Download or read book Achieving Coherence in District Improvement written by Susan Moore Johnson and published by Harvard Education Press. This book was released on 2014-06-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Achieving Coherence in District Improvement focuses on a problem of practice faced by educational leaders across the nation: how to effectively manage the relationship between the central office and schools. The book is based on a study of five large urban districts that have demonstrated improvement in student achievement. The authors—all members of Harvard University’s Public Education Leadership Project (PELP)—argue that there is no “one best way” to structure the central office-school relationship. Instead, they say, what matters is whether district leaders effectively select and implement their strategy by achieving coherence among key elements and actors—the district’s environment, resources, systems, structures, stakeholders, and culture. The authors examine the five districts’ approaches in detail and point to a number of important findings. First, they emphasize that a clear, shared understanding of decision rights in key areas—academic programming, budgeting, and staffing—is essential to developing an effective central office-school relationship. Second, they stress the importance of building mutually supportive and trusting relationships between district leaders and principals. Third, they highlight the ways that culture and the external environment influence the relationship between the central office and schools. Each chapter also provides relevant “Lessons for Practice”—actionable takeaways—that educational leaders from any district can use successfully to improve the central office-school relationship.
Download or read book Achieving Coherence in District Improvement written by Susan Moore Johnson and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focuses on a problem of practice faced by educational leaders: how to effectively manage the relationship between the central office and schools. The authors argue that there is no "one best way" to structure the central office-school relationship. Instead, they say, what matters is whether district leaders eff ectively select and implement their strategy.
Download or read book Schools on the Move written by Jay Westover and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2022-02-10 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The greatest influence on school district improvement is the extent to which school leaders and teachers collectively transform climate, develop culture and build capacity for the purpose of creating coherence. Districts on the Move (DOTM) paved the way for system change by establishing coherent cultures of learning. Now that DOTM has been written and district leaders can establish the context for positive system change, this new book, Schools on the Move (SOTM), will delve into bringing that vision to life and realizing school improvement at the building level. At the heart of this matter is a foundational principle that schools are the unit of change for systemic improvement. It is imperative to reduce the variances in climate, culture, capacity and coherence that exist among and within school sites if school districts are to create a coherent system of continuous improvement. This book will provide practical tools and guidance to help schools create coherent systems (and thereby improve the whole district) in these four domains: 1. Shared Leadership: partnering with teachers and staff to develop a culture of co-learning 2. Clarity of Focus: creating a strategic focus on equitable student growth 3. Collective Expertise: developing instructional coherence through cycles of collaborative inquiry 4. Continuous Improvement: maintaining a focus on evidence and impact Collaborative inquiry is the vehicle through which this change is realized. Collaborative inquiry "shapes a common mindset" (Donohoo) and allows educators to develop collective efficacy through mastery of shared learning experiences"--
Download or read book Systems for Instructional Improvement written by Paul Cobb and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is based on an eight-year, four-district study aimed at investigating what it takes to improve instruction at scale across schools and districts.--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Coherence written by Michael Fullan and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2015-07-16 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Complex times call for streamlined solutions—and leaders to pull them together. If initiative overload and fragmentation are keeping your best plans from becoming reality, it’s time to lead with coherence. Using the right drivers as your foundation, you’ll bring people and ideas together—and implement the kind of lasting change that maximizes results. The key to success is the Coherence Framework, a dynamic, customizable road map with four essential components: Focused direction to build collective purpose Cultivating collaborative cultures while clarifying individual and team roles Deepening learning to accelerate improvement and foster innovation Securing accountability from the inside out
Download or read book The Foundational Handbook on Improvement Research in Education written by Donald J. Peurach and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-03-30 with total page 619 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Foundational Handbook on Improvement Research in Education is a pathbreaking effort to build a field of research committed to producing the practical knowledge needed to advance educational access, quality, and equity. This is research distinguished by the use of inclusive, iterative approaches to analysis, design, implementation, and evaluation to understand and address educational opportunities, needs, and problems grounded deeply in school and community contexts. Designed for researchers, students, and educators, the handbook elaborates the intellectual foundations, explores the organizational and policy contexts, reviews approaches, and examines methods of improvement research. It features contributions from a plural community of researchers with expertise in the learning sciences, instructional improvement, organizational and policy studies, and research methodologies, many with extensive experience collaborating with teachers, leadership, families, and advocates in local problem solving and design.
Download or read book Developing the Organizational Culture of the Central Office written by Sally J. Zepeda and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Central office resources are one of the largest assets in making meaningful change in schools, and this important book guides aspiring district leaders to take up the challenge to transform their schools, while at the same time balancing their core responsibilities. This book helps readers rethink the impact of central office on system and school initiatives, understand and apply transformational thinking, and change strategies at the central office to develop new instructional designs, create new opportunities to prioritize human and fiscal resources, and establish new leadership approaches founded on systems review and change. Full of exemplars from the field, questions for discussion, and suggested readings, this valuable textbook is for use in educational leadership preparation programs.
Download or read book The Internal Coherence Framework written by Michelle L. Forman and published by Harvard Education Press. This book was released on 2021-02-17 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Internal Coherence Framework presents a system of research-based practices for assessing and developing the conditions that support adult and student learning in schools. Internal coherence is defined as the ability of educators in a school or system to connect and align resources to carry out an improvement strategy, engage in collective learning, and use that learning to provide students with richer educational opportunities. The internal coherence framework featured in the book brings together three important domains of research: leadership for learning, organizational improvement, and instructional efficacy. School or system leaders who progress through this book with colleagues will develop a shared vision for ambitious teaching and learning anchored in the instructional core; organize the work of the leadership and teacher teams to advance this vision; and build psychologically safe team, school, and system cultures to support the risk taking and constructive challenges necessary to move schools or systems to the next level of performance. At the heart of the book is a survey and rubric that can help schools better understand their strengths and weaknesses and the kinds of resources they need to support student learning. The book blends theory and practice to bring tested wisdom to bear on critical issues of education leadership and professional learning.
Download or read book Disrupting Disruption written by David Kirp and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-27 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disrupting Disruption shows how three racially and ethnically diverse school districts--Union NJ, Union City OK, and Roanoke City VA--have defied the demographic odds, boosting overall graduation rates while shrinking or eliminating the opportunity gap. These districts resemble many others in their student population. What makes them distinctive is their relentless focus on developing and supporting teachers and engaging students; constantly seeking ways to do a better job; using data to enhance learning; developing partnerships with parents and local organizations; and relying on stable, supportive leadership. Disrupting Disruption demonstrates that disruptionwhether by inflicting a discipline-and-punish regime on our nation's schools, or replacing them with charters or vouchersis not the best way forward.
Download or read book Equity Warriors written by George S. Perry, Jr. and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2022-01-21 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advance equity by learning to crack the system’s codes We must act now, using what we already know, to advance equity and raise the achievement of every student. With three decades of leading equity work across the country, George S. Perry Jr. issues a call to action for educational leaders who are willing to fight the fight for equity for all students. School and district leaders will encounter roadblocks as they enact systemic change, but Equity Warriors introduces practical, realistic, and strategic approaches for navigating those barriers. Equity Warriors equips education leaders with the moves they can make today to achieve the vision that every student becomes a high achiever by Providing real school and district examples of systemic equity efforts Demonstrating the parallel work that school and district teams must do to achieve and sustain systemic change Cracking the codes in the domains of politics, diplomacy, and warfare to achieve the equity agenda. Equity Warriors is a must read for leaders at all levels of the system who have chosen to be in this fight and are ready to do what it takes to make the system work for all students.
Download or read book Where Teachers Thrive written by Susan Moore Johnson and published by Harvard Education Press. This book was released on 2020-07-29 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2020 PROSE Award Winner, Education Theory Category 2019 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice In Where Teachers Thrive, Susan Moore Johnson outlines a powerful argument about the importance of the school as an organization in nurturing high‐quality teaching. Based on case studies conducted in fourteen high-poverty, urban schools, the book examines why some schools failed to make progress, while others achieved remarkable results. It explores the challenges that administrators and teachers faced and describes what worked, what didn’t work, and why. Johnson draws on vivid portraits of schools to highlight an array of school‐based systems and practices that support teachers’ professional growth and effectiveness. These include a rich and interactive hiring process; team‐based curriculum planning and assessment; and informative feedback and ongoing professional learning. Critical to all of these is the role of the principal as an essential agent in a school’s success. Although these elements may vary from school to school, Johnson argues that together these systems provide a comprehensive, mutually reinforcing set of well-orchestrated strategies that can help schools deliver results that exceed the sum of teachers’ individual efforts. Since 2000, policy makers and education officials have diligently sought to improve schools by improving the quality of individual teachers. However, even if those teachers are skilled and committed, the schools where they work are all too often disjointed, dysfunctional organizations that serve no one well. Where Teachers Thrive explains clearly how educators within a school can join together to adopt systems of practice that ensure growth and success by all teachers and their students.
Download or read book Districts on the Move written by Jay Westover and published by Corwin. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The How-To Resource for Developing Cultures, Building Capacity, and Creating Coherent Systems School districts destined for long-term success require an approach that is systemic in nature, and transformative and comprehensive in its scope. Improving clarity, commitment, collaboration, and accountability beginning with the heart of the district will propel student learning forward. The guiding principles outlined in this book, supported by the Benchmarks for Capacity for School District Coherence, and real case studies examine: • Clarity of district goals and school priorities for student learning • Culture of shared leadership and systemic collaboration • Coherent instructional framework for developing collective expertise • Evidence-based cycles of inquiry for continuous improvement
Download or read book The Strategy Playbook for Educational Leaders written by Isobel Stevenson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-14 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This how-to resource provides leaders with a concrete framework for a strategic improvement plan, helping educators link the "principles" to "processes" of planning. Packed with key takeaways and additional resources, this book provides the concrete tools to design a strong strategy for improvement and enables educational leaders to think constructively about why we plan, what an effective strategic plan should contain, and how to create meaningful dialogue to support plan development, implementation, and monitoring for continuous improvement. The Strategy Playbook for Educational Leaders provides superintendents, central office staff, principals, and teacher leaders with the opportunity to reframe the process of their strategic planning and breathe new life into the activity.
Download or read book Leadership From the Middle written by Andy Hargreaves and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-08-17 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the face of a global pandemic, catastrophic weather events, war, racism, and attacks on democracy, how should educational leaders respond? How can leaders enable their schools and districts to be agile, safe, and effective places of learning that help young people develop the knowledge and character that will empower them to shape their futures? While some schools and districts have taken top-down or bottom-up approaches, renowned education scholar Andy Hargreaves explores a new type of leadership – "leadership from the middle" – which becomes a driver of transformational change. Drawing from research with educational leaders across the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, Hargreaves discusses a type of leadership that regards obstacles as opportunities, embraces leadership paradox, and is collaborative, inspiring, and inclusive. This ground-breaking book unpacks not only what this type of leadership looks like, but also how it is most effective in addressing complex problems and in educating young people to develop diverse global competencies to prepare them for their futures.
Download or read book Future Alternatives for Educational Leadership written by Deborah M. Netolicky and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-09-01 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers provocations for what’s now and what’s next in educational leadership, simultaneously bringing the field both back to its basics—of equity, democracy, humanity, and education for all—and forward to productive, innovative, and necessary possibilities. Written during the pandemic reality of 2020, this collection shares the global voices and expertise of prominent and emerging leaders, scholars, and practitioners in education from the UK, the United States, South America, Canada, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East. The authors engage with the complexities and uncertainties of leading in education. They examine research, reflections, and real stories from which school leaders, education system leaders, policymakers, and researchers in the field of educational leadership, can learn, and in which they will find honesty, authority, and inspiration to guide the future of the field. The new perspectives and hopeful alternatives presented in this outstanding book are essential to researchers, school leaders, and policymakers, and are key to advancing education into positive and democratic futures.
Download or read book Innovation in Odds Beating Schools written by Kristen C. Wilcox and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-01-06 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three policy innovations at the heart of this book – the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), new Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR), and data driven instruction (DDI) provide a timely opportunity to join school and district improvement and policy implementation research with improvement science. This book is not just a collection of findings about odds-beating schools (those with higher than predicted student performance trends and higher than average poverty and diversity) and their journeys to implement these innovations. It also provides timely perspectives regarding policy innovations and how they might disrupt practice in desirable or undesirable ways. This book offers readers insight into how educators at every boundary—classroom, school, and district interact to make meaning of innovations, both individually and collectively; and also how their meanings and values influence innovation implementation outcomes. The story includes details how policy innovations were tailored to school and district office priorities; the features of these schools’ structures, climates, and routines that were conducive to implementation; and how these innovations were able to penetrate the classroom boundaries.
Download or read book Schools on the Move written by Jay Westover and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2022-02-16 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Guiding educators to navigate a clear and coherent path of progress for sustainable improvement Schools are the unit of change for district-wide, systemic improvement. Creating a coherent system of equitable, continuous improvement at each school site requires constructing shared depth of understanding and precision of practices among educators. But how? Schools on the Move provides a roadmap for reducing the variances in climate, culture, capacity, and coherence that impede a school—and all its students—from realizing growth in learning. It applies the transformational wisdom of Districts on the Move at the building level to guide school staff in creating an environment that makes continuous improvement not only possible, but inevitable. Grounded in Visible Learning research and brought to life through case studies of impactful practices in action, it asserts a simplified and focused process for driving school improvement in four key areas Clarity of focus—creating a shared, strategic focus driven by equitable student growth. Shared leadership—cultivating a culture of co-leading and co-learning among school staff. Collective expertise—developing instructional coherence and precision of pedagogy. Continuous improvement—maintaining progress through evidence-based feedback loops. Full of practical tools and resources, including templates for analyzing student learning and rubrics for each of the four key drivers of school improvement, leaders will find the support they need in the transformational process of becoming a School on the Move.
