Designing High Performance Schools


Book Description

When so much is being said about restructuring schools and so little is actually being done successfully, it is a pleasant breath of fresh air to read Designing High Performance Schools. There is outcome-based education, year-round schools, alternative assessment, and site-based management. There are new methods for student evaluation, a return to nongraded schools, a redesigning of grouping, and attempts to connect classroom experiences with community-based activities. Wading through this maze of possibilities and unresolved solutions comes an answer for the critical decade of the 90s. If you are a school practitioner or a consultant working with schools, here is the most practical, step-by-step guidance available on how to plan, conduct, and evaluate a comprehensive and complex restructuring. Using a model derived from the fields of socio-technical systems design, business process reengineering, knowledge work, quality improvement, and organization development, this book lays out every aspect needed for restructuring.




Leading High-Performance School Systems


Book Description

WITH A FOREWORD BY LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND Did you know that close to half of today's jobs in the U.S. could be done by robots and that proportion is rapidly increasing? It is quite possible that about half of today's high school graduates will not have the knowledge or skills needed to get a decent job when they graduate. Tomorrow's high school graduates will be able to thrive in this environment, but only if school superintendents, central office executives, and principals use the strategies employed by the world's top-performing education systems to build the high-performance education systems today's students will need to succeed tomorrow. In Leading High-Performance School Systems: Lessons from the World's Best, Marc Tucker, a leading expert on top-performing school systems with more than 30 years of experience studying the global economy and education systems worldwide, details how top-performing school systems have met head-on the challenges facing school leaders today. You'll learn why our current system is obsolete, explore the knowledge and skills needed to design and build first-rate education systems, and gain a solid understanding of the key elements of high-performance school systems, including the following: A powerful, coherent instructional system with school-leaving certifications that mean much more than today's high school diploma. Partnerships with first-rate universities to ensure a steady supply of highly capable, well-educated, and well-trained teachers. Schools reorganized around highly qualified professional teachers with a career ladder they can climb. High expectations and personalized support to ensure that children arrive at each grade level ready to learn. An equitable system that closes the gaps in student performance. Vocational education for talented youth seeking an applied, academically rigorous education. Leading High-Performance School Systems is an invaluable resource for school leaders preparing today's students for tomorrow's world. This book is a copublication of ASCD and NCEE.







Designing Organizations for High Performance


Book Description

A practical guide to developing higher levels of performance in large organizations through changes in strategy, organization design, and culture. This guide presents detailed descriptions of ways in which individuals intervened in their organizations, how they arrived at their plans, and how it resulted in improved effectiveness and better business results for the organization.




Trusting Teachers with School Success


Book Description

Lately, our nation's strategy for improving our schools is mostly limited to "getting tough" with teachers. Blaming teachers for poor outcomes, we spend almost all of our energy trying to control teachers' behavior and school operations. But what if all of this is exactly the opposite of what is needed? What if teachers are the answer and not the problem? What if trusting teachers, and not controlling them, is the key to school success? Examining the experiences of teachers who are already trusted to call the shots, this book answers: What would teachers do if they had the autonomy not just to make classroom decisions, but to collectively--with their colleagues--make the decisions influencing whole school success? Decisions such as school curriculum, how to allocate the school budget, and whom to hire. Teachers with decision-making authority create the schools that many of us profess to want. They individualize learning. Their students are active (not passive) learners who gain academic and life skills. The teachers create school cultures that are the same as those in high-performing organizations. They accept accountability and innovate, and make efficient use of resources. These promising results suggest: it's time to trust teachers.




The SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership


Book Description

The SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership is a landmark work with contributions from 37 internationally renowned scholars covering an extensive range of issues confronting the field of educational leadership and administration. The Handbook reviews how leadership was redefined by management and organizational theory in its quest to become scientific, then looks forward to promising theories, concepts, and practices that show potential for development and application. This Handbook represents the establishment of a new tradition in educational leadership. It thoroughly covers a broad range of issues pertaining to curriculum leadership, supervision, teacher evaluation, budgeting, planning, school design, and issues facing the principalship and the superintendency in the United States.




Safe and Healthy School Environments


Book Description

Millions of children and adults across the nation spend their days in school buildings, and they need safe, healthy environments to thrive, learn, and succeed. This book explores the school environment using the methods and perspectives of environmental health science. Though environmental healht has long been understood to be an important factor in workplaces, homes, and communities, this is the first book to address the same basic concerns in schools. The editors are physicians and educators trained in pediatrics, occupational and environmental medicine, and medical toxicology, and the authors are experts in their fields drawn from across the United States and abroad. Each section of the book addresses a different concern facing schools today. In the first six sections, the various aspects of the school environment are examined. Chapters include the physical environment of the school, air quality issues, pest control, cleaning methods, food safety, safe designs of playgrounds and sports fields, crime and violence prevention, and transportation. In the last two sections, recommendations are made for school administrators on how to maximize the health of their schools. Appropriately evaluating the school environment, implementing strategies to address children and adults with disabilities, emphasizing health services, infectious disease prevention and recognition, and occupational health for faculty and staff are all addressed. The entire book is evidence-based, readable, generously illustrated, and practical. An indispensable resource for parents, school staff, administrators, government officials, and health professionals, this book is for anyone who cares about the health of our schools.




Designing the Sustainable School


Book Description

Having designed more than 75 K-12 school projects, and with a long-standing commitment to sustainability and a passion for architecture, Alan Ford is perfectly positioned to present this illuminating collection of sustainable school projects from around the world. Designing the Sustainable School is a compendium of ideas illustrating how some very talented architects and committed facility planners are meeting the challenge of creating better schools for the 21st century. They are creating schools that are eco-friendly, embody high-performance design principles, are rich in architectural character, and enhance the health and well-being of students and teachers. The projects represent a wide range of design solutions, aesthetics, location, and scale, ranging in size from the Aga Khan Award-winning three-room schoolhouse in Burkina Faso by Diebedo Francis Kere, to the 2500-student, 260,000-square-foot high school in Santa Ana, California by LPA Architects. Each of the 45 featured projects is presented with an overview of the components of the high-performance "tool kit" employed by architects to achieve sustainable design goals. Collectively, these demonstrate the breadth of tools that today's architects can employ to build a sustainable future for our children.




Extreme Textiles


Book Description

"Featuring examples of fully realized products from all classes of technical textiles--architectural, product design, apparel, medicine, transportation, aerospace, industry, and the environment--Extreme Textiles highlights successful collaborations between design, industry, and science. Large, full-color illustrations and essays by some of today's most influential designers and scientists trace the extraordinary developments made in textiles over the last twenty years and suggest what is to come"--Back cover.




Green Schools


Book Description