How can a school become a place where all members of the staff are learning, growing, and working to increase student achievement? The answer lies in systems thinking and a focus on continuous improvement, two concepts that can transform staff development from something that people merely tolerate to something that they actively pursue to create lasting improvements in teaching and learning. Each chapter of Transforming Schools: Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement is grounded in a set of operating principles that provide practical guidance to school leaders. The story of a fictional school brings the ideas to life as the characters—a school principal, teachers, and district-level administrators—experience the shifts in thinking that are necessary to transform a school into a competent system. Through their story, the reader gains a clear understanding of the six steps of continuous improvement: Identify core beliefs. Create a shared vision. Use data to determine gaps between the current reality and the shared vision. Identify the innovations that will most likely close the gaps. Develop and implement an action plan. Endorse collective accountability. Thoughtful analysis of the fictional dialogue throughout the book gives readers an understanding of the dynamic nature of change, systems thinking, and continuous improvement. And questions at the end of each chapter help readers apply key concepts to their own schools. Whether your school improvement goals are clearly defined or still in development, Transforming Schools will help you tackle the many challenges of the change process.
There?s a lot of conversation about how to make schools better. Unfortunately, the nature of those conversations often makes things worse. Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time maps out a way to change that. By taking a teacher-centered, no-fault, strengths-based approach to performance improvement, the Evocative Coaching model generates the motivation and movement that enables teachers and schools to achieve desired outcomes and enhance quality of life. Viewed as a dynamic dance, the model is choreographed in four steps ? Story, Empathy, Inquiry, Design ? which are each laid out in its own chapter with powerful illustrative materials and end-of-chapter discussion questions to prompt further reflection. Bringing together the best research and wisdom in educational leadership and professional coaching, authors Bob and Megan Tschannen-Moran have developed a simple yet profound way of facilitating new conversations in schools through Story Listening, Expressing Empathy, Appreciative Inquiry, and Design Thinking. It?s an iterative process that moves beyond old ways of thinking, doing, and being. It?s an inspirational process that reinvigorates the passion for making schools better, one conversation at a time. This happens when coaches: give teachers our full, undivided attention; accept and meet teachers where they are right now, without making them wrong; ask and trust teachers to take charge of their own learning and growth; make sure teachers are talking more than we are; enable teachers to appreciate the positive value of their own experiences; harness the strengths teachers have to meet challenges and overcome obstacles; reframe difficulties and challenges as opportunities to learn and grow; invite teachers to discover possibilities and find answers for themselves; dialogue with teachers regarding their higher purpose for teaching; uncover teachers? natural impulse to engage with colleagues and students; assist teachers to draw up a personal blueprint for professional mastery; support teachers in brainstorming and trying new ways of doing things; maintain an upbeat, energetic, and positive attitude at all times; collaborate with teachers to design and conduct appropriate learning experiments; enable teachers to build supportive environments and teams; use humor to lighten the load; and inspire and challenge teachers to go beyond what they would do alone. Each chapter provides a research-based theory to support the strategies presented, and includes specific suggestions and anecdotes. The Evocative Coaching model makes coaching enjoyable by getting people to focus on what they do best, and it invites larger, more integral conversations so that people talk about their work in the context of other things they care about. Resting on strong, evidence-based practices, the Evocative Coaching model offers educators the help they need to meet the challenges of increased accountability and expectations. This model can also be used effectively by coaches and leaders in other organizational contexts. Table of Contents: Chapter 1: What Is Evocative Coaching? Chapter 2: Coaching Presence Loop I: The No-Fault Turn Chapter 3: Story Listening Chapter 4: Expressing Empathy Loop II: The Strengths-Building Turn Chapter 5: Appreciative Inquiry Chapter 6: Design Thinking Chapter 7: Aligning Environments Chapter 8: Coaching Conversations Chapter 9: The Reflective Coach To learn more about Evocative Coaching and to sign up for the Evocative Coach Training Program, visit www.SchoolTransformation.com.
A Science “Reading List for Uncertain Times” Selection “A must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in the present and future of higher education.” —Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of Lower Ed “A must-read for the education-invested as well as the education-interested.” —Forbes Proponents of massive online learning have promised that technology will radically accelerate learning and democratize education. Much-publicized experiments, often underwritten by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, have been launched at elite universities and elementary schools in the poorest neighborhoods. But a decade after the “year of the MOOC,” the promise of disruption seems premature. In Failure to Disrupt, Justin Reich takes us on a tour of MOOCs, autograders, “intelligent tutors,” and other edtech platforms and delivers a sobering report card. Institutions and investors favor programs that scale up quickly at the expense of true innovation. Learning technologies—even those that are free—do little to combat the growing inequality in education. Technology is a phenomenal tool in the right hands, but no killer app will shortcut the hard road of institutional change. “I’m not sure if Reich is as famous outside of learning science and online education circles as he is inside. He should be...Reading and talking about Failure to Disrupt should be a prerequisite for any big institutional learning technology initiatives coming out of COVID-19.” —Inside Higher Ed “The desire to educate students well using online tools and platforms is more pressing than ever. But as Justin Reich illustrates...many recent technologies that were expected to radically change schooling have instead been used in ways that perpetuate existing systems and their attendant inequalities.” —Science
With all that we know about how students learn, the nature of the world they will face after graduation, and the educational inequities that have existed for centuries, maintaining a traditional, one-size-fits-all approach to teaching and learning is tantamount to instructional malpractice. International security, the success of global economies, and sustainability as a global society all depend on the success of our education system in the years to come. It’s our obligation to prepare our students for their future—not our past. Authors Eric C. Sheninger and Thomas C. Murray outline eight keys—each a piece of a puzzle for transforming the K–12 education system of teaching and learning—to intentionally design tomorrow’s schools so today’s learners are prepared for success . . . and stand ready to create new industries, find new cures, and solve world problems. The traditional model of schooling ultimately prepares students for the industrial model of the past. If we want our students to become successful citizens in a global society, we must dramatically shift to a more personal approach. Failure is not an option. We can no longer wait. Let Learning Transformed show you how you can be a part of the solution. The authors encourage you to use the hashtag #LT8Keys to continue the discussion online.
Small Schools, Big Ideas shows how the principle-based and equity-focused model from the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) can be used to redesign existing schools and create new schools that prepare students for this century's challenges and opportunities. Filled with inspirational stories and illustrative examples from schools that have successfully implemented CES principles and practices, Small Schools, Big Ideas offers information and inspiration needed to: Transform schools in order to achieve equitable outcomes for all students Understand various school design options Establish school vision, mission, and goals to raise educational expectations and results Develop transformational leadership Cultivate a professional learning community Implement student-centered teaching, learning, and curricula Build productive relationships with families and communities Establish strategies for sustainability These recommendations and proven strategies can help educators transform their schools to become truly equitable, personalized, and academically challenging.
Radically reimagine our ways of being, learning, and doing Education can be transformed if we eradicate our fixation on big data like standardized test scores as the supreme measure of equity and learning. Instead of the focus being on "fixing" and "filling" academic gaps, we must envision and rebuild the system from the student up—with classrooms, schools and systems built around students’ brilliance, cultural wealth, and intellectual potential. Street data reminds us that what is measurable is not the same as what is valuable and that data can be humanizing, liberatory and healing. By breaking down street data fundamentals: what it is, how to gather it, and how it can complement other forms of data to guide a school or district’s equity journey, Safir and Dugan offer an actionable framework for school transformation. Written for educators and policymakers, this book · Offers fresh ideas and innovative tools to apply immediately · Provides an asset-based model to help educators look for what’s right in our students and communities instead of seeking what’s wrong · Explores a different application of data, from its capacity to help us diagnose root causes of inequity, to its potential to transform learning, and its power to reshape adult culture Now is the time to take an antiracist stance, interrogate our assumptions about knowledge, measurement, and what really matters when it comes to educating young people.
How Schools Transform explores the process of transformation. This book moves beyond the why of transformation to consider how it is achieved by a range of schools around the world. Each chapter showcases a school-based example of transformation. Assessment, pedagogy, curriculum, leadership, values and learning are explored before considering the key principles required across schools to make transformation a reality. Bringing together examples from around the world, the contributing authors give relatable insights into the mechanics, approaches and principles that drive authentic and sustainable transformation of all sizes. These chapters include teacher voice, student voice, embedded cases, emerging themes, resonances and reflections and ways forward. How Schools Transform weaves real stories and authentic approaches that make transformation the reality and not just rhetoric.
Busy administrators will appreciate this quick read packed with immediate, accessible strategies. This book provides the framework for understanding dynamic relationships within a school culture and ensuring a positive environment that supports the changes necessary to improve learning for all students. The author explores many aspects of human behavior, social conditions, and history to reveal best practices for building healthy school cultures.
In this timely and thoughtful book, Andrew Zucker argues that technology can and will play a central role in efforts to achieve crucial education goals, and that it will be an essential component of further improvement and transformation of schools. The book is marked not only by Zucker's cutting-edge sophistication about digital technologies, but also by his longstanding engagement with and commitment to K-12 education. It is destined to be recognized as the crucial volume on digital technology and education, and it will be essential reading for school leaders and teachers, policymakers, and those members of the general public--among them parents and engaged citizens--for whom the fate of education is a vital concern.
Nearly a century ago, famed educator John Dewey said that "if we teach today's students as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow." That wisdom resonates more strongly than ever today, and that maxim underlies this insightful look at the present and future of education in the digital age. As Darrell West makes clear, today's educational institutions must reinvent themselves to engage students successfully and provide them with the skills needed to compete in an increasingly global, technological, and online world. Otherwise the American education system will continue to fall woefully short in its mission to prepare the population to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing world. West examines new models of education made possible by enhanced information technology, new approaches that will make public education in the post-industrial age more relevant, efficient, and ultimately more productive. Innovative pilot programs are popping up all over the nation, experimenting with different forms of organization and delivery systems. Digital Schools surveys this promising new landscape, examining in particular personalized learning; realtime student assessment; ways to enhance teacher evaluation; the untapped potential of distance learning; and the ways in which technology can improve the effectiveness of special education and foreign language instruction. West illustrates the potential contributions of blogs, wikis, social media, and video games and augmented reality in K–12 and higher education. Technology by itself will not remake education. But if today's schools combine increased digitization with needed improvements in organization, operations, and culture, we can overcome current barriers, produce better results, and improve the manner in which schools function. And we can get back to teaching for tomorrow, rather than for yesterday.
