentors, teachers, and other stakeholders in their collaborative efforts to create and sustain successful language assistance programs.

The second edition of this textbook from respected author team Kaplan and Owings explores how principals can effectively build a culture around student achievement. Introduction to the Principalship, a second edition closely aligned with NELP (2018) standards, helps aspiring principals understand how to develop a vision for improvement, make decisions and manage conflict, build teachers'capacity, communicate, monitor the organization's performance, and create a school climate of mutual respect. This important book provides readers with various leadership concepts to inform their practice, as well as the cognitive and practical tools to evaluate and prioritize what leadership actions to take. Each chapter offers opportunities for readers to create personal meaning and explore new ways of doing leadership to advance a positive, person-focused environment. Providing both the theoretical framework and skills for effective practice, Introduction to the Principalship addresses the issues most urgent and relevant for educational leadership graduate students learning how to build a school culture that promotes every student's success.Fully revised, this second edition includes a new chapter on building your capacity for leadership, expanded discussion of data-informed accountability, equity considerations, and crisis management, and all chapters updated and revised throughout to reflect the latest developments in the field.Special Features: Learning Objectives - chapter openers introduce the topic and initiate student thinking Reflections and Relevance - interactive exercises, role plays, class activities, and assignments that can be used synchronously and asynchronously to deepen and extend student learning Key Takeaways - organized by learning objective, these answer readers'question,'What about this information is meaningful for me as an aspiring principal?'Suggested Readings - each chapter concludes with annotated suggested readings to extend and deepen discussion of key issues in chapter NELP Standards - each chapter is aligned to the latest school leadership licensure standards Companion Website - includes links to supplemental material, additional readings, video clips with related teaching and learning activities, and PowerPoints for instructors.

'Culturally Responsive Leadership for Academic and Social Equity and Justice in Schools offers a multi-faceted approach to culturally responsive leadership as it connects the concept to the various responsibilities of school leaders. The book also aims to challenge school leaders to see the connective and comprehensive nature of culturally responsive leadership in their daily duties and responsibilities, introduces the concept of culturally responsive leadership and its benefits for all students, and prompts and initiates an educational leadership mindset that seeks to explore the impact of culturally responsive leadership further. Covering key topics such as equity, school culture, and professional development, this premier reference source is ideal for administrators, policymakers, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students'--

Baruti K. Kafele, a champion for assistant principals, offers stories from his own leadership practice and thought-provoking advice for being effective in the role.The job of a school leader is more challenging—and important—than ever. To be effective, administrators need to support their students and staff, but they also need to take care of themselves. Bestselling author Baruti K. Kafele brings this motivational message to the pivotal members of the leadership team who are too often overlooked: assistant principals.Kafele explains that even as assistant principals gain knowledge and build their leadership identity, their leadership values and skills can be compromised or lost without intentional care. Along with stories from his own years as a transformational school leader, Kafele offers assistant principals 35 thought-provoking questions for reflection and conversation centered on the idea of protection, from How am I protecting my leadership purpose? to How am I protecting my leadership optimism? and How am I protecting my leadership integrity?Whether you are a new or experienced assistant principal, this insightful book will help you hold a mirror up to your own practice and more effectively navigate your powerful role in improving outcomes for students and schools.

A visionary blueprint for educational reform that envisions school systems as opportunity engines, preparing young citizens for future workplace success, civic engagement, and fulfilling lives. Educating for Purposeful Life documents positive change within the Anaheim Union High School District, whose overarching mission is to prepare high school graduates who possess a clear sense of purpose and the capacity to achieve their goals. Superintendent Michael Matsuda and education consultant David Brazer lay out the district's innovative approaches to organizing, leading, teaching, and learning. They demonstrate how education policy, organization theory, and external partnerships work together within this grades 7–12 district to scaffold student success, resulting in greater high school graduation rates and four-year college matriculation and persistence rates. A rousing account of effective school reform, this work illuminates the district's Career Preparedness Systems Framework, which integrates affective and cognitive development opportunities, trade and professional development programs, and community engagement efforts. Matsuda and Brazer show how this framework, combined with a strengths-based approach that recognizes and affirms students'individual life experiences, helps meet the educational needs of all students, including those from traditionally underserved populations. Presenting secondary education as a means to support democracy, address employability gaps, and elevate student voice and purpose, this thought-provoking work provides ample ideas for how other districts might engage in educating for purposeful life.

Principal to Principal: Conversations in Servant Leadership, is an expanded edition of the original, published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2008. The book tells the story of a recently retired principal (John), who walks a first year principal (Linda) through her first year in serving a school. Chapter by chapter, John wisely mentors, as Linda vents, cries, listens, and learns--experiencing what it's really like down in the trenches as an authentic servant leader.

The solution for preparing excellent school leaders is right in front of you. The best way to prepare aspiring leaders for principalship is to offer hands-on opportunities to develop the skills they'll need when they're in charge. Being a principal calls for originality, innovation, and the ability to work under pressure. Yet so few assistant principals and other aspiring leaders actually get to develop these competencies in meaningful ways that prepare them to lead a school with confidence. Leader Ready presents a framework that walks aspiring school leaders along the path to strong and independent principalship by using a mix of professional knowledge, modeling, coaching, guided experiences, and mastery experiences. Full of processes, action steps, and examples from the field, features include; A research-based plan for creating better conditions for aspiring leaders Guidance for achieving systemic professional growth throughout the school year Analysis of school-leadership standards to inform practice Voices of leaders, aspiring leaders, and experts from the field

How can special education teams create effective IEPs that improve student outcomes and meet legal requirements? Find practical answers in the second edition of this one-stop IEP guide, updated with new chapters on key topics, online resources, and practical features that make this edition perfect for either preservice courses or in-service teamwork. Current and future education teams will get a thorough introduction to IEPs and a comprehensive framework for IEP development, featuring a unique, in-depth checklist that breaks the whole process into small, manageable steps. IEP team members will learn how to collaborate during a meeting, assess a student's present levels of performance, develop meaningful IEP goals and objectives for all students (including culturally diverse learners), choose accommodations, use progress monitoring data to make instructional decisions, and support transitions from school to adulthood. Practical content throughout the book—including planning tips, vivid examples, reflection questions, and practice activities—gives readers the knowledge and experience they need to create legally compliant IEPs and put them into action. WHAT'S NEW:New chapters on making IEP practices culturally responsive, designing behavior intervention plans, and supporting students with disabilities in private and parochial schools Student-friendly features such as chapter objectives, reflection questions, a glossary, and challenge scenarios to encourage critical thinking skills Updated activities that help guide and improve IEP development All-new online resources, including English- and Spanish-language parent surveys Updates on critical new research and practices in the field of special education INCLUDES READY-TO-USE TOOLS: IEP meeting preparation checklists, the IEP Checklist for confirming that required elements are included, an IEP Rubric for evaluating each element, and a template for making corrections based on the IEP Rubric.

Servant leadership has become a prominent and popular approach to leadership in the 21st Century across a variety of public, private, and non-profit sectors. The stories in this book illustrate servant leadership in action and many of the signature elements of servant leadership can be traced across these pages. These stories are deeply rooted in the reciprocal experiences of leaders and followers and they convey real challenges, emotions, accomplishments, and victories that inspire optimism and hope for a brighter future for our schools and communities and the servants who lead them.

Essentials for New Principals: Seven Steps to Becoming Successful – Key Expectations and Skills presents seven new principal steps revealing how first-year principals can develop into a successful school leaders. Moreover, essential leadership skills and key expectations are advanced to aid new principals.Each of the seven steps are identified, clarified, exemplified, and amplified in what serves as a most informative, instructive, and compelling text.

The Gatekeepers is a comprehensive review of many parts of a school system that resist change. For all stakeholders to embrace improvement, they need to know what habits, practices and indifference act as barriers to growth and change. This book reveals insiders insights into what gates exist, how to navigate around them, and why it is important to risk new ways of doing school.

Doing the Right Thing Sometimes Difficult, But Always Correct contains fourteen scenarios and solutions. The scenarios are real-life situations the author had to deal with as a principal and superintendent. Doing the right thing is sometimes challenging, but always correct. Each unique scenario is followed by questions that the reader or small groups should consider in a college/university graduate leadership course. These challenging scenarios will require discussions that will differ among each group member or individual and be shared by each group or individual.The solution section describes what the author did with each scenario and identifies the applicable Professional Standards for Educational Leaders for that scenario. In the author's nine years of teaching at the University of Northern Iowa, coordinating the superintendent preparation program, and teaching in the principal's licensure program, he found that just teaching theory and concepts needed to be combined with real-world experiences to mean something to future leaders.

Leadership in organizations is going through unprecedented change. In the past compliance, conformity, and command and control were adequate for product-based world in education and business. As the world moves toward more knowledge work and a VUCA (volatile, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) society, building cultures of continual learning will be required.The WHY of the book is to create and sustain organization that will deal effectively with many changes. Our life is being driven by technology, unintended consequences, and the unknown. To deal with these changes and others, organizations will need cultures that promote learning.The HOW are the 7Cs: Communication, Collaboration, Coaching, Change, Conflict, Creativity, and Courage. Each of these are important elements of a more productive system.The WHAT include results that include Cultural Competence, Coaching Tools, and building a Commonwealth of practices to sustain growth and adaptability.If you want to save TIME, this book is for you. Enjoy the journey.

Improving America's Schools Together: How District-University Partnerships and Continuous Improvement Can Transform Education is the first definitive text on continuous improvement in school district-university partnerships, covering improvement methods, theory, research, and real cases across the United States with practical improvement tools that can be adapted to any setting. Through an array of in-depth stories, this book demonstrates how improvement science—as a shared method—can help universities, districts, and schools foster leaders and educators and enhance students'learning and opportunities.

Now more than ever, school principals are on society's front line. Every day, they deal with the needs of special learners, exceptional academic minds, and students affected by problems at home. At the same time, they must monitor the security of the campus and implement new safety initiatives as needs arise. To gracefully manage such diverse challenges, principals need resources that allow them to access decades of experience at point in their careers. Vintage Knowledge for Modern Principals offers tools and inspiration for authoritative solutions and unique resolutions. With a concise approach to creative solutions, the action items in this book lead to effective results. Common challenges are addressed with inexpensive and accessible ideas grouped into three key areas.'Wisdom for your School'considers the school's operations, infrastructure, and property.'Wisdom for your People'utilizes opportunities that arise while managing teachers, students, parents, and staff.'Wisdom for You'enhances leadership, self-awareness, and relationship-building skills. Vintage Knowledge for Modern Principals maximizes results for today's schools, teachers, students, and principals.

Managing Yourself and Others During Crises: Key Leadership Visions, Approaches, and Dispositions to Survive and Thrive is about managing yourself and others during crisis situations like the recent unprecedented global pandemic that promulgated chaos in the operations of most human societies and institutions including family structures, educational procedures and practices, work relationships and settings, religious observances, governmental functions, protocols, and processes. This book provides insights based on the knowledge and experiences of practicing leadership and policy experts about keeping organizations functioning, as best as possible, during crises situations. They articulate practical approaches based on sound leadership research for ensuring that the people, things, and ideas of seminal societal institutions like education not only survive the crisis but also continue to thrive. Key leadership visions, approaches, and personal dispositions to cope with such monumental and unexpected changes are presented by chapter authors who not only studied crises situations but also personally lived through them and appropriately managed themselves and others using various comprehensive strategies, techniques, and coping mechanisms based on leadership best practices in educational organizations.

An invigorating examination of the potential for meaningful change in education, from one of the nation's most astute observers of schooling and school improvement. In The Great School Rethink, education policy sentinel Frederick M. Hess offers a pithy and perceptive appraisal of American schooling and finds, in the uncertain period following pandemic disruption, an ideal moment to reimagine US education. Now is the time, he asserts, to ask hard questions about how schools use time and talent, how they work with parents, what they do with digital tools, and how they meet the needs of their communities. As Hess explains, to rethink is to acknowledge the realities of the education system while opening one's mind to possibility. With characteristic verve and wit, Hess guides readers through his rethink process, a versatile and easily implemented approach to identifying issues and brainstorming possible responses. He encourages readers to explore what improvements might alleviate current pressures and frustrations, such as teacher shortages and burnout, declining student performance, and compromised learning time. Whether their goal is to achieve better student engagement, increase parent involvement, or implement personalized learning, readers will develop the mindset to ask the right questions, to fully understand the problem that's being solved, and to evaluate the probable effectiveness of proposed solutions. Brimming with challenging questions, robust exercises, and eye-opening data, this book is a must-read for education professionals, parent advocates, and anyone passionate about the future of American education.

Your guide to excelling in the complex role of a special education administrator The job of the administrator of special education is arguably one of the most difficult in a school district—and that complexity can be overwhelming. It requires an aspect of every administrative job in the district, including budgets, human resources, student advocacy, and curriculum and assessment. Written by two veteran special education administrators with more than 100 years of combined experience, this book shows current and aspiring special education administrators how to excel in the many demanding areas of their position, allowing them to be effective administrators and educational leaders. Among the many topics included in the book are The importance of visibility in the form of face-to-face interactions to assist staff, students, and building principals The importance of parents in the process The significance of confidentiality, due process, program development, and working with advocates Insight into decision-making and relationship-building A critical tool in any special education administrator′s box, as well as building administrators, central office administrators and school committee members, this book provides practical and friendly advice for a difficult but critical job.

Today's emphasis on student learning outcomes, coupled with federal legislation to that end, has placed more demands on the role of the principal than ever before in our nation's history. To address the heightened demands for greater accountability for student learning, The Principalship uses a learning-centered approach, one that emphasizes the role of the principal as the steward of the school's vision: learning for all. The critical aspects of the teaching–learning process are addressed here, including student motivation; individual differences; classroom management; assessing student learning; and developing, maintaining, and changing school culture. In addition, several topics not found in other principalship texts are addressed, including school safety, special education, gifted education, bilingual education, nontraditional organizational structures, gender-inclusive theories, diversity, ethics, political and policy context, human resource management, legal issues, and collective bargaining. The book is documented extensively throughout and grounded in the latest research and theory with suggestions for applying theory to practice, reflecting cutting-edge research and topical issues facing principals in schools today.

The Power to Learn: The Benefits and the Promise of Personalized Instruction advances the notion that personalized instruction is the direction that schools must take if all students are expected to succeed with difficult learning challenges. Based on the premise that all students are capable, this book offers practical information so that schools can be designed or redesigned to meet individual students where they are academically and to challenge them toward deeper learning. Unlocking their capability is best accomplished by implementing a process labeled DPIE: diagnosis, prescription, implementation, and evaluation. Examples dating back to the early 20th century are described that show the idea is derived from historical antecedents and twenty-two research-based strategies and tactics are offered. Also included are five exemplary schools from preschool to high school.

Meeting students'basic needs – including ensuring they have access to nutritious meals and a sense of belonging and connection to school – can positively influence students'academic performance. Recognizing this connection, schools provide resources in the form of school meals programs, school nurses, and school guidance counselors. However, these resources are not always available to students and are not always prioritized in school reform policies, which tend to focus more narrowly on academic learning. This book is about the balancing act that schools and their teachers undertake to respond to the social, emotional, and material needs of their students in the context of standardized testing and accountability policies. Drawing on conversations with teachers and classroom observations in two elementary schools, How Schools Meet Students'Needs explores the factors that both enable and constrain teachers in their efforts to meet students'needs and the consequences of how schools organize this work on teachers'labor and students'learning.

Organizational crisis and chaos create drama that is complicated, layered and difficult to unravel without a roadmap. New leaders, especially those who find themselves in an organization in crisis need to hear how others have experienced that challenge and managed to emerge trusted, supported and having moved the entire organization to a new and better place without losing themselves in the process. This book provides a crisis identification checklist, ten strategies for managing chaos and reflection questions to support the leader's health and wellness. Utilizing the familiar story of the Wizard of Oz and specifically Dorothy's experience as a young, female, new leader, anchors the work and provides a familiar and comforting backdrop for managing this extraordinarily difficult and specific leadership challenge.

This engaging and timely book showcases practical ways that PreK–12 teachers and school leaders can create and implement sustainability-focused projects and practices in their classrooms and schools, helping promote a healthy, sustainable environment and curriculum for students and leading the way towards becoming a green school.Sharing real-world case studies and detailed walk-throughs of sustainable schools in action – from Madison, Alabama, to Bali, Indonesia – author Linda H. Plevyak lays out the benefits, principles and practices of creating a sustainable school from beginner classroom projects like creating a garden, recycling and composting to more complex and school-wide initiatives like energy audits, creating an environmental management system, engaging with policy and building and leveraging community partnerships. Plevyak highlights sustainable practices that can be developed with little to no budget and focuses on those that support the development of critical thinking skills, promote project-based learning and consider the environment as a learning tool, incorporating sustainability as a natural progression of the learning process.The book outlines extensive resources teachers and schools can use to embed sustainability in their programs and curriculum, offering teachers, school leaders and policy makers the tools they need to provide this generation of students with the knowledge and skills to create a more sustainable world.

Explore the wide range of duties inherent in being an assistant principal and gain strategies to achieve success and happiness in this position, whether for a single year or for a career. Written with compassion and accountability and informed by research, this is your complete guide for stepping into your critical role as an opportunity maker striving to foster student success. Ambitious K–12 assistant principals will: Delve into the role of an assistant principal and the wide variety of duties and responsibilities it encompasses Learn how to develop positive, equitable environments for student learning and educator achievement Develop an understanding of the importance of managerial strategies and compassionate leadership Benefit from the variety of reproducible professional development activities Encourage learning and growth through strong leadership Contents Introduction Chapter 1: Deciding You Want to Be an Assistant Principal Chapter 2: Making Time for Management Chapter 3: Fostering a Positive School Culture and Climate Chapter 4: Developing Relationships Chapter 5: Protecting and Promoting Priorities and People Chapter 6: Leveraging Firm and Fair Discipline Chapter 7: Capitalizing on Teachable Moments Chapter 8: Safeguarding an Equitable Education for All Chapter 9: Taking Time for Teaching and Learning Chapter 10: Supporting School Improvement and Accountability Conclusion: All Other Duties as Assigned Appendix: Quick Reference—Strategies References and Resources Index

Educational leadership is full of challenging experiences, humiliating disappointments, and mind-boggling changes that can send the best leader into a tailspin. In her book, Weathering the Storms of Administrative Leadership, Dr. Donya Ball helps administrators learn to face these challenges with grace and poise. Whether just beginning their journey or well along the path of leadership, administrators will learn to admit mistakes, develop communication skills, pivot during disaster and crisis situations, and build a branding strategy to present themselves effectively to the watching world. This book will be your guide as you embark into a difficult leadership world for which there is often no roadmap. The relatable anecdotes and practical guidance will help you weather the storms and adjust your sails to navigate the ever-changing tides of the educational world.

School principals must have continued support in their positions, as societal demands and accountability measures keep changing. Principals have become inundated with increased responsibilities often without the benefit support in the most critical areas. Too often, district personnel are not equipped to provide the learning needed in order to support school administrators. Support for Principals: Firsthand Experiences in Planning Programs and Activitiesis a compilation of support programs in critical areas to include the “how to” design and implementation of support programs. Support may include social/emotional factors, special education, school finance, technology integration, action research, and the role of higher education to name a few. Many districts have programs in place, but they do not attain the desired results because of the program design and readiness of staff. Each chapter will explain how to design an effective program and will also outline the district's responsibility in the support.

The secret behind limitless leadership impact Lack of mentorship and coaching is a leading reason for leader attrition in education, but it doesn't have to be this way. If it's true that “Everyone wins when the leader gets better,” then your community is counting on you to prioritize your own professional growth – so that YOU get better. In Mastermind: Unlocking Talent Within Every School Leader, Daniel Bauer – highly sought-after coach and mentor to thousands of school leaders – introduces readers to a strategic advantage relied on by business leaders since the 1930s. The mastermind is an exceptional PD model for leaders looking to level up – and if this advantage worked for people like Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and FDR, what could it do for you and your school? Framed around the ABCs of Powerful Professional DevelopmentTM, this book will provide school leaders with: Templates and tools for starting and running successful mastermind groups Protocols to encourage collaboration, dialogue, and problem solving so school leaders can work together to overcome challenges Stories of impact from education mastermind participants all over the world The question is – what would you be able to accomplish within your school if you showed up this year as the leader you were meant to be?

With a visionary approach to school improvement, Equity-Based Leadership proposes a framework to support system leaders seeking to organize change and achieve more equitable education.In this ambitious yet pragmatic work, Joshua P. Starr makes the case that intentional and attentive district leadership can bring about continuous improvement in schools. When district reforms are conceived with social justice in mind, Starr explains, schools move toward fulfilling the longstanding promise of equitable education in America.Starr asserts that the essential goal of good system leadership lies in designing, implementing, and sustaining comprehensive strategies for school reform, in collaboration with school leaders, educators, and community shareholders. Drawing on his own experiences and those of other distinguished superintendents, he offers core practices that system leaders can use to ensure that the mission of their district is upheld throughout any change process and that precious time and funding are used judiciously.Recognizing that there is no single path to transformation, Starr sets forth a flexible, customizable agenda for district reform that concentrates on six elements, or entry points. Starr's first entry point is curriculum content, as teaching and learning are the fundamental goals of a school system. But he goes further to advocate for a deep dive into the organization and alignment of the system itself, via deliberate support of shared values; explicit and transparent decision-making; resource allocation in line with vision and need; talent management to achieve new levels of educator performance; and nourishment of school culture.Additionally, Starr brings together a wide range of real-world examples, evidence-based practices, and sensible advice to guide district leaders in aligning their systems around a coherent equity strategy.This bold new approach to transforming educational systems confidently guides the higher-level decision-making of leaders—not only superintendents but also school board members, cabinet members, and central office administrators—within the context of district-wide efforts to make education better for all students.

The Self-Organizing School provides ground-breaking insights and guidance about how schools can fulfill their aspirations for quality and productivity in learning and teaching. The book describes a comprehensive decade long school design process and effort that improves teaching quality and student outcomes. The practical guidance and examples employed throughout the book are supported by one of the most extensive longitudinal studies of a school reform process, including data from over 1600 classroom observations, 12,000 student evaluations and research studies of school change, technology use, student achievement, collaboration, and teacher effectiveness.

What does it take to be a good school principal? No two principals work exactly the same way, but research shows that effective principals focus on a core set of factors critical to fostering success among all students.In this second edition of Qualities of Effective Principals, James H. Stronge and Xianxuan Xu delineate these factors and show principals how to successfully balance the needs and priorities of their schools while continuously developing and refining their leadership skills. Throughout the book, the authors provide practical tools and extensive research that will help principals• Assess, exhibit, and harness instructional leadership to meet a school's goals.• Foster and sustain an effective school climate for learning.• Select, support, and retain high-quality teachers and staff.• Manage school resources effectively and efficiently.• Create, maintain, and strengthen internal and external community relationships.• Define their role in student achievement.This book also includes practical skills checklists, along with quality indicators and red flags for effective leadership. Qualities of Effective Principals, 2nd Edition, is an excellent resource for both experienced and new principals committed to developing and leading strong schools that help all students succeed.

Young people who have received special education services in the United States are vastly overrepresented in juvenile and adult criminal justice systems relative to their numbers in the general population. Although much existing research blames individual kids for getting arrested, school-level policies and practices affect a variety of student outcomes, including involvement with the justice system. These school-level policies and practices can—and should—be altered by teachers, administrators, and policy makers to reduce the number of young people getting arrested. Disabling the School-to-Prison Pipeline uses administrative data from New York City public schools and interviews with young people who have received special education services in NYC public schools and been arrested to better understand how schools can help or harm students receiving special education services. Schools cannot fix all problems associated with the criminal justice system in the United States; however, we can certainly expect schools not to make existing problems worse. This book identifies school-level policies and practices that may lead to negative outcomes for students, such as getting arrested, and suggests alternatives.

In The Final Piece: A Systems Approach to School Leadership, the author addresses the need for systems planning in school administration in an effort to assist principals and district leadership in the face of changing demands. The Final Piece is the follow up to Putting the Pieces Together: A Systems Approach to School Leadersip. The second book describes the last two of the four major systems needed for effective school leadership: Student Support and Culture. This bookwill not only outline these systems and all of their component parts but will provide a “how to” approach to develop each system. In addition, a system for progress monitoring will be described and explained. Materials, such as forms, will be provided throughout as well as questions at the end of each chapter for reflection and planning. Creating these systems not only makes a principal's job more manageable, thus preventing burnout, but also helps to put the focus where it belongs. Aspiring leaders, sitting principals and district officials will benefit from this system design in order to maximize effectiveness, teacher satisfaction, and student achievement.

From surviving to thriving during constant disruption The updated edition of this handbook couldn't have come at a better time. Focusing on lessons learned from the disruptions of 2020, including the COVID school closures and the renewed pursuit of social justice, the authors show school leaders how to prepare for and respond to disruptions that are leading to a'new normal.'Educators are racing to stay ahead of pandemic-scale disruptions and need a blueprint for transformation. This book will walk you through the decision-making process so you'll be able to transform as a leader to confront the issues you'll face in the 2020s. Features include: • Practical strategies for identifying and responding to disruptions • An overview of the CAT framework: coping, adjusting, transforming • Real-life stories from exceptional educational leaders • Tips on guiding teachers, staff, and students through the many lessons learned during the pandemic • Activities, scenarios, and practical actions to lead through complex topics that include remote learning, social justice issues, education reforms, generational differences, and social media issues The pandemic has been the biggest disruption in school history, and this will be a decade of monumental change for schools. Your stakeholders will look to you to guide them—and this book gives you the tools you need to have the mindset and practical steps to be successful in an ever-changing world.

You are a school administrator—a principal or maybe a district leader. You're doing everything'right'—poring over data, trying new strategies, launching annual initiatives, bringing in outside trainers. So why do the outcomes you seek still seem so far away? The problem isn't you; it's that you were trained in school leadership, and school leadership just isn't up to the challenge.Each year, Robyn R. Jackson helps thousands of administrators stop wasting time and energy on flawed leadership approaches that succeed only with the right staff, students, parents, budget, and boss. As they have discovered, it's possible to transform your school with the people and resources you already have. The secret? Stop leading and start building!In this book, you'll learn to use Jackson's breakthrough Buildership Model™ to escape the'school improvement hamster wheel'and finally create the school your students and teachers deserve. The work involves a handful of simple shifts in how you approach...•Purpose: Instead of chasing tiny gains or the'next new thing'every year, you'll establish and use an ambitious vision, mission, and set of core values to galvanize your staff, keep everyone focused, and create true accountability for achieving your goals.•People: You'll discover new ways to help every teacher grow one level in one domain in one year or less and, ultimately, develop high levels of both will and skill.•Pathway: Instead of trying to tackle every problem at once, you'll identify the biggest obstacle standing in your way right now and figure out exactly how to remove it once and for all.•Plan: You'll learn a new process for solution implementation that is iterative, cyclical, and capable of powering both short-term wins and ongoing transformation, year over year.When you stop leading and start building, you let go of the idea that you need to work harder to make your school'work better.'You no longer settle for incremental improvement when what you really want is dramatic change and better learning outcomes for all. It's time to make the shift from leadership to buildership. Get ready to turn your school into a success story.

Practical resources for building cohesive governance teams As a supplement to the best-selling The Governance Core, this practical guide will help trustees and superintendents adopt a governance mindset and partnership that creates coherence throughout the district. With a systems thinking approach, the authors provide readers with the strategies and tools needed to build cohesive teams and engage in deeper learning and decision making. The Taking Action Guide for the Governance Core offers readers: • a deeper understanding of core governance and how to build it • a planning guide to help new trustees get started • protocols and sample agendas for focusing on strategy and systems during open board meetings Educational leaders will find this guide offers them a foundation for building strong, flourishing school districts that are equipped to adapt to and meet the daunting challenges of our time.

Early Childhood Leadership: Motivation, Inspiration, Empowerment is a must-have book for anyone who occupies a leadership position (e.g., administrator, director, coordinator, team leader, manager, lead teacher) or anticipates doing so in the future. It addresses one of the most challenging workplace issues facing employers today—the ability to encourage employees'creativity, productivity, and long-term commitment to an organization. Studies consistently show that low employee morale and high turnover rates are common in early childhood programs and, in turn, affect the quality of services provided for children and families. Unfortunately, strategies used by many supervisors to guide and manage employee behavior often contribute to employee dissatisfaction and attrition. A sound understanding of motivational theory and skills (e.g., communication, leadership, team-building, decision-making) enables effective leaders to create positive work environments, boost employee morale, and encourage positive performance. When employees believe their efforts are being acknowledged and valued, they are less likely to leave their jobs—an additional and important benefit—especially in the field of early childhood education.

“Readers gain insight into the research behind these issues and why they are particularly relevant to the 21st century classroom. More importantly, one sees how these various topics should be operationalized in schools and classrooms—always with a good literacy leader guiding the way.”—From the Foreword by Jack Cassidy, past president, International Literacy AssociationThe Sixth Edition focuses on providing instruction at all grade levels and for different types of learners within the context of current state and federal mandates. It explores specific program elements related to materials selection, teacher evaluation, professional development, student assessment, writing, technology, school- and districtwide evaluation, and parent and community outreach.Contributors include Peter Afflerbach, Rita M. Bean, William G. Brozo, M. Susan Burns, Patricia A. Edwards, Douglas Fisher, Elena Forzani, Nancy Frey, Jennifer L. Goeke, James V. Hoffman, Jacy Ippolito, Julie K. Kidd, Diane Lapp, Donald J. Leu, Maryann Mraz, Diana J. Quatroche, Timothy Rasinski, D. Ray Reutzel, Kristen D. Ritchey, Misty Sailors, MaryEllen Vogt, Shelley B. Wepner.

As 21st century educators grapple with new and unprecedented challenges, schools and districts require a model of change leadership that responds to shifting environmental realities. Deep Change Leadership aims to give leaders pragmatic ways to spark change in education. Author Douglas Reeves offers up a model that departs from traditionally held beliefs and instead embraces engagement, inquiry, and focused action. Use this resource to set in motion effective change initiatives: Explore the principal impediments to effective change leadership, including fragmentation and the myth of universal buy-in. Learn the means by which you can gauge your and your school's or district's readiness for change. Study the characteristics of deep change leadership, which involves deciding what does not change, supplementing passion with purpose, and narrowing your focus. Discover how to make sound course corrections and avoid mistakes in change leadership. Understand real results in terms of both outcomes and causes. Contents: Acknowledgments Table of Contents About the Author Introduction Part 1: The Change Imperative Chapter 1: Realizing the Need for a New Model of Change Chapter 2: Understanding the Pain Inherent in Change Chapter 3: Exposing the Myth of Buy-In Chapter 4: Exploring Change Expectance and Readiness Part 2: The New Model of Change Leadership Deciding What Does Not Change Combining Passion and Purpose Reining In Your Focus Part 3: The Path Ahead Chapter 8: Making Course Corrections Chapter 9: Anticipating Mistakes in Change Leadership Chapter 10: Identifying Real Results Chapter 11: Building a Team of Change Leaders Epilogue: Iceberg Ahead References and Resources Index

In The Teacher Insurgency, Leo Casey addresses how the unexpected wave of recent teacher strikes has had a dramatic impact on American public education, teacher unions, and the larger labor movement. Casey explains how this uprising was not only born out of opposition to government policies that underfunded public schools and deprofessionalized teaching, but was also rooted in deep-seated changes in the economic climate, social movements, and, most importantly, educational politics. With an eye to maintaining the momentum of the insurgency, the author examines four key strategic questions that have arisen from the strikes: the relationship of mobilization to organizing; the relationship between protests and direct action; the conditions under which teacher strikes are most likely to be successful; and the importance of “bargaining for the common good.” More broadly, Casey examines how to organize teachers for collective action, focusing on four discourses of teaching: teaching as nurturance; as professionalism; as labor and craft; and as a vocation of democratic intellectual work.

Teachers are constantly faced with a plethora of challenges, but none has been more prevalent in the 21st century than educating a diverse collection of students. In the midst of the current challenges in teaching P-12 students, pre-service teachers may be under district contract but may not be prepared for teaching students with disabilities, the homeless, second language learners recently immigrated to the United States, or students who face emotional challenges or addiction. Overcoming Current Challenges in the P-12 Teaching Profession is an essential reference book that provides insight, strategies, and solutions to overcome current challenges experienced by P-12 teachers in general and special education. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as global education, professional development, and responsive teaching, this book is ideally designed for educators, administrators, school psychologists, counselors, academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on culturally responsive teaching.

What can today's educational leaders do to create schools that are purposeful, moral, and successful? In this book, Glickman and Mette provide a powerful set of guidelines that will lead to true school renewal. Using a practical framework for school, district, and community leaders, their roadmap replaces dependence on top-down state and federal regulations, focusing instead on the creation of locally guided initiatives to address local goals. Filled with real-world examples, charts, and illustrations, the text gives teachers, principals, students, parents, central office personnel, school boards, and community members exactly what is needed to remake their schools. Building on Glickman's highly acclaimed classic, Renewing America's Schools (1993), this resource is must-reading for anyone involved with school change in today's divisive and complex times. “My life would have been a whole lot easier if this book had been written when I was in the principal's office.”—George Wood, former principal and superintendent, Stuart Ohio“This timely and critical book demonstrates how teaching and learning, and a democratic school community, are the key assets to solving our problems. It is not just the future of our schools that is at stake, but democracy itself.”—William Mathis, National Education Policy Center

This book focuses on today's education relative to its effectiveness for preparing students for the future. The matter of purposes for education today remains controversial in that future success looms important by a considerable portion of the citizenry while preparing for success in the future is of great importance for other individuals and groups. The book considers both sides of the purpose question. Predicting the needs for the future is a difficult matter at best.

Six Shifts to Improve Special Education and Other Interventions offers a set of bold, new ideas for dramatically raising the achievement of students with mild to moderate disabilities and students experiencing serious academic, social and emotional, and behavioral difficulties.Despite much effort and caring on the part of educators, a new approach to supporting struggling students is critically needed so they can master grade-level skills and complete college, argues author Nathan Levenson. Combining research with evidence from his own implementation work in more than a hundred districts, Levenson makes the case for a wholesale rethinking of how interventions are delivered summarized by six essential “shifts.” Designed to be practical and draw on the talents of existing staff, Levenson's shifts are paired with concrete advice and lessons learned from the field to improve special education and general education interventions such as Response to Intervention and Multi-Tiered Student Supports.Six Shifts to Improve Special Education and Other Interventions serves as both a call to action and a critical guide for administrators looking for more effective, affordable ways to close the achievement gap.

In Challenging the One Best System, a team of leading education scholars offers a rich comparative analysis of the set of urban education governance reforms collectively known as the “portfolio management model.” They investigate the degree to which this model—a system of schools operating under different types of governance and with different degrees of autonomy—challenges the standard structure of district governance famously characterized by David Tyack as “the one best system.”The authors examine the design and enactment of the portfolio management model in three major cities: New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Denver. They identify the five interlocking mechanisms at the core of the model—planning and oversight, choice, autonomy, human capital, and school supports—and show how these are implemented differently in each city. Using rich qualitative data from extensive interviews, the authors trace the internal tensions and tradeoffs that characterize these systems and highlight the influence of historical and contextual factors as well. Most importantly, they question whether the portfolio management model represents a fundamental restructuring of education governance or more incremental change, and whether it points in the direction of meaningful improvement in school practices.Drawing on a rigorous, multimethod study, Challenging the One Best System represents a significant contribution to our understanding of system-level change in education.