Leading with Focus
Leading with Focus

Author: Mike Schmoker

Publisher: ASCD

Published: 2016-01-20

Total Pages: 147

ISBN-13: 1416621393

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In his 2011 ASCD best-seller Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning, author Mike Schmoker described a fresh pproach to K-12 teaching built on three core elements: a focused and coherent curriculum; clear, prioritized lessons; and purposeful reading and writing, or authentic literacy. Now, in Leading with Focus, he shows administrators, principals, and other education leaders how to apply his model to the work of running schools and districts. In this companion to his previous book, Schmoker offers * An overview of the case for simple, focused school and district leadership--demonstrating its power for vastly improving the work of teachers and leaders. * Examples of real schools and districts that have embraced focused leadership--and the incredible results for student learning. * A practical, flexible, and easy-to-follow implementation guide for ensuring focused leadership in schools and districts. All students deserve to learn in schools where educators eschew distractions and superfluous activities to concentrate on what’s most important. To that end, this book is an essential resource for leaders ready to streamline their practice and focus their efforts on radically improving student learning.

Focus
Focus

Author: Mike Schmoker

Publisher: ASCD

Published: 2018-07-16

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 1416626360

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In this 2nd edition of Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning, Mike Schmoker extends and updates the case that our schools could be on the cusp of swift, unparalleled improvements. But we are stymied by a systemwide failure to simplify and prioritize; we have yet to focus our limited time and energy on the most essential, widely acknowledged, evidence-based practices that could have more impact than all other initiatives combined. They are: simple, coherent curricula; straightforward, traditional literacy practices; and lessons built around just a few hugely effective elements of good teaching. As Schmoker demonstrates, the case for these practices—and the need for them—has grown prodigiously. In every chapter, you’ll find late-breaking discoveries and practical advice on how to simplify the implementation of new state standards in the subject areas; on the hidden pitfalls of our most popular, but unproven instructional fads and programs; and on simple, versatile strategies for building curriculum, planning lessons, and integrating literacy into every discipline. All of these strategies and findings are supported with exciting new evidence from actual schools. Their success confirms, as Michael Fullan writes, that a focus on the best "high-leverage practices" won’t only improve student performance; they will produce "stunningly powerful consequences" in our schools.

Improving Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for Economic Development
Improving Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for Economic Development

Author: David Merriman

Publisher:

Published: 2018-09-05

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781558443778

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Economist David Merriman of the University of Illinois at Chicago reviews more than 30 individual studies in the most comprehensive assessment of tax increment financing (TIF) with practical recommendations for policy makers and practitioners. The report finds that while TIF has the potential to draw investment into neglected places, it has not accomplished the goal of promoting economic development in most cases. First implemented in the 1950s, TIF funds economic development within a defined district by earmarking increases in future property tax revenues that result from increases in real estate values in the district. The tax revenue can be used for public infrastructure or to compensate private developers for their investments, but TIF is prone to several pitfalls: it often captures some revenues that would have been generated through normal appreciation in property values, it can be exploited by cities to obtain revenues that would otherwise go to overlying government entities such as school districts, and it can make cities' financial decisions less transparent by separating them from the normal budget process. The report recommends several ways that state and local policy makers can reform TIF practices going forward.

The Learning Leader
The Learning Leader

Author: Douglas B. Reeves

Publisher: ASCD

Published: 2020-08-31

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 1416629408

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"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.

The Leader in Me
The Leader in Me

Author: Stephen R. Covey

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-12-11

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 147110446X

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Children in today's world are inundated with information about who to be, what to do and how to live. But what if there was a way to teach children how to manage priorities, focus on goals and be a positive influence on the world around them? The Leader in Meis that programme. It's based on a hugely successful initiative carried out at the A.B. Combs Elementary School in North Carolina. To hear the parents of A. B Combs talk about the school is to be amazed. In 1999, the school debuted a programme that taught The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peopleto a pilot group of students. The parents reported an incredible change in their children, who blossomed under the programme. By the end of the following year the average end-of-grade scores had leapt from 84 to 94. This book will launch the message onto a much larger platform. Stephen R. Covey takes the 7 Habits, that have already changed the lives of millions of people, and shows how children can use them as they develop. Those habits -- be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek to understand and then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the saw -- are critical skills to learn at a young age and bring incredible results, proving that it's never too early to teach someone how to live well.

Focus Groups
Focus Groups

Author: Graham R. Walden

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2009-10-01

Total Pages: 443

ISBN-13: 0810869691

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Physicians, health researchers, and nurses make extensive use of focus groups. Thus, researchers and readers need access to the realm of applications of focus group methodology in the wide variety of medical and health sciences. In this second installment of a two-volume examination of ten recent years (1998-2007) of focus group studies and research literature, author Graham R. Walden turns his attention from the arts, humanities, and non-medical sciences to the medical and health sciences, concentrating on a broad range of studies in books, book chapters, and journal articles that are available in English. Focus Groups, Volume II: A Selective Annotated Bibliography: Medical and Health Sciences covers over 500 articles on a multitude of topics in the medical and health sciences, such as the health profession and the practice of medicine, public health, and several different bodily systems and types of diseases. The annotations in this bibliography describe the content of a source document to help the reader discern whether pursuit of the full text is appropriate or desirable. This book offers significant benefits to all medical personnel; graduate and undergraduate students; professional focus group practitioners; and individuals seeking increased awareness of studies that have been conducted in the health arena.