This expansion of Whatever It Takes sharpens the focus on the pyramid of interventions strategy. The authors examine case studies of schools and districts across North America to illustrate how PLC at WorkTM is a sustainable and transferable process that ensures struggling students get the support they need to achieve. They address how to enrich and extend the learning of proficient students and explain how PLC intervention processes align with RTI legislation.
This book presents a 'Quality School Improvement' (QSI) framework for overcoming the conflict that exists between excellence, equity, and efficiency and provides recommendations for principals and policymakers to meet the demands for accountability and continuous improvement based upon that framework.
This expanded and thoroughly updated edition of the popular anthology assembles the best book excerpts, articles, and reports that define and drive the field of educational leadership today. Filled with critical insights from respected authors, education researchers, and expert practitioners, this comprehensive volume features twenty-six chapters in six primary areas of interest: Principles of Leadership, Moral Leadership, Culture and Change, Standards and Systems, Diversity and Leadership, and the Future of Leadership.
Black and Hispanic students are not learning enough in our public schools, and their typically poor performance is the most important source of ongoing racial inequality in America today—thus, say Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, the racial gap in school achievement is the nation's most critical civil rights issue and an educational crisis; it's no wonder that "No Child Left Behind," the 2001 revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, made closing the racial gap in education its central goal. An employer hiring the typical Black high school graduate or the college that admits the average Black student is choosing a youngster who has only an eighth-grade education. In most subjects, the majority of twelfth-grade Black students do not have even a "partial mastery" of the skills and knowledge that the authoritative National Assessment of Educational Progress calls "fundamental for proficient work" at their grade. No Excuses marshals facts to examine the depth of the problem, the inadequacy of conventional explanations, and the limited impact of Title I, Head Start, and other familiar reforms. Its message, however, is one of hope: Scattered across the country are excellent schools getting terrific results with high-needs kids. These rare schools share a distinctive vision of what great schooling looks like and are free of many of the constraints that compromise education in traditional public schools. In a society that espouses equal opportunity we still have a racially identifiable group of educational have-nots—young African Americans and Latinos whose opportunities in life will almost inevitably be limited by their inadequate education. When students leave high school without high school skills, their futures—and that of the nation—are in jeopardy. With successful schools already showing the way, no decent society can continue to turn a blind eye to such racial and ethnic inequality.
Young people need protection from technology. Creating a more human future is a fertile, not futile exercise. We can decide what the world should be like.
Get your daily dose of empowerment with 180 meditations perfect for busy leaders. These short reflections contain a quote, discussion on the meaning, and final translation into a powerful “Today I will...” statement that integrates the reflection into daily practice. The meditations can be read in any order. An index of quotes makes it easy to reference sources.
Michael Fullan's New Meaning of Educational Change is the definitive textbook on the study of educational change. Based on practical and fundamental work with education systems in several countries, the text captures the dilemmas and leading ideas for successful large-scale systemic reform. This updated edition includes decisionmakers at all levels, from the local school community to the state and national level, and introduces many new and powerful ideas for formulating stategies and implementing solutions that will improve educational systems. Widely used by university professors, policy makers, and practitioners throughout North America and in many other countries this perennial bestseller shows us how to: develop collaborative cultures at the school level, while avoiding superficial versions of professional learning communities; foster district wide success in all schools illustrating how state and national systems can achieve total system transformation based on identifying and fostering meaning for education at every level; and integrate individucal and systemic success, a rare feat in today's school reform efforts.
Like the first edition, the second edition of Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work helps educators close the knowing-doing gap as they transform their schools into professional learning communities (PLCs).
Excellence Through Equity is an inspiring look at how real-world educators are creating schools where all students are able to thrive. In these schools, educators understand that equity is not about treating all children the same. They are deeply committed to ensuring that each student receives what he or she individually needs to develop their full potential—and succeed. To help educators with what can at times be a difficult and challenging journey, Blankstein and Noguera frame the book with five guiding principles of Courageous Leadership: - Getting to your core - Making organizational meaning - Ensuring constancy and consistency of purpose - Facing the facts and your fears - Building sustainable relationships They further emphasize that the practices are grounded in three important areas of research that are too often disregarded: (1) child development, (2) neuroscience, and (3) environmental influences on child development and learning. You’ll hear from Carol Corbett Burris, Michael Fullan, Marcus J. Newsome, Paul Reville, Susan Szachowicz, and other bold practitioners and visionary thinkers who share compelling and actionable ideas, strategies, and experiences for closing the achievement gap in your classrooms and school. Ensuring that all students receive an education that cultivates their talents and potential is in all our common interest. As Andy Hargreaves writes in the coda: “The opportunity for all Americans is to articulate and believe in an inspiring vision of educational change that is about what the next genera¬tion of America and Americans should become, not about a target or ranking that the nation should attain.”
