Written for principals and assistant principals to read and reflect on together, this book describes the most common challenges facing today’s assistant principals – and provides practical solutions. Authors Carole Goodman and Christopher Berry examine how principals and assistant principals can develop the kinds of relationships that serve to meet the needs of students, staff, and parents. Contents include: The Difference between the Principal’s Job and the Assistant Principal’s Job, The Assistant Principal Role: What the Students Need, The Assistant Principal Role: What the Staff Needs, and Principal and Assistant Principal Communication: The Honest High-Wire Act.
Though traditionally responsible for school operations, assistant principals increasingly find themselves expected to provide academic leadership as students face a growing emphasis on academic performance. This timely book helps current and aspiring assistant principals implement best practices for their evolving roles, providing the knowledge and skills required to succeed in their schools. Coverage includes: Emphasis on competency-based leadership requirements Research-based models, tips, snapshots, best-practices, and recommendations Unique discussion of the assistant principal as a student advocate Organizational strategies, professional growth activities, and operational models for program implementation Specific leadership responsibilities for school climate, personnel administration, professional development, and performance appraisal Case studies and discussion questions to foster applied learning
Written for principals and assistant principals to read and reflect on together, this book describes the most common challenges facing today’s assistant principals – and provides practical solutions. Authors Carole Goodman and Christopher Berry examine how principals and assistant principals can develop the kinds of relationships that serve to meet the needs of students, staff, and parents. Contents include: The Difference between the Principal’s Job and the Assistant Principal’s Job, The Assistant Principal Role: What the Students Need, The Assistant Principal Role: What the Staff Needs, and Principal and Assistant Principal Communication: The Honest High-Wire Act.
You're an Assistant Principal. Whatever your status—the sole AP in your school, one of two or more APs in your school, a career AP, an AP aspiring to the principalship—yours is one of the most misunderstood and underutilized positions in education. Positioned between teachers and the principal, you are an instructional leader. However, you are not the leader of the school. Therefore, you must carefully navigate your way to ensure that you thrive in your role without "stepping on the toes" of your principal. In The Assistant Principal 50, award-winning, four-time principal Baruti Kafele presents reflective questions that encompass the breadth and depth of the assistant principalship—from finding your leadership "lane" to thriving and being an asset to your principal. Kafele infuses the book (which also includes guidance and insights for principals and aspiring assistant principals) from beginning to end with personal anecdotes and accounts of both failures and successes from his years as an assistant principal. He arms you with tools and insights that will drive you to view the assistant principalship as critical to the climate and culture of your school as well as to student achievement. You, assistant principal, play a critical role in your school's success. The questions that Kafele asks you to consider will aid you as you hone your leadership skills toward becoming an effective leader in your school.
The argumentative point of departure of this scholarly book is the common conviction of specialists in the field of education in South Africa that the national education system is not at a satisfactory level – in both the academic and the public discourse. Such allegations are made and, frequently, stronger adjectives than ‘non-satisfactory’ are used. Results of international test series in which South Africa has participated, such as the 2015 TIMSS tests, confirm the negative verdicts found in the (public and scholarly) discourse. This book aims to argue that although the lack of performance could be attributed to a multiplicity of factors, one factor that can make a difference in the achievement levels obtained by learners in schools is leadership. The book demonstrates that a particular problem of both the scholarly and the public discourse on education in South Africa is an overtone of defeatism or resignation, blaming all ills in the education system and educational institutions on historical legacies and/or contextual factors (such as socio-economic deprivation in the catchment areas of schools) or poor resources and infrastructure. This collected work was inspired by a recently published spate of articles on top-performing schools (including top-performing schools in rural communities), in which it was demonstrated that good leadership can overcome such contextual and other challenges. The book unpacks the issue of leadership in South African schools from a variety of perspectives, thus contributing to the development of the scholarly discourse on Educational Leadership in South Africa. The target audience of the book is scholars of Educational Leadership. The research reported in the chapters draw on a wide range of methodologies, including empirical (survey) research (questionnaires and interviews), critical literature surveys, and the comparative method.
So, you want to be a principal? Are you a new principal who could benefit from the wisdom of a successful four-time principal? Could you use help preparing for a school administrator job interview? Then this is the book for you. In The Aspiring Principal 50, school leadership expert Baruti Kafele presents reflective questions aimed at assisting both new and aspiring school leaders as they work to become effective school leaders and consider making a leap to a leadership position, respectively. This book will help aspiring principals determine whether "The Principal" is truly who they want to be and help new principals grow and thrive in the principalship. Additionally, the book contains an entire chapter devoted to preparing for the school administrator job interview. Kafele infuses the book from beginning to end with succinct advice on everything from remaining focused on the principal's number one priority—student achievement—to addressing maintenance concerns, managing budget allocations, and ensuring that the school's website puts the school in the best possible light. With The Aspiring Principal 50, you can increase the likelihood that your tenure as principal will be a successful, beneficial, and healthful one.
Far too little attention has been paid to the role that assistant principals have in the development of high performing schools. Impact provides specific, practical, and replicable leadership strategies for today’s assistant principal. Impact describes how to build meaningful principal/assistant principal leadership teams. The opportunities that assistant principals have to be the instructional leader of the school and the voice of the faculty, and the principal; in other words, how to “lead from the middle” are examined. Impact is a practitioner’s guide for the assistant principal striving to be a school leader. Target audiences include teachers wishing to become assistant principals, current assistant principals looking to excel and lead careers of significance, colleges of education working with graduate students who are being trained in P-12 school administration, and sitting school principals looking to expand the often under-utilized, potential of the assistant principal. This book examines the art and science of the assistant principal as a school leader; as a leader who impacts the lives of teachers and students. Great assistant principals matter.
Learn why today’s best teachers are leaving—from the teachers themselves. Low pay, increased responsibilities, and high-stakes standardized testing—these are just some of the reasons why more talented teachers are leaving the profession than ever before. Drawing on in-depth interviews with teachers all over the country, Katy Farber presents an in-the-trenches view of the classroom exodus and uncovers ways that schools can turn the tide. Farber's findings, which have been featured on Education Talk Radio, Vermont Public Radio, and in the Huffington Post, paint a sometimes shocking picture of life in today's schools, taking a frank look at • Challenges to teacher endurance, including tight budgets, difficult parents, standardized testing, unsafe schools, inadequate pay, and lack of respect • Strategies veteran teachers use to make sure the joys of teaching outweigh the frustrations • Success stories from individual schools and districts that have found solutions to these challenges • Recommendations for creating a school environment that fosters teacher retention Featuring clear analysis and concrete suggestions for administrators and policy makers, Why Great Teachers Quit takes you to the front lines of the fight to keep great teachers where they belong: in the classroom.
Where does education happen? In classrooms. Teachers can provide the ultimate reform of education and teachers can be the ultimate reformers of education. Still, teachers cannot create all of the needed improvements in education alone. Input from, involvement from, ideas from, and participation from many other people can combine with what only teachers know about education to create the educational improvements which are sought year after year. School administrators, parents, guardians, school board members, community members, community organizations, politicians and other people can join in a grass-roots effort which agrees on a shared purpose for schools and on a way to improve schools so the purpose of a school – to cause learning – is realized.
This book provides practitioners, researchers, and those involved in mentoring activities insight into varying types of mentoring. It covers aspects of mentoring with preservice teachers, K-12 practitioners, academia, and professionals in public and private sectors. Other areas not typically covered include service learning, faculty and graduate student writing and research groups, undergraduate and graduate student mentoring groups, online programs for alternatively certified teachers, formal mentoring programs for marginalized and underrepresented populations, academic mentoring for tenured faculty, and mentoring support for administrators at all levels! A unique approach to mentoring, a variety of theoretical contexts and frameworks is presented and suggestions for discussions, assignments, and dialogue opportunities are offered at the end of each chapter. These suggestions are practical applications and implications for extending conversations among professionals and are easily transferable to a variety of professional development activities. While primarily intended for teacher educators, it is a complete guide for those in public education who are interested in professional development activities. The topics addressed are useful to those who are new to the field of mentoring and to those who support mentoring projects at any level. A unique approach to mentoring, a variety of theoretical contexts and frameworks is presented and suggestions for discussions, assignments, and dialogue opportunities are offered at the end of each chapter. These suggestions are practical applications and implications for extending conversations among professionals and are easily transferable to a variety of professional development activities. While primarily intended for teacher educators, it is a complete guide for those in public education who are interested in professional development activities. The topics addressed are useful to those who are new to the field of mentoring and to those who support mentoring projects at any level.
