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.


Preparing Principals for a Changing World

Preparing Principals for a Changing World

Author: Linda Darling-Hammond

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2009-11-04

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 0470579951

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Preparing Principals for a Changing World provides a hands-on resource for creating and implementing effective policies and programs for developing expert school leaders. Written by acclaimed author and educator Linda Darling-Hammond and experts Debra Meyerson, Michelle LaPointe, and Margaret Terry Orr, this important book examines the characteristics of successful educational leadership programs and offers concrete recommendations to improve programs nationwide. In a study funded by the Wallace Foundation, Darling-Hammond and the team examined eight exemplary principal development programs, as well as state policies and principals' experiences across the country. Using the data from the study, they reveal how successful programs are structured, the skills and knowledge participants gain, and what they are able to do in practice as school leaders as a result. What do these exemplary programs have in common? Aggressive recruitment; close ties with schools in the community; on-the-ground training under the wing of expert principals, and a strong emphasis on the cutting-edge theories of instructional and transformational leadership. In addition to highlighting the programs' similarities, the study also explains the differences among the programs and sheds light on the effectiveness of approaches and models from different states and contexts?East, West, North, and South; urban and rural; pre-service and in-service. The authors analyze program outcomes for principals and their schools, including illustrative case studies and educators' voices on the influence of programs' strategies for recruitment, internships, mentoring, and coursework. The ideas and suggestions outlined in Preparing Principals for a Changing World are presented with the goal of increasing the number of highly qualified, thoughtful, and innovative educational leaders.


Supporting Activist Practices in Education

Supporting Activist Practices in Education

Author: Ramsay-Jordan, Natasha N.

Publisher: IGI Global

Published: 2024-02-27

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13:

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In today's educational landscape, a pressing issue looms: deeply entrenched within the system are the prevailing cultural norms that have historically perpetuated the dominance of white, middle-class values. This has, in turn, marginalized and stigmatized traditionally underrepresented student cultures as inherently deficient. As the United States educational system grapples with a dramatic increase in low-income, non-white, and linguistically diverse students, now is the time to confront these inequalities that undermine student achievement. This challenge has thrust teachers into the forefront, compelling them to embrace social justice practices in their classrooms as counternarratives. Supporting Activist Practices in Education emerges as a timely and essential solution to address this educational conundrum. Within the pages of this book, a compelling narrative unfolds—one that delves deep into the experiences of educators who actively employ teaching as a form of activism, transcending traditional norms. Teaching through activism, as defined in this volume, represents the courageous actions of educators who champion participatory citizenship for social justice within their classrooms, nurturing environments that foster critical thinking about the world. This book emphasizes the imperative of challenging and dismantling systemic injustices, and it underscores the pivotal role of social justice as a framework for effective pedagogical practices.


Culturally Responsive School Leadership

Culturally Responsive School Leadership

Author: Muhammad Khalifa

Publisher: Harvard Education Press

Published: 2020-07-27

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1682532097

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Culturally Responsive School Leadership focuses on how school leaders can effectively serve minoritized students—those who have been historically marginalized in school and society. The book demonstrates how leaders can engage students, parents, teachers, and communities in ways that positively impact learning by honoring indigenous heritages and local cultural practices. Muhammad Khalifa explores three basic premises. First, that a full-fledged and nuanced understanding of “cultural responsiveness” is essential to successful school leadership. Second, that cultural responsiveness will not flourish and succeed in schools without sustained efforts by school leaders to define and promote it. Finally, that culturally responsive school leadership comprises a number of crucial leadership behaviors, which include critical self-reflection; the development of culturally responsive teachers; the promotion of inclusive, anti-oppressive school environments; and engagement with students’ indigenous community contexts. Based on an ethnography of a school principal who exemplifies the practices and behaviors of culturally responsive school leadership, the book provides educators with pedagogy and strategies for immediate implementation.


Nuance

Nuance

Author: Michael Fullan

Publisher: Corwin Press

Published: 2018-11-20

Total Pages: 105

ISBN-13: 1544309945

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Break the cycle of surface-level change and failure How do leaders become clearer as complexity increases? We live in a world where decisions require judgment, getting people on board, drawing on local knowledge, ingenuity, and commitment. As leaders, how do you get beneath surface-level change to tackle complex challenges with depth and clarity. Nuance is the answer. Michael Fullan returns with an eminently readable, compelling and practical guide on the three habits of nuance: joint determination, adaptability, and culture-based accountability. Learn how you can: · Combine the power of networks and humanity to get to desired destinations. · Embrace complexity and understand context to develop better judgment · Change the culture of your organization to harness the forces of nuance. · Develop quality change that sticks With tons of examples and case studies of this book makes explicit the hidden habits and mind frames of leaders who deliver lasting change.


The Essentials of Business Research Methods

The Essentials of Business Research Methods

Author: Joe F. Hair Jr.

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-08-14

Total Pages: 507

ISBN-13: 1317508270

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Increasingly, managers must make decisions based on almost unlimited information. How can they navigate and organize this vast amount of data? Essentials of Business Research Methods provides research techniques for people who aren't data analysts. The authors offer a straightforward, hands-on approach to the vital managerial process of gathering and using data to make clear business decisions. They include critical topics, such as the increasing role of online research, ethical issues, data mining, customer relationship management, and how to conduct information-gathering activities more effectively in a rapidly changing business environment. This is the only text that includes a chapter on qualitative data analysis, and the coverage of quantitative data analysis is more extensive, and much easier to understand than in other texts. The book features a realistic continuing case throughout that enables students to see how business research information is used in the real world. It includes applied research examples in all chapters, as well as ethical dilemma mini cases, and exercises.