Download or read book Handbook of School Improvement written by Jo Blase and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2010-03-30 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how successful principals make a difference in their school’s performance! Based on a ground-breaking study and numerous firsthand accounts, this illuminating book captures unique perspectives from 20 outstanding principals, representing a wide range of urban and rural schools. This resource includes: The nine personal characteristics that help principals lead high-performing schools Practical strategies for balancing both administrative responsibilities and instructional leadership Guidance on using a systems-development approach to support excellence at every level Discussion of the use of research and data for school improvement Tips and suggestions from effective principals, along with recommended resources for further learning

Download or read book Guiding School Improvement with Action Research written by Richard Sagor and published by ASCD. This book was released on 2000-05-15 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Action research, explored in this book, is a seven-step process for improving teaching and learning in classrooms at all levels. Through practical examples, research tools, and easy-to-follow "implementation strategies," Richard Sagor guides readers through the process from start to finish. Learn how to uncover and use the data that already exist in your classrooms and schools to answer significant questions about your individual or collective concerns and interests. Sagor covers each step in the action research process in detail: selecting a focus, clarifying theories, identifying research questions, collecting data, analyzing data, reporting results, and taking informed action. Drawing from the experience of individual teachers, faculties, and school districts, Sagor describes how action research can enhance teachers' professional standing and efficacy while helping them succeed in settings characterized by increasingly diverse student populations and an emphasis on standards-based reform. The book also demonstrates how administrators and policymakers can use action research to bolster efforts related to accreditation, teacher supervision, and job-embedded staff development. Part how-to guide, part inspirational treatise, Guiding School Improvement with Action Research provides advice, information, and encouragement to anyone interested in reinventing schools as learning communities and restructuring teaching as the true profession it was meant to be.

Download or read book Navigating School Improvement written by John Kemp and published by . This book was released on 2024-04-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Leading School Change written by Daniel R. Tomal and published by R&L Education. This book was released on 2013-07-01 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This CHOICE award winning author has teamed up with two national school change experts to write a comprehensive book on school change management. Everything you need to know on initiating and managing school change are covered: planning change, conditions for successful change, models for improvement, tools and strategies, understanding and using research data, implementing school initiatives, managing resources, getting student results and more. A comprehensive book covering all aspects of school district change management, evaluation, and improvement. Each chapter objectives are aligned with the new ELCC and ISLCC standards for university accreditation. Many federal and various state data sources are included. Provides a bend of theory and practical perspectives on how to implement and execute school change. Each chapter contains a comprehensive case study and exercises for practical application. Several supplemental resources are included in the appendices

Download or read book Improving Quality in Education written by Bert P.M. Creemers and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-03 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores an approach to school improvement that merges the traditions of educational effectiveness research and school improvement efforts. It displays how the dynamic model, which is theoretical and empirically validated, can be used in both traditions. Each chapter integrates evidence from international and national studies, showing how the knowledge-base of educational effectiveness research can be used for improvement purposes. In a clear and practicable manner it outlines: Foundations of the improvement approach Research projects investigating the impact of the dynamic approach Guidelines and practical solutions to translating the approach into action Further developments for school improvement Exploring the crucial factors in the establishment of this environment, the authors outline a dynamic framework that helps schools collect data, through self-evaluation mechanisms, taking decisions about priorities for improvement, and developing appropriate policies and action plans. This approach emphasises educational targets and provides means to achieve them that are flexible enough to fit in with the circumstances of the individual school. The book draws upon research across the world, conducted especially in the United States, Europe, and Australasia, expertly showcasing how the dynamic approach can be used in a wide variety of educational settings A key book for all professionals working in education; academics, researchers, policy-makers, school advisors and practitioners will find it invaluable. Not only it is a must for graduate students, university libraries, and individual academics but also for school management teams, school support agencies and officials in educational policy.

Download or read book Adaptive Implementation written by Ryoko Yamaguchi and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-07-21 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After decades spent pondering basic questions about adopting or implementing ‘best practices’ in education, educators have assembled a canon of evidence-based strategies and programs that should consistently produce good outcomes. So why is the work of educating students still such challenging work for so many? The best, most skilled educators adapt programs every day to meet the changing needs of their students. One size does not fit all, and one textbook, teaching strategy, or program will never meet the needs of all teachers and learners. Adaptive Implementation: Navigating the School Improvement Landscape focuses on how practitioners and researchers together continue to improve their craft by systematically collecting data on adaptations, testing them out, and figuring out what works. We provide a framework for building an adaptive implementation process in education, with tools and templates for practitioners to use. In the end, we hope that this book sparks a dialogue among educators as they continue to create adaptive implementation processes that work for their context.

Download or read book School Improvement written by Alma Harris and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-02-01 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book aims to demystify the principles and practice of school improvement by demonstrating how successful classroom and school improvement occurs. It outlines the conditions, strategies and approaches that promote sustainable improvement and provides an overview of the main theoretical perspectives in this area. This accessible text will be useful for practitioners working within schools and with schools, offering clear guidance for those keen to raise standards and improve achievement. The What's In It For Schools? series aims to make educational policy issues relevant to practitioners. Each book in the series focuses on a major educational issue. The author sets the issue in context, looks at how it impacts on the daily lives of schools and teachers, and raises key questions. The books are grounded in sound theory, recent research evidence and best practice, and will make an excellent addition to any staffroom bookshelf.

Download or read book School Improvement for Real written by David Hopkins and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As societies continue to set educational goals that are, on current performance, beyond the capacity of the system to deliver, strategies for enhancing student learning through school and classroom intervention have become increasingly important. Yet, as David Hopkins argues in his book, many of the educational initiatives recently developed under the umbrella of school improvement are inadequate or unhelpful. Simply blaming teachers and delegating financial responsibility, he maintains, has little positive impact on classroom practice. This is the bleak context within which school improvement has to operate today. School Improvement for Real offers a genuine alternative: a strategy for educational change that focuses on student achievement by modifying classroom practice and adapting the management arrangements within the school to support teaching and learning. It outlines an approach to school improvement that has a medium term, systemic orientation, providing both principles and suggestions for better practice. The author's experience in the field of school improvement ensures that the text is informed by a practical wisdom that is so often lacking from the more typical managerial texts on improvement and effectiveness.

Download or read book The Principal and School Improvement written by Amanda Heffernan and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-30 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates the localised effects of reform by exploring the impact of a school improvement policy agenda on the work of three experienced principals. It presents three longitudinal case studies within a shared specific leadership context in Queensland, Australia. The case studies enable an exploration of the way the principalship in this context has evolved over time, providing deep insights into the practices and beliefs of three experienced school leaders working in a period of rapid and urgent systemic reform. The nature of global reform policy borrowing means that the research and the findings within this monograph are relevant for international audiences. The book describes a new way to understand and theorise the effects of reform policies and associated pressures on school leaders. Using post-structural theory, it provides a better understanding of the specific effects of reform policy ensembles, particularly when combined with an analysis of the ways policy and discourse work together at a wider level to create an environment that disciplines the principalship. Further, it sheds lights on the means of complying with or contesting policy influences and how the work of leaders has changed over time.

Download or read book The Learning Leader written by Douglas B. Reeves and published by ASCD. This book was released on 2020-08-31 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "We can't do that in our school district." "I don't have time to add that to my curriculum." "We're fighting against impossible odds with these students." Sound familiar? School improvement can often feel like a losing battle, but it doesn't have to be. In this fully revised and updated second edition of The Learning Leader, Douglas B. Reeves helps leadership teams go beyond excuses to capitalize on their strengths, reduce their weaknesses, and reset their mindset and priorities to achieve unprecedented success. A critical key is recognizing student achievement as more than just a set of test scores. Reeves asserts that when leaders focus exclusively on results, they fail to measure and understand the importance of their own actions. He offers an alternative—the Leadership for Learning Framework, which helps leaders identify and distinguish among four different types of educators and provide more effective, tailored support to - "Lucky" educators, who achieve high results but don't understand how their actions influence achievement. - "Losing" educators, who achieve low results yet keep doing the same thing, expecting different outcomes. - "Learning" educators, who have not yet achieved the desired results but are working their way toward excellence. - "Leading" educators, who achieve high results and understand how their actions influence their success. Reeves stresses that effective leadership is neither a unitary skill nor a solitary activity. The Learning Leader helps leaders reconceptualize their roles in the school improvement process and motivate themselves and their colleagues to keep working to better serve their students.

Download or read book Navigating Comprehensive School Change written by Robert Everhart and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, an accessible resource for busy practitioners, is a unique hybrid of two genres. As a "tourist guide," it shows you how to prepare for the journey, what to pay attention to upon arrival, and how to deal with the unexpected. As a "consumer report", it helps you identify some of the best tools and sources about change, access useful information about the change process, and find information about the strengths and challenges of various strategies. Thorough and comprehensive, it offers essential information about how to form leadership teams, identify high stakes problems, build commitment, create a school-wide vision and establish school-wide goals, handle setbacks, maintain the vision and sustain change, and evaluate and assess comprehensive school change. Also included is a section called "Ports of Call," which provides sources of information to help you implement comprehensive school reform at your site.

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 Instructional Leadership for School Improvement written by Sally J. Zepeda and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-20 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the principal’s role in meeting high expectations for student achievement. It provides detailed tips and strategies to show you what principals need to do to: assess and promote a culture and climate for school improvement, build teams and support the work their work, create the conditions so that teacher leaders can emerge, and monitor school improvement efforts

Download or read book School Improvement for Real written by David Hopkins and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work brings together various improvement strategies, including action research, systematic problem solving, teacher effectiveness, educational change staff development, to provide a comprehensive account of school improvement.

Download or read book The School Improvement Planning Handbook written by Daniel Linden Duke and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Developing and updating school improvement plans is an annual ritual for virtually all school principals and their school improvement committees. Still, large numbers of schools continue to produce disappointing outcomes. The authors believe that part of the problem is the result of plans that focus on the wrong targets and that rely on ineffective strategies for improvement. To help principals and their school improvement committees develop and implement plans with a greater likelihood of success, the authors offer a step-by-step process for school improvement planning. They go on to pinpoint specific school improvement goals, including raising reading and mathematics achievement, building robust school cultures, addressing the needs of English language learners, improving instruction, and reducing absenteeism and dropouts. For each goal, a variety of objectives and proven strategies is presented along with sample school improvement plans. The book addresses the differences in planning to turn around a low-performing school, planning to sustain improvements over time, and planning to move a good school to a great school.

Download or read book Innovation up Close written by A. Michael Huberman and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: School improvement, like motherhood, has many advocates. Everyone is for it, without having to campaign actively on its behalf. And just as the 100% of people who have had mothers think they know how mothering could be done better, so the (nearly) 100% of people who have been pupils in schools, or have even taught in or managed them, think they know how schools can be im proved. More precisely, they are sure that schools ought to be improved. The trouble is that they propose a staggering, conflicting range of methods of improving the schools, from ;'back to the woodshed" to teacher merit pay, a stiffer curriculum, a stronger tax base, reorganization, a more humane climate, "teacher-proof" innovations, community involvement-the list is nearly end less. Furthermore, the issues are not merely technical, but normative and po litical. The term improvement is itself problematic. One person's version of improvement is another's version of wastefulness or even of worsening the schools. Furthermore, the versions that win out in any particular school are not Improvement sometimes turns out to be merely a necessarily technically "best. " code word for the directives that administrators have successfully put into place, or for the agreements that teachers have lobbied into being. How much do we really know about school improvement? The available research literature is quite substantial, but not as helpful as it might be.

Download or read book Align the Design written by Nancy J. Mooney and published by ASCD. This book was released on 2008-02-14 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is our THIRD school improvement plan! Why aren't we seeing any results?" "We have all of this data, but we don't know what to do with it!" "What does this workshop have to do with the goals we set for our school? Many of today's school leaders have all the latest tools, techniques, and programs for school improvement. Unfortunately, some leaders fail to create real, sustainable results for their schools because they use one or two "flavor-of-the-month" strategies without connecting all the pieces together for real improvement. In Align the Design: A Blueprint for School Improvement, Nancy J. Mooney and Ann T. Mausbach emphasize the importance of coordinating essential school improvement processes to increase staff capacity, improve student achievement, and develop effective schools. The authors show school leaders how to use "power tools" to *Develop effective curriculum *Make the most of their school's data *Create successful school improvement plans *Implement valuable professional development sessions and workshops *Use efficient supervisory techniques *Foster leadership for school improvement Each chapter includes personal reflections from the authors and lists of touchstone texts that have inspired their efforts. At a time when school leaders are trying to translate urgent calls for higher achievement into actions that work, Align the Design provides expert guidance and practical tools that will help educators work more purposefully together to create better schools for their students.