Handbook of School Improvement

Handbook of School Improvement PDF Author: Jo Blase
Publisher: Corwin Press
ISBN: 1452230765
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
Learn how successful principals make a difference in their school’s performance! Based on a ground-breaking study and numerous firsthand accounts, this illuminating book captures unique perspectives from 20 outstanding principals, representing a wide range of urban and rural schools. This resource includes: The nine personal characteristics that help principals lead high-performing schools Practical strategies for balancing both administrative responsibilities and instructional leadership Guidance on using a systems-development approach to support excellence at every level Discussion of the use of research and data for school improvement Tips and suggestions from effective principals, along with recommended resources for further learning

Continuous School Improvement

Continuous School Improvement PDF Author: Mark A. Smylie
Publisher: Corwin Press
ISBN: 1452272220
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Book Description
"A hallmark volume by one of the nation′s most accomplished school improvement scholars. This is the most thoroughly researched, well-crafted, and useful volume on continuous improvement available. Smylie does for ′continuous improvement′ what Fullan did for change." —Joseph Murphy, Professor Vanderbilt University Discover what it takes to create lasting, positive change for your school, your teachers, and your students! Focusing on school change that improves teaching and learning, this guide for principals integrates evolutionary change theory with the research on continuous improvement. Mark A. Smylie begins with a succinct overview of organizational change that provides readers with the foundation they need to embark on a school change initiative. Interviews with educators involved with organizational change provide insightful examples and first-person responses to the challenges inherent in school change. Continuous School Improvement also addresses the major implementation problems that leaders face, such as: Building trust Creating a culture of mutual responsibility Building support Setting goals Responding to teachers′ stress in the face of change

The School Improvement Planning Handbook

The School Improvement Planning Handbook PDF Author: Daniel Linden Duke
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1610486315
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Book Description
Developing and updating school improvement plans is an annual ritual for virtually all school principals and their school improvement committees. Still, large numbers of schools continue to produce disappointing outcomes. The authors believe that part of the problem is the result of plans that focus on the wrong targets and that rely on ineffective strategies for improvement. To help principals and their school improvement committees develop and implement plans with a greater likelihood of success, the authors offer a step-by-step process for school improvement planning. They go on to pinpoint specific school improvement goals, including raising reading and mathematics achievement, building robust school cultures, addressing the needs of English language learners, improving instruction, and reducing absenteeism and dropouts. For each goal, a variety of objectives and proven strategies is presented along with sample school improvement plans. The book addresses the differences in planning to turn around a low-performing school, planning to sustain improvements over time, and planning to move a good school to a great school.

Design-Based School Improvement

Design-Based School Improvement PDF Author: Rick Mintrop
Publisher: Harvard Education Press
ISBN: 1612509045
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 407

Book Description
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.

Organizing Schools for Improvement

Organizing Schools for Improvement PDF Author: Anthony S. Bryk
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226078019
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
In 1988, the Chicago public school system decentralized, granting parents and communities significant resources and authority to reform their schools in dramatic ways. To track the effects of this bold experiment, the authors of Organizing Schools for Improvement collected a wealth of data on elementary schools in Chicago. Over a seven-year period they identified one hundred elementary schools that had substantially improved—and one hundred that had not. What did the successful schools do to accelerate student learning? The authors of this illuminating book identify a comprehensive set of practices and conditions that were key factors for improvement, including school leadership, the professional capacity of the faculty and staff, and a student-centered learning climate. In addition, they analyze the impact of social dynamics, including crime, critically examining the inextricable link between schools and their communities. Putting their data onto a more human scale, they also chronicle the stories of two neighboring schools with very different trajectories. The lessons gleaned from this groundbreaking study will be invaluable for anyone involved with urban education.

Response to Intervention and Continuous School Improvement

Response to Intervention and Continuous School Improvement PDF Author: Victoria L. Bernhardt
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1351977148
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 148

Book Description
Experts Bernhardt and Hébert's latest book demonstrates strategies to ensure your entire staff works together to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate a schoolwide prevention system with integrity and fidelity. Each step in this important resource is designed to help administrators, teachers, and other educators improve the learning of every student by implementing Response to Intervention (RtI) as part of a continuous school improvement process. This second edition spotlights the "Five Stages of RtI Implementation" and is complemented by the robust online RtI Implementation Guide, which includes more than 30 downloadable templates, examples, and other files to help schools start their journey of establishing a successful system. By applying the authors' insightful guidance in Response to Intervention (RtI) and Continuous School Improvement (CSI), you'll be able to redesign your general and special education programs to put your school on a path toward improvement!

The Principal and School Improvement

The Principal and School Improvement PDF Author: Amanda Heffernan
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811314950
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
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.

Using Data to Improve Student Learning in School Districts

Using Data to Improve Student Learning in School Districts PDF Author: Victoria Bernhardt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317922859
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 449

Book Description
This book helps you make sense of the data your school district collects, including state student achievement results as well as other qualitative and quantitative data. Easy-to-use templates, tools, and examples are available on the accompanying downloadable resources.

Improvement by Design

Improvement by Design PDF Author: David K. Cohen
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022608941X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
One of the great challenges now facing education reformers in the United States is how to devise a consistent and intelligent framework for instruction that will work across the nation’s notoriously fragmented and politically conflicted school systems. Various programs have tried to do that, but only a few have succeeded. Improvement by Design looks at three different programs, seeking to understand why two of them—America’s Choice and Success for All—worked, and why the third—Accelerated Schools Project—did not. The authors identify four critical puzzles that the successful programs were able to solve: design, implementation, improvement, and sustainability. Pinpointing the specific solutions that clearly improved instruction, they identify the key elements that all successful reform programs share. Offering urgently needed guidance for state and local school systems as they attempt to respond to future reform proposals, Improvement by Design gets America one step closer to truly successful education systems.

Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement

Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement PDF Author: Victoria Bernhardt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317930800
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
5 PERCEPTIONS; Changing Perceptions; Assessing Perceptions; Questionnaires; Designing Questionnaires: Begin With the End in Mind; Data Collection Considerations; Our Example Schools; Study Questions for Perceptions; Summary; 6 STUDENT LEARNING; Ways to Measure Student Learning; Grades; Analyzing the Results, Descriptively; Analyzing the Results, Inferentially; Measurement Error; Looking Across Student Learning Measures; Other Common Testing Terms; Our Example Schools; Study Questions for Student Learning; Summary; 7 SCHOOL PROCESSES; School Level Processes; Classroom Level Processes.