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Leading for Instructional Improvement Educational experts agree that quality teaching is the single most important factor in improving educational outcomes for all students. Teaching is a highly sophisticated and complex endeavor requiring deep expertise on the part of teachers and school leaders. This book shows how teacher, school, and district leaders can cultivate the expertise of teachers to deliver high quality instruction for all students. Leading for Instructional Improvement captures the nationally acclaimed work conducted by the Center for Educational Leadership at the University of Washington in its effort to improve the quality of teaching and leadership in schools across the country. The book provides extensive practical guidance grounded in theory and research, along with powerful stories and examples from classrooms, schools, and districts. Many of the tools, protocols, and frameworks contained in this book can be accessed electronically by visiting the Center for Educational Leadership website at www.k-12leadership.org. Praise for Leading for Instructional Improvement "This book offers insights that are invaluable to educators who seek to enhance teacher effectiveness now. The ideas presented are practical and applicable to schools in a variety of settings." PEDRO A. NOGUERA, Ph.D., Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Development and executive director, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education "A deep and thoughtful look at how the issue of expertise is cultivated. Seizing upon their Center's research-based instructional framework, the authors provide important insights and tools." DR. BEVERLY HALL, superintendent, Atlanta Public Schools "In this age of intense focus on how we evaluate teachers, we have to remember that any evaluation is only as good as the evaluator. This extremely useful book provides an excellent roadmap for how principals can become more effective in the most important aspect of their work, instructional leadership." JERRY D. WEAST, Ed.D., superintendent of schools, Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland "Fink and Markholt offer practitioners a guide to effective teaching. Leading for Instructional Improvement asks us to heed the lessons within and support the kind of teacher education that will improve student achievement for today's schools and those of tomorrow." BARNETT BERRY, president, Center for Teaching Quality
Bridge the gap between good intentions and real results Instructional Leadership is one of the most researched and discussed leadership practices, but most school leaders don’t know where to begin or how to balance this role with all of their other responsibilities. Peter DeWitt’s Instructional Leadership provides practical tools for delivering lasting improvement through small, manageable changes over time. This step-by-step, how-to guide presents the six driving forces of instructional leadership—implementation, focus on learning, student engagement, instructional strategies, efficacy, and evaluation of impact—within an easy-to-follow, multi-stage implementation model. It also includes: · Practical strategies grounded in research · "Entry point" sections highlighting the best places to start · Help working with PLCs, faculty meetings, teacher observations, and walkthroughs · Study questions As a leader, you are the guide for your teachers, staff, and students. Let this book guide you to a vision of instructional leadership that really works.
As the inaugural issue in the Leadership for School Improvement (LSI) Special Interest Group (SIG) Book Series, this volume serves as a reflection on the foundations of the field of school improvement. Contents include connections between school improvement and the agency of principals, districts, universities, and policy. This volume will be placed in the school improvement literature with examinations of evolution, trends, policies, and future foci in the field of school improvement. This book is rich in research and literature about school improvement, school effectiveness, and school reform policy and implementation and thus holds significance for educational practitioners, scholars, and policy makers at all levels.
Make the most of your time—and your leadership Is your school’s vision getting buried under paperwork? If you spend more time picking up pieces than putting them together, this is your book. Written by seasoned school principals, this plan of action will get you back to the essence of your job: instructional leadership. By using educational technology to maximize efficiency, you’ll improve teaching, student achievement, resource management, and school culture. This comprehensive guide features: Easy-to-follow, single-topic chapters Standards–based scenarios and questions Time-management self-assessments Easily adaptable experiential exercises Strategies for battling the “silent time thief”
Supercharge school improvement with instructional coaches! For instructional coaches, no two days are ever the same. This unique companion melds theory and practice to show how coaches can seamlessly integrate themselves into the fabric of the school and help teachers improve their practice from day one. Dean Spaulding and Gail Smith address common challenges of coaches and instructional leadership teams, including: Observing classrooms and providing formative feedback Reaching out to the hesitant or resistant teacher Adapting data and analysis into usable information for the team Recruiting, training, and supporting new instructional coaches Journal entries based on the real-life experiences give an inside look at the day-to-day work of an instructional coach and the power of coaching to improve teacher effectiveness. The book also includes field-tested activities, materials, and forms for collecting data, navigating busy days, and organizing information. Instructional Coaches and the Instructional Leadership Team is ideal for those wanting to learn best practices to engage educators and support teacher evaluation reform. "This book would have made my life SO much easier. I highly recommend it to new and experienced instructional coaches alike!" —Kathy Ferrell, Instructional Coach Excelsior Springs Middle School, MO "This is a wonderful resource. Even schools without instructional coaches will benefit from the strategies and suggestions included. It′s an excellent book even for those who shy away from data analysis!" —Ann Dargon, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Westport Community Schools, MA
This book investigates the localised effects of reform by exploring the impact of a school improvement policy agenda on the work of three experienced principals. It presents three longitudinal case studies within a shared specific leadership context in Queensland, Australia. The case studies enable an exploration of the way the principalship in this context has evolved over time, providing deep insights into the practices and beliefs of three experienced school leaders working in a period of rapid and urgent systemic reform. The nature of global reform policy borrowing means that the research and the findings within this monograph are relevant for international audiences. The book describes a new way to understand and theorise the effects of reform policies and associated pressures on school leaders. Using post-structural theory, it provides a better understanding of the specific effects of reform policy ensembles, particularly when combined with an analysis of the ways policy and discourse work together at a wider level to create an environment that disciplines the principalship. Further, it sheds lights on the means of complying with or contesting policy influences and how the work of leaders has changed over time.
At the heart of the effort to enact and scale up successful school reforms is the need for more robust links between research and practice. One promising approach is design development, a methodology widely used in other fields and only recently adapted to education, which offers a disciplined process for identifying practical problems, assessing evidence of outcomes, accounting for variability in implementation and results, and establishing a foundation for broader understanding of the problem and proposed solutions. This exciting new book provides a practical guide for education leaders who are seeking to address issues of equity in their schools and want to pursue this approach. The book provides a step-by-step description of the process, augmented by case studies of four education leaders: Christine, a middle school principal who is concerned with the volume of disciplinary referrals in her school; Michelle, an elementary school principal who wants to address achievement gaps; Eric, an assistant superintendent who wants to improve the quality of principals’ instructional feedback to teachers; and Nora, a high school principal who is concerned about the use of racial and homophobic slurs in the hallways. The book follows each of these leaders as they formulate and refine interventions to address these problems. Design-Based School Improvement also includes a series of “excursions into theory” that discuss the research basis for design-based improvement. The author—a leading thinker about policy implementation and school reform—shows a profound appreciation for the complexity of work in schools and the deep and sustained thinking entailed in undertaking productive change. By bringing theory to life and putting it in the hands of skilled practitioners, this book promises to become an invaluable resource for education leaders seeking to solve problems of equity and social justice in schools.
Updated Edition of Best Seller! "You won′t find a more practical, detailed guide to improving school effectiveness than is contained between the covers of this book!" Leonard O. Pellicer, Dean School of Education University of La Verne La Verne, CA "Few books on school leadership have effectively brought together the best of educational theory and practice for school administrators as Elaine McEwan′s Seven Steps to Instructional Leadership." Michael Pladus 1999 MetLife/NASSP National Principal of the Year Have the courage and the vision to lead your staff to achieve their highest instructional goals! Make a substantive impact on the lives of your students and your staff. This practical, hands-on guide can help you become a more effective instructional leader. Here are research-based activities to help you lead your staff though McEwans′s seven steps: Establish, implement, and achieve academic standards Be an instructional resource for your staff Create a learning-oriented school culture and climate Communicate your school′s vision and mission to staff and students Set high expectations for your staff and yourself Develop teacher leaders Develop and maintain positive relationships with students, staff, and parents Integrate these seven steps into your daily behavior. Chapters on each step include research data, discussion and advice from instructional leaders, and practical suggestions from dozens of leading principals that you can use right now in your own school. Use the Instructional Leadership Checklist to: Assess your current level of instructional leadership Find out how your staff thinks you′re doing Set goals for improving your instructional leadership practice Evaluate your progress toward your goals Attaining a new and higher level of instructional leadership will make a difference for each person in your school. Staff, students, and parents will get the message that all students matter. Everyone will start expecting that all students can learn, and your school will achieve its mission—improving education.
As societies continue to set educational goals that are, on current performance, beyond the capacity of the system to deliver, strategies for enhancing student learning through school and classroom intervention have become increasingly important. Yet, as David Hopkins argues in his book, many of the educational initiatives recently developed under the umbrella of school improvement are inadequate or unhelpful. Simply blaming teachers and delegating financial responsibility, he maintains, has little positive impact on classroom practice. This is the bleak context within which school improvement has to operate today. School Improvement for Real offers a genuine alternative: a strategy for educational change that focuses on student achievement by modifying classroom practice and adapting the management arrangements within the school to support teaching and learning. It outlines an approach to school improvement that has a medium term, systemic orientation, providing both principles and suggestions for better practice. The author's experience in the field of school improvement ensures that the text is informed by a practical wisdom that is so often lacking from the more typical managerial texts on improvement and effectiveness.
