What's Worth Fighting for in Your School?


Book Description

In addition to its outstanding analysis of "total teachers" and school culture, this book provides action guidelines for teachers and for principals that are filled with insight that will help school educators take responsibility for reform.




What's Worth Fighting for in the Principalship?


Book Description

This book will help principals (and teacher leaders) fight for fundamentally positive changes that will benefit themselves and their students. Because principals are very often overloaded either with what they are actually doing or with all the things they think they should be doing, their actions, however unintentionally, are frequently shaped by outside events and/or the actions or directions of others. In the heart of this book, "Guidelines for Action, " the author helps principals break the cycle of dependency both for themselves and for those with whom they work.




What's Worth Fighting for Out There?


Book Description

As in the other two books in this series, the authors provide guidelines for teachers and principals to help them expand and improve their thinking and practice, and to show policy makers and communities what they can do and why they should do it for the sake of the future of children and society.




The Moral Imperative of School Leadership


Book Description

The time has come to change the context of school leadership! The role of the principal is pivotal to systemic school change. That is the fundamental message in The Moral Imperative of School Leadership, which extends the discussion begun in Fullan's earlier publication, What’s Worth Fighting for in the Principalship? The author examines the moral purpose of school leadership and its critical role in "changing the context" in which the role is embedded. In this bold step forward, Fullan calls for principals to become agents as well as beneficiaries of the processes of school change. Concepts explored in-depth include: Why "changing the context" should be the main agenda for the principalship Why barriers to the principalship exist Why the principal should be seen as the COO (chief operating officer) of a school Why the role of the principal should figure more prominently within the system




We Are Worth Fighting For


Book Description

The Howard University protests from the perspective and worldview of its participants We Are Worth Fighting For is the first history of the 1989 Howard University protest. The three-day occupation of the university’s Administration Building was a continuation of the student movements of the sixties and a unique challenge to the politics of the eighties. Upset at the university’s appointment of the Republican strategist Lee Atwater to the Board of Trustees, students forced the issue by shutting down the operations of the university. The protest, inspired in part by the emergence of “conscious” hip hop, helped to build support for the idea of student governance and drew upon a resurgent black nationalist ethos. At the center of this story is a student organization known as Black Nia F.O.R.C.E. Co-founded by Ras Baraka, the group was at the forefront of organizing the student mobilization at Howard during the spring of 1989 and thereafter. We Are Worth Fighting For explores how black student activists—young men and women— helped shape and resist the rightward shift and neoliberal foundations of American politics. This history adds to the literature on Black campus activism, Black Power studies, and the emerging histories of African American life in the 1980s.




The Principal


Book Description

The author of Six Secrets of Change describes how and why the principal's role must change to maximize student achievement *** FREE Professional Development Guide Included *** Principals are often called the second most crucial in-school influencers (after teachers) of student learning. But what should the principal do in order to maximize student achievement? One of the best-known leadership authors in education, Fullan explains why the answer lies neither in micro-managing instruction nor in autonomous entrepreneurialism. He shows systematically how the principal's role should change, demonstrating how it can be done in short order, at scale. Reveals the three key roles that administrators must play in today's schools Explains how to choose the right versus wrong drivers of school success Filled with "action items" to help implement Fullan's program effectively Includes strategies that have been successfully field-tested in schools across the United States and Canada




A Charter School Principal’s Story


Book Description

What happens when a Canadian principal, guided by the teachings of Fullan and Hargreaves, takes on the role of school leader in an inner-city charter school in the United States? This inside story of a principal in the DC charter school system, reveals much about the desire for educators and students to experience more than a life of multiple-choice testing that tends to be so commonplace in these schools. While such a case adds to the mound of research that supports the ‘change takes time’ findings, it nevertheless demonstrates the reality, on a day-to-day basis, of what’s worth fighting for in schools. Student and teacher engagement and empowerment matter, and to get to such ends, a school must fiercely focus on targets well beyond test scores. This book speaks about how a budget reveals school values, and by shifting resources to support staff and student development, a school, coping with regular turnover, can be filled with more confident and capable community members. A school crawling with leaders emerged as more student, teacher and non-instructional staff were supported in new roles, aimed at building an inspired culture, with the talent and capacity to move others to action. The old ways of ‘doing school’ do not address the needs of the 21st century learner, and while many forces with limited views of education were at play, this story does provide an example of what promising things can and should happen to increase engagement and learning in more charter schools across America. “Dr. Barbara Smith’s narrative of her times in public charter schools offers all of us insights into the struggle to create schools of high academic quality and compassionate care, worthy of her educational mandate and mission.” – David Booth, Professor Emeritus, The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto “Dr. Smith’s message inspires me to be an advocate for education and her work will inspire you as well!” – Jalen Rose, Chair of Board of Directors, Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, Detroit, Michigan, ESPN Commentator “This inside look provides an opportunity for innovation in a field that has held to aging standards for far too long!” – Diane C. Manica, Former Director, Leadership and Accreditation, University of Detroit Mercy




What's Worth Fighting for in the Principalship?


Book Description

The premise of this book about the new role of the principalship is that the educational system fosters principals' dependency. Effective school administration is based on empowerment and collaboration. This book examines the problem of dependency and how to overcome it. Section 1 describes the nonrational world of the principal, challenges to the principalship, and changes in the principal's role. Conservative practices that limit principals' success and reinforce dependency are identified. The theme of the second section, "New Conceptions of the Principalship," is that the present system is not working. Essential concepts and qualities of the new principal are outlined. Action guidelines for three parts of the problem are offered in section 3: (1) advice to incumbent principals on "what's worth fighting for"; (2) suggestions for school boards and system administrators; and (3) ideas for fostering the central role of perpetual learning. (38 references) (LMI)




Working With Difficult & Resistant Staff


Book Description

To move forward in the school improvement process, school leaders must address the behaviors of difficult and resistant staff members while sending the message that a few people cannot halt change. This book will help school leaders understand how to prevent and address negative behaviors to ensure positive school change.




Professional Capital


Book Description

The future of learning depends absolutely on the future of teaching. In this latest and most important collaboration, Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan show how the quality of teaching is captured in a compelling new idea: the professional capital of every teacher working together in every school. Speaking out against policies that result in a teaching force that is inexperienced, inexpensive, and exhausted in short order, these two world authorities--who know teaching and leadership inside out--set out a groundbreaking new agenda to transform the future of teaching and public education. Ideas-driven, evidence-based, and strategically powerful, Professional Capital combats the tired arguments and stereotypes of teachers and teaching and shows us how to change them by demanding more of the teaching profession and more from the systems that support it. This is a book that no one connected with schools can afford to ignore. This book features: (1) a powerful and practical solution to what ails American schools; (2) Action guidelines for all groups--individual teachers, administrators, schools and districts, state and federal leaders; (3) a next-generation update of core themes from the authors' bestselling book, "What's Worth Fighting for in Your School?" [This book was co-published with the Ontario Principals' Council.].