Leading Schools to Learn, Grow, and Thrive


Book Description

Leading Schools to Learn, Grow, and Thrive provides a unique approach to preparing prospective education leaders by combining theory, research, and practice. Grounded in organizational and leadership theory, this book helps leaders understand their schools and districts from multiple perspectives and develop their own leadership aspirations, approaches, and missions. Well-known authors Brazer, Bauer, and Johnson present authentic practical problems, illuminate them with appropriate theory and research, and give readers opportunities to solve common puzzles as a means to grow wisdom about how to lead, especially when confronted with complex challenges. This book is an invaluable resource for aspiring leaders, one that readers will reference as they proceed through their leadership coursework and keep close at hand throughout their leadership career. Special Features: eResources—complementary resources for instructors and students, including a set of authentic role-playing scenarios accessible from https://www.routledge.com/9781138039100 Vignettes—introduce the reader to real-life dilemmas that impact teaching and learning and provide a central reference point for discussions of theory, research, and practice. Theory and Research—frameworks and examples inform common leadership challenges, helping readers expand their knowledge and experience base to explore situations similar to their own contexts. Puzzles—real-world situations test knowledge and provide opportunities to practice ideas for effective leadership. Thought Partner Discussions (TPCs) and Extended Web Activities (EWAs)—additional thought activities, opportunities for reflection, and suggestions for discussion provoke puzzle solving.




The Leader in Me


Book Description

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.




Using Research to Lead School Improvement


Book Description

-This text presents a step-by-step approach to problem diagnosis and school improvement. --




Thrive


Book Description

"For students to thrive and achieve their personal best, they require a growth mindset, gift and wellbeing. Thrive draws on the best currently available evidence from the fields of psychology, education and neuroscience and relates it in practical ways for educators and parents."--Back cover.




Finders and Keepers


Book Description

This text explores the challenges facing today's new teachers and offers not only cases and informed insight into the career choices of today's teachers, but also practical recommendations about how best to attract and retain a strong teaching force.




How to Help Your School Thrive Without Breaking the Bank


Book Description

How to Help Your School Thrive Without Breaking the Bank will help you improve your school without investing in externally developed, expensive, and time-consuming reform programs or initiatives. It's packed with replicable strategies and practical tools that educators in any school can incorporate to transform the culture and improve student achievement and professional practice. You'll learn how to * Hone your own leadership and grow new leaders among your staff; * Develop a vision and a mission for your school; * Promote excellence among both staff and students; * Make the most of your time and facilitate effective meetings; and * Mine and use data with purpose. For most schools, times are tough and money is tight—but school leaders must still focus on how to steadily improve student achievement. Academic performance will improve in the long term only if your school has a healthy culture marked by integrity, a strong work ethic, collaboration, and reflective risk taking. Strengthening those foundational elements will help you sustain positive change in your school, even in difficult economic times. The good news is that you already have the resources you need to help your school thrive. This book will help you to maximize them.




Educational Leadership, Organizational Learning, and the Ideas of Karl Weick


Book Description

Grounded in the theory of sociologist Karl Weick, this edited volume explores key concepts of educational leadership and organizational learning. Chapter authors analyze and reflect on the implications of Weick’s thinking on leadership preparation and development. Providing a thorough understanding of the influence of his ideas in education, this volume unpacks the ways in which Weick’s ideas influence and shape organizational learning and educational leadership and policy today.




Educating for Purposeful Life


Book Description

A visionary blueprint for educational reform that envisions school systems as opportunity engines, preparing young citizens for future workplace success, civic engagement, and fulfilling lives. Educating for Purposeful Life documents positive change within the Anaheim Union High School District, whose overarching mission is to prepare high school graduates who possess a clear sense of purpose and the capacity to achieve their goals. Superintendent Michael Matsuda and education consultant David Brazer lay out the district's innovative approaches to organizing, leading, teaching, and learning. They demonstrate how education policy, organization theory, and external partnerships work together within this grades 7–12 district to scaffold student success, resulting in greater high school graduation rates and four-year college matriculation and persistence rates. A rousing account of effective school reform, this work illuminates the district's Career Preparedness Systems Framework, which integrates affective and cognitive development opportunities, trade and professional development programs, and community engagement efforts. Matsuda and Brazer show how this framework, combined with a strengths-based approach that recognizes and affirms students' individual life experiences, helps meet the educational needs of all students, including those from traditionally underserved populations. Presenting secondary education as a means to support democracy, address employability gaps, and elevate student voice and purpose, this thought-provoking work provides ample ideas for how other districts might engage in educating for purposeful life.




The SAGE Handbook of School Organization


Book Description

The SAGE Handbook of School Organization provides a substantial review of the history, current status and future prospects of the field of school organization. Bringing together chapters exploring key issues, important debates and points of tension, the Handbook highlights school and system organisational structure, processes and dynamics coupled with insights into important theoretical foundations from diverse perspectives. This volume is designed to provide a much-needed, critically informed and coherent account of the field, against a backdrop of increasing complexity in which schooling as an institution and schools as organisations operate.




Let Them Thrive


Book Description

Argues for the Universal Design for Learning, an individualized system of education that accounts for student variations, and provides strategies, tips, and tools for parents to help support their child's learning.