Building Top Performing Schools
Building Top Performing Schools

Author: Dr. Kennedy Oirere Onchiri

Publisher: Dorrance Publishing

Published: 2015-11-05

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 1480913065

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Building Top Performing Schools is a detailed and persuasive study asserting that top schools should not be judged solely by academic excellence but through a broader lens, also by their successes in rewarding teachers who have excelled, providing supportive infrastructure, encouraging games and sports, building learner-friendly schools, enhancing cultural development and environment preservation, and involving students in science and technology. With the commercialization of examination results and teachers being rewarded for narrowly defined academic excellence, many teachers are using dubious means to raise test scores and are disregarding areas like drama, music, games and sports, leadership and management, student welfare, and science and technology. This challenging work seeks to stimulate positive change within primary and secondary educational institutions by encouraging the development of leadership and sustainable motivation. In Building Top Performing Schools, Dr. Onchiri presents a persuasive and timely argument for definitive improvements throughout the educational system.

Turning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools
Turning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools

Author: William H. Parrett

Publisher: ASCD

Published: 2020-04-28

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1416629025

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Schools across the United States and Canada are disrupting the adverse effects of poverty and supporting students in ways that enable them to succeed in school and in life. In this second edition, Parrett and Budge show you how your school can achieve similar results. Expanding on their original framework's still-critical concepts of actions and school culture, they incorporate new insights for addressing equity, trauma, and social-emotional learning. These fresh perspectives combine with lessons learned from 12 additional high-poverty, high-performing schools to form the updated and enhanced Framework for Collective Action. Emphasizing students' social, emotional, and academic learning as the hub for all action in high-performing, high-poverty schools, the authors describe how educators can work within the expanded Framework to address the needs of all students, but particularly those who live in poverty. Equipped with the Framework and a plethora of tools to build collective efficacy (self-assessments, high-leverage questions, action advice, and more), school and district leaders—as well as teachers, teacher leaders, instructional coaches, and other staff—can close persistent opportunity gaps and reverse longstanding patterns of low achievement.

Leverage Leadership
Leverage Leadership

Author: Paul Bambrick-Santoyo

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2012-06-06

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 1118238923

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Paul Bambrick-Santoyo (Managing Director of Uncommon Schools) shows leaders how they can raise their schools to greatness by following a core set of principles. These seven principles, or "levers," allow for consistent, transformational, and replicable growth. With intentional focus on these areas, leaders will leverage much more learning from the same amount of time investment. Fundamentally, each of these seven levers answers the core questions of school leadership: What should an effective leader do, and how and when should they do it. Aimed at all levels of school leadership, the book is for any principal, superintendent, or educator who wants to be a transformational leader. The book includes 30 video clips of top-tier leaders in action. These videos bring great schools to you, and support a deeper understanding of both the components of success and how it looks as a whole. There are also many helpful rubrics, extensive professional development tools, calendars, and templates. Explores the core principles of effective leadership Author's charter school, North Star Academy in Newark, New Jersey, received the highest possible award given by the U.S. Department of Education; the National Blue Ribbon Print version includes an instructive DVD with 30 video clips to show how it looks in real life. E-book customers: please note that details on how to access the content from the DVD may be found in the e-book Table of Contents. Please see the section: "How to Access DVD Contents" Bambrick-Santoyo has trained more than 1,800 school leaders nationwide in his work at Uncommon Schools and is a recognized expert on transforming schools to achieve extraordinary results.

Building School 2.0
Building School 2.0

Author: Chris Lehmann

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2015-07-31

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1118222679

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Ninety-five propositions for creating more relevant, more caring schools There is a growing desire to reexamine education and learning. Educators use the phrase "school 2.0" to think about what schools will look like in the future. Moving beyond a basic examination of using technology for classroom instruction, Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need is a larger discussion of how education, learning, and our physical school spaces can—and should—change because of the changing nature of our lives brought on by these technologies. Well known for their work in creating Science Leadership Academy (SLA), a technology-rich, collaborative, learner-centric school in Philadelphia, founding principal Chris Lehmann and former SLA teacher Zac Chase are uniquely qualified to write about changing how we educate. The best strategies, they contend, enable networked learning that allows research, creativity, communication, and collaboration to help prepare students to be functional citizens within a modern society. Their model includes discussions of the following key concepts: Technology must be ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible Classrooms must be learner-centric and use backwards design principles Good technology can be better than new technology Teachers must serve as mentors and bring real-world experiences to students Each section of Building School 2.0 presents a thesis designed to help educators and administrators to examine specific practices in their schools, and to then take their conclusions from theory to practice. Collectively, the theses represent a new vision of school, built off of the best of what has come before us, but with an eye toward a future we cannot fully imagine.

Breakthrough Principals
Breakthrough Principals

Author: Jean Desravines

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2016-04-18

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 1118801172

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Bridge the achievement gap with proven strategies for student success Breakthrough Principals debunks the myth of the 'superhero' principal by detailing the common actions and practices of leaders at our nation's fastest-gaining public schools. Based on the authors' Transformational Leadership Framework, which they developed through in-depth study of more than 100 high-gaining, high-poverty schools, the book distills findings into a practical, action-focused plan for diagnosing school needs and implementing structures, systems and practices that accelerate student achievement. Brought to life by case studies of principals who have led dramatic gains in student achievement, the book is a how-to guide for increasing the quality of teaching and learning; improving school culture; attracting and supporting high-performing teachers; and involving parents and community to help students achieve. You'll learn how breakthrough principals make the school's mission a real part of both strategy and practice, and set up sustainable systems that support consistent, ongoing improvement. High-impact practices are organized into five broad categories: learning and teaching, school-wide culture, aligned staff, operations and systems, and personal leadership. The primary job of school leadership is to help students succeed. It begins with first recognizing and prioritizing areas of need, then finding and implementing the most effective solutions. Whether you work in a turn around environment, or want to make a good school better, this book will give you a set of concrete practices—illustrated through examples of real principals in real schools—that have been proven to work. Discover the primary drivers of student achievement Work toward the school's vision in staffing, operations, and systems Set the tone for all relationships and practices with good leadership Closing the achievement gap is a major goal of educational leadership, and principals are forever searching for viable methods that help them better serve their students. Breakthrough Principals unveils the details behind the success stories from across the nation to provide a roadmap to transformative gains.

Leading School Teams
Leading School Teams

Author: David M. Horton

Publisher: Corwin Press

Published: 2016-09-30

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 1506344941

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The busy administrator’s guide to creating strong teams, changing culture, and improving performance Research shows that “teacher collective efficacy” can increase student learning more than any other strategy. In fact, using powerhouse teams can achieve four years of student growth in a single calendar year. Horton’s practical guide offers: Short activities that require little to no preparation that you can use to deepen conversation at your very next meeting Step-by-step tools to help your team move from identifying its biggest challenges to choosing and implementing successful reforms Strategies to enhance teamwork, trust, and collaboration so your team becomes as effective as possible

Five Critical Leadership Practices
Five Critical Leadership Practices

Author: Ruth C. Ash

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-01-08

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 1317496701

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What are the critical practices of leaders in high-performing schools? Based on extensive observations, interviews, and in-depth case studies of principals and superintendents who significantly increase student learning and achievement, this exciting new book provides novice and veteran school leaders with the five critical steps for effective school leadership: Focus on Direction Build a Powerful Organization Ensure Student-Focused Vision and Action Give Life to Data Lead Learning Rich with voices from highly effective leaders, this book provides an accessible, research-based framework for school improvement that is correlated with the field’s standards. The engaging case studies in this vital resource show the power of these five key critical practices to make a difference in the lives of students and transform schools to support learning for all.

Best Practices from High-Performing High Schools
Best Practices from High-Performing High Schools

Author: Kristen C. Wilcox

Publisher: Teachers College Press

Published: 2015-04-24

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 080777183X

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In their second collaboration, Wilcox and Angelis tell the stories of high school educators who embody best practices in their day-to-day activitiespractices that consistently lead to higher student academic achievement across the core subjects for all students. This book shares results of a multi-case study of how some high schools consistently deliver better student performance, including improved four-year graduation rates. These schools have learned how to successfully adapt to the climate of increased (and increasing) accountability. Best Practices from High-Performing High Schools is for anyone who strives to ensure that all teens graduate from high school and are ready to succeed in college, in their careers, and in life.

Building Brilliant Schools
Building Brilliant Schools

Author: Andy Parker

Publisher:

Published: 2021-10-18

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9781736304785

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How do you propel student achievement and meet students' social and emotional needs at the same time? How do you transform school culture so that students are eager to come to school every single day? After decades of leading schools to G.R.E.A.T.ness, Dr. Andy unlocks his time-tested pillars that educators can use to transform school culture and increase student achievement. Using each pillar of his G.R.E.A.T. Leadership Philosophy?, his school: - Moved from having one of the highest dropout rates to one of the lowest in the state. - Leapt from having one of the lowest graduation rates to one of the highest in the state. - Won 7 state championships over a five-year period, compared to one in the school's history. - Achieved consistent student academic growth each school year. - Reduced assaults and fights to almost zero each year.