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School-University Partnerships offers an introductory guide for education faculty members and in-service school professionals seeking clinically rich teaching experiences. It provides distinctive learning opportunities and professional development for all stakeholders through collaborative planning and by leveraging resources. Keli Garas-York presents Professional Development Schools (PDS) structures that can be tailored to the specific needs of an institution and its partners. Drawing on the 2021 NAPDS (National Association of Professional Development Schools) framework, which outlines the Nine Essentials, Garas-York defines what it means to be a PDS. Examples of the various aspects of school-university partnerships are provided, as well as document templates to help formalize and organize a consortium and tackle real-world scenarios. This text will be useful to educators interested in developing local school-university partnerships.

Collective Vision: Igniting District and School Improvement describes a school district's 10-year journey of transformation. It began with the creation of a district-wide shared vision, mission, and values, using an appreciative inquiry process that engaged all stakeholders in the school district, thus establishing shared ownership and responsibility for the outcomes. The book demonstrates how the power of a collective vision and collaborative inquiry across a system helps establish a district-wide culture of collective efficacy, resulting in improved outcomes. In the field of education promising practices are sometimes discarded before improvements can be observed and schools are often charged with the responsibility for improvement without being given enough support or guidance from the district.This story describes how continuous inquiry and district support for promising practices led to significant improvement and transformation. The book serves as a practical guide that provides useful “lessons learned” and questions for self-reflection throughout. Educators at all levels of the system will be inspired to take action toward district and school improvement.

The purpose of this book is to help secondary school principals and college faculty fulfill their key role for continuous improvement planning of educational practices and safety at their institution. Rapid social and technological advances have motivated the consideration of student voice in schools across the United States. By merging student voice and educator expertise, an intergenerational perspective can emerge that more accurately portrays the strengths and limitations of a school. Strom and Strom began their research on student voice by partnering with adolescents and principals from several schools to identify topics they saw as appropriate for polling to improve schools. This effort led to the development of ten polls on school stress, career exploration, time management, attention and distraction, tutoring, peer support, school cheating, frustration, cyberbullying, and Internet learning. Every poll contains 15 to 20 multiple-choice items. The process model for polling includes a step-by-step procedure that educational leaders can use to plan and implement school improvement. Different methods of data analysis and ways to report overall evidence-based school results are presented by age, gender, grade and ethnicity. Student polling is distinctive from other assessment strategies because the target for data gathering is a single school, without comparison to other schools. This narrow base to assess student voice ensures poll results are anonymous and have local relevance to guide stakeholder responses. The results of polling can provide data-based evidence that can be used for continuous education improvement planning. An additional benefit is to separately assess students in special education, gifted and talented programs, and second language acquisition learners. Our web site at learningpolls.org is intended to further inform educational leaders and invite their collaboration.

While several texts provide pedagogical and theoretical insights on improvement science for faculty, graduate students, and educational leaders, practitioners'voices are seldom heard. Improvement Science in the Field: Cases of Practitioners Leading Change in Schools fills this gap by presenting real-life cases of K-12 practitioners'use of improvement science to lead change in their educational systems.Improvement Science in the Field: Cases of Practitioners Leading Change in Schools contains two sections. Part I presents practitioners'accounts of their use of improvement science to address actual problems of practice, such as closing discipline and achievement gaps, managing teacher stress and mental health, and improving school climate. Part II follows a tradition of case-based teaching in which authors provide part of their improvement journey and then invite readers to practice, discuss, brainstorm, and reflect on how they would address the problem presented using the tools of improvement science.

In their haste to help students, many schools often gloss over the foundational work of professional learning communities (PLCs). In The Foundation for Change, educators learn how to transform their school's mission, vision, values, and goals to frame the mindsets and actions in a PLC that lead to school improvement and high levels of learning for all. This book helps K–12 teachers, leaders, and administrators: Follow the journey of one school as it moves through the steps of the PLC at Work® process Understand how educators can contribute to developing and integrating the four pillars into classroom practice Clarify the role of the guiding coalition in implementing the four pillars as the foundation for changing school culture Reflect on chapter content with end-of-chapter questions for deeper learning Gain practical templates, charts, and other reproducible tools and resources Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Mission—Clarifying Why Your School Exists Chapter 2: Vision—Making the School You Want to Become a Reality Chapter 3: Collective Commitments—Practicing Transformative Behaviors Chapter 4: Goals—Embracing SMART Goals in Collaborative Teams Epilogue: Framing Your Journey Appendix References and Resources Index

Schools are the bridge to the future. Their success is vital for the success of communities and the country. There are opportunities and avenues to improvement that are unfortunately overlooked and underutilized. The path to improving schools, districts and education overall is not a singular one, but there are common areas that should be explored. Improving Schools: Simple Approaches and Understandings to Realize Growth is an exploration of those common areas that if given the correct attention and focus could serve to improve schools. For example, A lack of focus on adult learning theory is limiting the impact of learning for educators and administrators alike. Other areas explored are the idea of human resource development, leveraging local resources, licensure, online learning, climate, and a renewed focus on the teacher. Through a solution oriented mindset and a commitment to improve, this text can help anyone with influence refocus to find a path to improvement in education.

Cultivating Behavioral Change in K-12 Students provides in-service educators with a long-term, team-based approach to enhancing their interventions and supports for struggling students. Given the clear visibility of trauma, crisis, and clinical challenges among children today, it is more important than ever that school professionals have the tools to create a more consistent culture of care at their schools. This book is driven by tried-and-true strategies refined across the three decades of implementation of the Behavior Intervention Support Team (BIST) Model. Comprehensive and compassionate, these evidence-based practices target the sustainable transformation of young learners'behavior and help to shift the mindsets of the adults working with them. Principals, administrators, mental health practitioners, and teacher-leaders will be better prepared and motivated to collaborate toward student behavioral change, foster productive relationships with children and families, encourage learners to hone skills specific to behavior management, and more.

This is the updated edition of the bestselling seminal book on school leadership, equity, and social justice. Drawing on the experiences and words of successful public-school principals, Theoharis shows why social justice leadership is needed and how it can be effective in creating more equitable schools. Although they faced tremendous barriers, the principals featured in this book made important strides toward closing the outcome and opportunity gaps in their schools by using inclusive, equitable practices. Featuring a mix of theory and practical strategies, this edition has been updated with new examples and frameworks relevant to today's leaders. Responding to the current context of national resistance to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, this timely book portrays how real school leaders seek, create, and sustain equitable schools, especially for marginalized students. The School Leaders Our Children Deserve identifies seven keys that are crucial for social justice leadership: Key 1: Acquire Broad, Reconceptualized Consciousness/Knowledge/Skill BaseKey 2: Possess Core Leadership TraitsKey 3: Advance Inclusion, Access, and Opportunity for AllKey 4: Improve the Core Learning Context—Both the Teaching and the CurriculumKey 5: Create a Climate of Belonging Key 6: Increase Student LearningKey 7: Sustain Oneself Professionally and Personally. PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION— “Theoharis does a beautiful job at marrying research with practical application that can be utilized by school administrators.” —Journal of Educational Administration “Presents a hopeful, humanistic, and democratic approach to school reform that many will no doubt wish to replicate.” —American School Board Journal “An important book that deserves a wide readership.” —Michael W. Apple

To address today's numerous goals and challenges, K–12 schools need transformational leaders—leaders able to substantively enhance and improve educational systems and educator practices in order to achieve better, longer-lasting outcomes for all students. This practical resource is for superintendents, principals, and other education leaders who are charged with rapidly improving their schools and districts. Grounded in WestEd's research-based and field-tested Four Domains of Rapid School Improvement framework, this book offers guidance, support, and resources in the areas of school turnaround, talent development, instructional transformation, and culture shift. Every chapter includes prompts to encourage reflection and discussion with colleagues, as well as action steps to put guidance into practice. Transformational Leadership for Rapid School Improvement can be used as a text for educational leadership courses and for professional learning with practicing principals and superintendents. Contributors: Jenny Betz, Deborah A. Bradley, Andrea Browning, Alexis Stern, Rebecca Cerna, Shandy Hauk, Nancy Gerzon, Shazia Hashmi, Stephen C. Hamilton, Nancy Hurley, Joyce Kaser, Nakanya Magby, Dona Meinders, Michael Middleton, Michael P. Nagler, Maria Paredes, Christina Pate, Kristen Reedy, Robert Rosenfeld, Saroja Warner

Promoting equity and improvement science has seen increased attention over the last several years as educators seek to expand the experiences, opportunities, and outcomes for marginalized students. This book shows school and district leaders how to create the conditions needed to use improvement science—with its robust collection of tools, resources, and processes—to achieve equity. Readers will find information about equity, continuous improvement, and the psychology of change that can be used to productively and respectfully engage all stakeholders. Chapters include the rationale for employing improvement science to pursue equity; advice for developing the dispositions of an equity-focused leader who thinks differently about power, possibility, and measurement; and guidance for facilitating conversations in the service of equitable improvement. Equitable School Improvement is important reading for teachers, coaches, principals, central office leaders, and any educator who wants to be part of creating a more socially just educational system for our children. Book Features: Elaborates on the habits and practices that need to be developed if educators are to overcome the significant barriers to talk about transformation in the service of equity. Focuses on the human side of change, including honoring people and their stories and dismantling power structures that interfere with change. Provides guidance to leaders at all levels for creating the conditions for equity-focused improvement work. Moves beyond deficit perspectives and outmoded tropes, such as goals have agency, teachers are resistant, and race causes low achievement. Makes the tools contained in improvement science more accessible to today's equity leaders.

25 years on, the PLC at Work® process continues to produce results across the United States and worldwide. In this fourth edition of the bestseller Learning by Doing, the authors use updated research and time-tested knowledge to address current education challenges, from learning gaps exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic to the need to drive a highly effective multitiered system of supports. This book will help K–12 administrators, school leaders, and teacher teams: Build shared knowledge of both critical vocabulary and the concepts underlying the key PLC terms Learn new, more in-depth strategies for coaching in a PLC at Work Make honest assessments of student learning, examine their school culture, and implement conventional practices from a fresh, critical perspective Take immediate and specific steps to close the knowing-doing gap and implement PLC concepts in their school and district Recognize that the knowledge needed to support students in achieving higher levels is readily available, and the next step is to transform this awareness into an action plan for school improvement Follow the step-by-step format outlined in each chapter to advance their school's PLC journey and drive continuous improvement Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: A Guide to Action for Professional Learning Communities at Work Chapter 2: Defining a Clear and Compelling Purpose Chapter 3: Building the Collaborative Culture of a Professional Learning Community Chapter 4: Coaching Collaborative Teams in a Professional Learning Community at Work Chapter 5: Creating a Results Orientation in a Professional Learning Community Chapter 6: Establishing a Focus on Learning Chapter 7: Creating Team-Developed Common Formative Assessments Chapter 8: Responding When Some Students Don't Learn Chapter 9: Hiring, Orienting, and Retaining New Staff Chapter 10: Addressing Conflict and Celebrating in a Professional Learning Community Chapter 11: Implementing the Professional Learning Community Process Districtwide Conclusion: Touching the Emotions—Creating a Culture of Caring References Index

Discover models, strategies, and real-life stories to strengthen your collaborative practices. Cooperation, coordination of services, and impactful collaboration are critical to the success of multilingual learners with exceptional needs. Written by experts in the fields of language and literacy development, equity, and special education, this practical guide emphasizes the power of partnership and inclusive pedagogy to transform educational practices for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Through six comprehensive chapters, the book offers strategies for effective co-planning, co-assessment, and co-teaching, while emphasizing the importance of cultural responsiveness and equitable classroom-based approaches for multilingual learners with exceptionalities. Each chapter includes opening sketch notes offering a visual representation of key ideas, anchor and reflection questions, and additional resources for extended professional learning. Other unique features include: Integration of Universal Design for Learning throughout the book with unique adaptations for multilingual learners Real-life scenarios of successful collaborative practices and innovations developed by educators of dually identified multilingual learners Leadership-specific recommendations to support the success of initiatives for multilingual learners with exceptionalities Essential tools and protocols to implement equitable classroom-based approaches for creating inclusive, collaborative learning environments Both a practical guide and an urgent call-to-action, this book supports educators, districts, and communities to embrace collaboration, combine their professional expertise, and use shared voices to advocate for multilingual learners with exceptionalities.

Linking broad-based public service to post-secondary education is the best way to make our society more free. Access to college ought to be a social right of citizenship. The core idea in T.H. Marshall's concept of social citizenship is that, in addition to civil and political rights, people hold social rights, including guarantees to housing, health care, basic income, and, especially, an adequate education. These are resources we all need to participate in society as full and equal members. In America, opponents of these guarantees have effectively mobilized deeply held liberal ideas, arguing that state action is a threat to freedom. Against this, progressive arguments about fairness have fallen flat. Looking outside liberalism, this book offers a new approach. It argues, first, the civic republican tradition provides an authentically American basis for the social rights of citizenship. Republicanism understands that true freedom requires a degree of personal independence. The ultimate justification for egalitarian policies, especially in education, is that they make us more free. Second, our first major policy step in this direction ought to be adopting a large-scale service-to-school program designed to increase access to post-secondary education.

Teachers today have a window of opportunity to shape education in a way that will impact the profession for generations. In this compelling and comprehensive book, educator and best-selling author Anthony Muhammad explores the educational hurdles of the past in the context of present-day concerns and envisions an education system where all schools energetically embrace the PLC at Work® process. This book will help K–12 educators: Reflect on the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning and educator approaches Gain insight on what professional learning communities are Differentiate between PLC and PLC Lite and understand the role of commitment in an effective PLC Apply lessons learned from past challenges in education to present-day concerns Determine how to face teacher morale and retention, student trauma and mental health, inequitable funding and accountability systems, and student academic achievement gaps Understand the racial, gender, and disability movements of the past Contents: Foreword by Robert Eaker Introduction Chapter 1: A Moment of Clarity Chapter 2: The Past—How Did We Get Here? Chapter 3: The Present—Where Are We Now? Chapter 4: The Future—Where Do We Go From Here? Chapter 5: Staying the Course—Are We Implementing PLC Right or PLC Lite? Afterword Appendix References

Create space for equity conversations that empower Equity work is not a destination, but a journey. Equity work is nuanced and often difficult to discuss. In The Equity Expression, Hubbard creates space for equity conversations and empowers practitioners to be equity change agents. Built around the framework of six entry points—systems, mindsets, relationships, products, spaces, and processes—this guide serves as a tool for deliberate and productive planning for equitable change. Reaching into the deepest layers of self to identify personal beliefs, practitioners can use this book to tackle hard truths and challenge themselves to do better. This book provides a fresh take on dissecting equity with a lens to positively impact all students, including Concrete sequential steps to work towards solutions A set of tools to identify problems of practice and establish implementation plans through the six entry points for equity Reflection questions to help educators turn findings into actionable plans For those committed to helping students succeed, the steps outlined in this book provide meaningful solutions to embed equity into every learning culture.

The Gatekeepers is a comprehensive review of many parts of a school system that resist change. For all stakeholders to embrace improvement, they need to know what habits, practices and indifference act as barriers to growth and change. This book reveals insiders insights into what gates exist, how to navigate around them, and why it is important to risk new ways of doing school.

Improving America's Schools Together: How District-University Partnerships and Continuous Improvement Can Transform Education is the first definitive text on continuous improvement in school district-university partnerships, covering improvement methods, theory, research, and real cases across the United States with practical improvement tools that can be adapted to any setting. Through an array of in-depth stories, this book demonstrates how improvement science—as a shared method—can help universities, districts, and schools foster leaders and educators and enhance students'learning and opportunities.

School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Preparing Educators and Improving Schools, 3rd Edition prepares future teachers and administrators to conduct effective and equitable programs of family and community engagement that contribute to student success in school. Renowned authors Joyce L. Epstein and Steven B. Sheldon present the theories, research, policies, and practices that have been shown to improve the design and conduct of partnership programs in diverse communities and at all grade levels. Chapters include a historic overview of early research, recent studies with advanced methods, and many examples of research-based approaches for district leadership and school improvement. All chapters include discussion questions and classroom assignments that professors may use to provoke thinking and help future educators understand that family and community engagement is part of their professional work.New in this 3rd Edition: Updated, streamlined readings make it easy for students to explore early, influential studies that framed the field and recent studies of multilevel effects of leadership for partnerships. Comments, discussion topics, and classroom activities challenge students to think deeply about many aspects and issues of school, family, and community partnerships. Interview assignments enable students to hear the voices and views on partnerships of practicing educators, parents, students, and others in the community. Readings and activities across chapters help colleges and universities meet new standards of the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) for graduates to'demonstrate their ability to effectively work with diverse P-12 students and their families.'After decades of research and exemplary practice that confirm that family and community engagement is an essential component of good school organization, most new teachers and administrators still are unprepared to partner with all families to support student learning and development. This book will help professors in Schools, Colleges, and Departments of Education (SCDE) prepare their graduates to understand, organize, and continually improve partnership programs in all schools, with all families, and for all students.

As early childhood learning environments grow more and more diverse, schools and programs must address inequitable practices and policies so that every child learns, belongs, and thrives. The practical solutions programs need are in this groundbreaking book, the first guide to coaching early childhood educators in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging (DEIAB) practices. Expertly converting theory into concrete action steps, this book is a reader‐friendly, step‐by‐step guide to launching transformative DEIAB work—or expanding the work your program or school is already doing. You'll discover how to coach early childhood educators in creating an equity‐focused classroom culture, providing them with guidance on instructional delivery, curriculum content, and teaching materials. You'll learn how to advance multicultural education by implementing big‐picture changes to program policies, hiring practices, and marketing materials. Throughout the book, an illuminating case study traces the progress and setbacks of a sample program as they use an equity‐based lens to enhance their learning environments and teaching practices. An essential professional development resource for school and program leaders and an ideal textbook for early education courses, this timely book will help you empower educators to ensure equity, access, and belonging for all children and families. Learn How To: Use the invaluable Anti‐Ism Scale to assess your program's current status and monitor growth Recognize your program's'hidden curriculum'—biases embedded in policies, practices, and materials Identify how the intersectionality of social identities influence each person's experiences, both positively and negatively Create an effective action plan to coach educators on a journey toward greater equality and inclusion Put your DEIAB plan into action through book studies, Equity and Diversity Workgroups, and other team learning opportunities Implement structural changes to support a multicultural curriculum, diverse staffing, and policies that uplift everyone Overcome obstacles to DEIAB work, from communication blocks to staff and community resistance Ensure continuous growth and improvement through ongoing assessment and reflection

Explore how to provide equitable literacy instruction and assessment so every student masters essential standards. The authors help K–6 educators navigate reading and writing instruction through the lens of Professional Learning Communities at Work®. Learn strategies for utilizing data as collaborative teams to answer the four critical questions of learning, and access templates and protocols to improve literacy for all. This book will help K–6 teachers and reading specialists: Analyze and improve their current literacy practices, curriculum, and instructional focus within the context of a PLC at Work Create or curate common formative team literacy assessments for learning targets Structure a supportive master schedule that allows for daily team collaboration and systemwide response Understand the components of a comprehensive literacy instructional block Create progress-monitoring tools and focused reading interventions and extensions Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Take Collective Responsibility and Work Interdependently Chapter 2: Ensure a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Chapter 3: Assess and Monitor Student Reading Growth With Ongoing Assessment Chapter 4: Measure Evidence of Individual and Collective Teacher Practice Effectiveness Chapter 5: Support Systematically With Targeted Acceleration, Interventions, and Extensions Afterword: TEAMS Can Transform Literacy Outcomes for Students Appendix A: TEAMS Process Protocols Appendix B: TEAMS Templates References and Resources Index

The book is both a call to action and a how-to guide to effective teaching. It is written in a readable, accessible style, yet it is supported by a wealth of knowledge and experience. The intended audience is aspiring and current secondary school teachers and administrators, curriculum directors, and college education professors, as well as lay people interested in practical progressive education. This book offers dozens of strategies and original ideas to enhance teaching all manner of students in all kinds of secondary schools.

During the past two decades, Chris Confer and Marco Ramirez have worked to deepen and improve mathematics instruction at schools around the country. Wherever they go, they find the raw ingredients for success already present: The potential for positive change lies within each school. Abundance is present in the form of capable children, teachers, coaches, and principals. Potential energy -- what can be -- transforms into kinetic energywhat will beonly when a force is accurately applied to move a school in the right direction. In'Small Steps, Big Changes: Eight Essential Practices for Transforming Schools Through Mathematics, the authors identify eight tested principles that transform what can be an overwhelming process into a set of comprehensible and concrete steps. Each phase of the change process is brought to life through the stories and perspectives of teachers, coaches, and principalsstories that will strike familiar chords for every educator. When teachers make sense of math, students learn to make sense of math, and that can profoundly change the entire culture of a school. In one vivid illustration, the authors tell the story of Pueblo Gardens Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona, where Marco, as principal, and Chris, as instructional coach, worked alongside a group of dedicated teachers. A few years into the change process, Pueblo Gardens -- a school with 96 percent of its students at the poverty level and a high percentage of English language learners -- had 94 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards in third-grade mathematics. Over time, other grades achieved similarly high scores. And once the test scores rose, they were sustained at high levels.

Principals wear many hats, but the most significant role they have is improving teaching and learning so all students are successful. Bridging Leadership and School Improvement: Advice from the Field features narratives of successful principals across multiple states in the US, who have not only improved their schools but have created supportive and inclusive learning communities for both teachers and students. Each practitioner-author discusses an improvement practice that they successfully implemented in their school and key theories that support their practice. This book highlights how successful school leaders bridge theory and practice to improve school cultures, teaching, and learning.

Despite decades of increased state and federal funding for education, student outcomes have largely deteriorated: according to the 2022 NAEP exam results, reading and math capabilities hit a thirty-year low. The emerging workforce is less prepared to handle the increasingly complex demands of the future, which is likely to accelerate income inequality and stifle our nation's economic and social competitiveness. Presenting the latest research on the economics of K-12 education, this book makes recommendations about specific educational programming that have shown potential in increasing student outcomes for all learners, focusing on human capital and practical recommendations for state and local policy makers and educational leaders.

Teaching dual language learners? You're not alone! When implemented with commitment to collaboration, dual language programs work—and two teachers are better than one. Leveraging the power of teacher collaboration is the key to leading all your students to multilingual identity development and language, literacy, and academic success. This practical book adapts a widely used, evidence-based collaboration and co-teaching framework specifically for educators in dual language contexts. Features include: Special consideration to social justice and promoting critical consciousness Viable options for schools, districts, and state education agencies to effectively support and expand dual language education Seven proven co-teaching models, newly applied to elementary and secondary dual language environments Templates and tools for collaborative curriculum alignment and implementation of dual language instruction Authentic examples of success from collaborative dual language teams around the US and beyond More and more schools are implementing dual language programs to serve multilingual learners. This first-of-its-kind innovative resource helps collaborating educators work together to design, deliver, and assess engaging instruction for multilingualism and multiliteracies.

This book offers important insights into the complex nature of educational accountability and its role in supporting school improvement. By developing two key concepts – educational accountability and American federalism – the book highlights various types of accountability that take place in different institutional settings.By moving beyond the long-standing, test-based, administrative approach to accountability, the author demonstrates how professional, market, and political accountability affect teaching, learning, and educational policymaking. The book examines four accountability types: administrative accountability, professional accountability, market accountability, and political accountability. The volume questions why these accountability types vary in their development and use across the country, and considers how American federalism – national, state, and local – provides different political arenas with variation in ideas, interests, and institutions that prompt different policymaking approaches. The book concludes with a two-tier proposal for internal accountability organized around teacher professionalism and external accountability combining elements of school choice and public deliberation.This volume will be important reading for scholars and researchers in Federalism, Education Policy, and Public Administration. It will also be beneficial reading for policymakers, think tanks, and community organizations.

Through this book, we seek to describe improvement science in action for educators, schools, districts, universities, and communities. This book is a venue for improvement research in education focused on the application of improvement science in educational settings. Improvement science requires extensive engagement in rigorous work to implement sustainable change at a systemic level. As the editors of this volume for the Leadership in School Improvement SIG book series, we hope that these chapters, written by researchers, practitioners, and leaders engaged in improvement science will help others begin their own improvement processes to achieve desired, equitable, and sustainable results for student success. ENDORSEMENTS:'Continuous Improvement: A Leadership Process for School Improvement brings together an impressive group of fieldleading improvement scholars, with deep connections to educational practice, to provide a powerful vision for what equity-centered improvement science looks like in action. The stories of improvement, partnership, and critical enabling conditions provide theoretically sound and practically useful guidance for anyone seeking to transform education organizations in service of more equitable learning opportunities for students.'— Jennifer Lin Russell, Vanderbilt Peabody College'This is a moment of empowerment in education, with movements for social justice and continuous improvement providing motivations and methods to interrogate, disrupt, and rebuild education systems to support the holistic development of all students. This essential book provides compelling accounts of what it looks like -- and what is possible -- when educational professionals, researchers, and other stakeholders come together to seize this moment.'— Donald Peurach, University of Michigan's School of Education and Carnegie Foundation

Changes to Improve Schools is a book about educational reform. Richard Garrett has spent ten years researching the U.S. K-12 system to find things in need of improvements. The book has 17 chapters that cover a wide range of topics such as the performance of American students, classroom discipline, and apprehensions younger graduates face when deciding to pursue educational fields.

An eye-opening 2022 Gallup poll shows that a majority (55%) of American parents are “somewhat to completely dissatisfied” with the schools their children attend. Meanwhile, a 2022 CDC survey of 7,705 high school students found that 44% of them described persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness with 9% admitting to having made an attempt at suicide. After 45 years of teaching kids and leading schools, Malcolm Gauld offers a blunt explanation of how we got here: “We care more about what they can do than about who they are, and they know it.”The solution lies in a reordering of priorities where our schools come to value attitude over aptitude, effort over ability, and character over talent. This book offers a blueprint for how to do that. The first step in enacting this shift calls upon school leaders to look deeply and honestly at the quality of the cultures in their schools. The author pointedly observes, “Every school has a culture. Is yours by design or default?”After a thorough exploration of the nature of culture, the author introduces and describes a dynamic school culture improvement program called the Discovery Process, explaining how it has been implemented in both public and private schools. The program, aligned with national social and emotional learning (SEL) standards, is presented as a concrete approach to Culture by Design.

This book is for education leaders who do not accept the that the underachievement of African American, Latino, Indigenous, low income and other vulnerable student groups is inevitable. Where Equity Lives: Shattering Systemic Inequity in Schools and Districts is the result of 25 years of studying over 300 schools and districts struggling to overturn the longstanding pattern of under achievement of the same demographic groups. This book is a reveal of the five most common systemic inequity traps identified through the Study of Studies that help explain historic achievement patterns. The authors lay out achievable paths of possibilities for education leaders to reverse decades of under achievement. Actionable insights are shared through real-life stories of schools and districts that struggled with and took action to address each of these traps. Chapters contain equity hooks—easy to remember cues of complete, complex, and nuanced leadership takeaways. Online templates are available for teams of leaders to apply the guidance from each chapter to your school system so that vulnerable students arrive at the spot where equity lives, that magnificent place where demographics no longer predict achievement.

Leadership in organizations is going through unprecedented change. In the past compliance, conformity, and command and control were adequate for product-based world in education and business. As the world moves toward more knowledge work and a VUCA (volatile, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) society, building cultures of continual learning will be required.The WHY of the book is to create and sustain organization that will deal effectively with many changes. Our life is being driven by technology, unintended consequences, and the unknown. To deal with these changes and others, organizations will need cultures that promote learning.The HOW are the 7Cs: Communication, Collaboration, Coaching, Change, Conflict, Creativity, and Courage. Each of these are important elements of a more productive system.The WHAT include results that include Cultural Competence, Coaching Tools, and building a Commonwealth of practices to sustain growth and adaptability.If you want to save TIME, this book is for you. Enjoy the journey.

Districts and schools often count on coaching to promote student learning and organizational change. Across the United States, a wide variety of coaches engage in various types of work with teachers as well as school leaders. But coaching is often loosely defined, weakly supported, and ultimately underutilized and, as a consequence, its promise and potential have not been fully realized. In this book, the authors address misconceptions about the goals of coaching, what it involves, and how it aligns with reform efforts. They advance a new, coherent framing of coaching as a lever for strategic, equitable school improvement. Bridging research, theory, policy, and practice, this book provides insights to help educational reformers and district and school leaders strengthen the structures and activities of coaching. This timely book illustrates how to make coaching matter by assembling infrastructure and creating conditions so that coaching advances change in robust, sustaining, and equitable ways. Book Features:Provides useful information for educational leaders whose expertise may not extend to coaching, including tools and reflective questions.Offers a strong theoretical and research-based foundation, along with the authors'collective experience as researchers and practitioners and the voices of coaches and other educational leaders.Advocates for a coaching model that supports a district's overall strategy for centering equity and improving student learning. Describes how to build capacity and continuously improve coaching, and how to support coaching through leadership, logistics, and resources.

How can we “fix” our schools? Improve graduation rates in college? What works?These are questions that make the headlines and vex policy makers, practitioners, and educational researchers. While they strive to improve society, there are frequently gulfs of mutual incomprehension among them.Academics, longing for more influence, may wrongly fault irrationality, ideology, or ignorance for the failure of research to inform policy and practice more powerfully. Policy makers and practitioners may doubt that academics can deliver ideas that will reliably yield desirable results. This book bridges the divide. It argues that unrealistic expectations lead to both unproductive research and impossible standards for “evidence-based” policy and practice, and it offers promising ways for evidence to contribute to improvement. It analyzes the utility and limitations of the different research methods that have been applied to policy and practice, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of educational reform strategies. It explains why using evidence for “accountability” often makes things worse rather than better.Paul Lingenfelter offers educational researchers and policy makers a framework for considering such questions as: What problems are important and accessible? What methods will be fruitful? Which help policy makers and practitioners make choices and learn how to improve? What information is relevant? What knowledge is valid and useful? How can policy makers and practitioners establish a more productive division of labor based on their respective capabilities and limitations? He cautions against the illusion that straight-forward scientific approaches and data can be successfully applied to society's most complex problems. While explaining why no single policy or intervention can solve complex problems, he concludes that determination, measurement, analysis, and adaptation based on evidence in specific situations can lead to significant improvement. This positive, even-handed introduction to the use of research for problem-solving concludes by suggesting emerging practices and approaches that can help scholars, practitioners, and policy leaders become more successful in reaching their fundamental goals.

From leading authorities, this indispensable work is now in a revised and expanded second edition, presenting state-of-the-art tools and procedures for practitioners. The book shows how to use response to intervention (RTI) to evaluate K–12 students for specific learning disabilities (SLD). The second edition gives increased attention to optimizing the instructional environment in the context of a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). Procedures are described for screening at-risk students; using RTI to intensify instruction in reading, writing, and math; identifying SLD; determining eligibility for special education; and planning individualized education programs. Case examples and pointers for practice are woven throughout. In a convenient large-size format, the book includes reproducible tools that can be downloaded and printed for repeated use. New to This Edition •Incorporates contemporary perspectives on SLD, upgraded procedures for implementing an MTSS, new approaches to measuring RTI, and enhancements in using classroom observations. •Chapter on best practices in academic screening, including important dos and don'ts. •Separate chapters on using RTI for reading, written expression, and mathematics. •Chapter on RTI and special education law, focusing on what practitioners need to know. This book is in The Guilford Practical Intervention in the Schools Series, edited by Sandra M. Chafouleas.

Family and Community Partnerships: Promising Practices for Teachers and Teacher Educators, offers a fresh new look at the competencies, strategies, and practices that effective educators develop to build strong partnerships with families and communities. Written by leaders in the field, the book is an outgrowth of a cutting-edge initiative led by the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement to reimagine how educators are prepared for family and community engagement. Based on four guiding practices - reflect, connect, collaborate, and lead alongside families – each section of the book highlights theory, real-world strategies, discussion questions, and activities that can be used by teachers, teacher educators, and professional learning specialists to inspire new ideas for courses, workshops, and for self-reflection.

Decades of research clearly show what works in schools, yet a huge gap persists between those instructional best practices and what is widely taught—and not taught—in classrooms today.In Results Now 2.0, Mike Schmoker expands on his bestselling book and offers a broader, deeper analysis of the entire K–12 education system and how it can improve. He describes a systemic buffer of policies, pedagogy, and initiatives that prevents everyone—teachers, students, and parents—from understanding our collective failure to align instruction with evidence of what works.We need to bridge the gap between proven practice and common practice. By focusing on the fundamental elements of curriculum, literacy, and effective instruction, Schmoker offers hope for the future. He describes schools that have successfully used evidence and strategic practice to remove the buffer, and he shows how schools can improve—quickly.This book is a call for both educators and the public to demand transparency and fidelity to the most effective actions that transform our schools and help us see results now.

The Self-Organizing School provides ground-breaking insights and guidance about how schools can fulfill their aspirations for quality and productivity in learning and teaching. The book describes a comprehensive decade long school design process and effort that improves teaching quality and student outcomes. The practical guidance and examples employed throughout the book are supported by one of the most extensive longitudinal studies of a school reform process, including data from over 1600 classroom observations, 12,000 student evaluations and research studies of school change, technology use, student achievement, collaboration, and teacher effectiveness.

As students returned from the Coronavirus crisis, the critical question became “What grade are they in?” Were they passed with their age group without actually learning? Were they retained, allowing the school-to-prison pipeline process to begin? Or did they sit in summer school while politicians pretended they were catching up? The lessons from the pandemic were clear. Not only does the system not work for them anymore, the system has not worked for Black and Brown students—as well as White students in Appalachia—for the last 200 years.In addition to structural changes, the reality is that high stakes standardized testing drives the curriculum into a narrow scope of education when the need is to educate children beyond the classroom into the world of today. A Failed System: Pandemic-Related Solutions to a 200-Year-Old Education Crisis presents solutions designed to develop a system of education that places all children on an even playing field. The current system has no solutions to the structural problem and shows no interest in taking students beyond the big test. It is time to replace education's failed system—students must be prepared to think!

'What is wrong with our schools?'is the question everyone seems to be asking, or more like screaming nowadays. Standard answers point to everything from school funding to unions to bureaucracies and more. In this book, Daniel Buck provides a different answer: flawed ideas - ideas about instruction, curriculum, even human nature itself - are the root cause of American schooling's dysfunction.Touching on philosophy, contemporary educational studies, cognitive science, and his own experience in the classroom, Buck argues that so long as we build our system on incorrect first principles, all other reforms are for naught. In place of the progressive education that pervades our schools, Buck argues for a traditionalist approach - classic literature, direct instruction, sequenced curricula, clear rules and consequences - as the education we need for the future.

Delivering equity for PK-12 learners is an essential aim for educational leadership preparation programs. This book serves as a resource for equity-focused design and redesign thorough innovation, improvement and impact.Based on direct experience while also drawing from innovative exemplars, and unpacking a decade of program improvement practice, this book explores how to foster partnerships and pipelines, recruit and select candidates, map the curriculum, develop powerful learning experiences, create field experiences, design program evaluation, and support faculty learning. Chapters open with a vignette that presents scenarios in which many faculty members find themselves, particularly when programs are in need of improvement. Drawing on years of experience facilitating redesign, the authors offer both processes and resources to assist faculty, including diagnostic tools, sample agendas, templates, guiding questions, and suggested protocols.Whether facing new accreditation requirements, state program approval changes, institutional redesign challenges or as part of a grant funded redesign, this book is a critical resource for educational leadership faculty and program coordinators looking to garner the appropriate resources, ask the right questions, and follow reliable processes in program design and continuous improvement toward equity.Chapter resources and templates available for download online at https://www.routledge.com/9780367673543 on the tab that is entitled'Support Material.'Please also join Redesign.Improve.Innovate—an online forum focused on preparation and practice improvement found here: www.RedesignImproveInnovate.org.

These are challenging times for leaders who believe schools must teach history honestly, be laboratories of democracy, and honor differences while finding common cause. This book, grounded in two decades of work in diverse school settings, provides guidance to help us remain steadfast in the work. Racial justice: Beyond proclamations, how can school leaders reallocate resources to support substantive anti-racist school reforms? Democratic practice: How can school leaders who have significant authority in a hierarchical system wield their power in support of democracy?Restorative justice: With time in short supply, how can schools truly embrace restorative practice, which calls for slowing down to repair and prevent harm?Student activism: How can school leaders uphold rules while also supporting students who disrupt in the name of justice?Counter-extremism: White supremacist threats are a danger to our communities. How can school leaders carefully confront the extremism of these troubled times?Compelling stories drawn from contemporary school contexts help illuminate each of these questions in fine detail. Each chapter concludes with a list of concrete actions every school leader can take in pursuit of answers. Administrators, teacher leaders, and those who support school reform with justice in mind will find both practical guidance and inspiration.

Combing through research for effective teaching strategies is a big ask for busy educators. This concise guide bridges brain-based learning theory with everyday instructional practice to maximize teacher effectiveness for visible student achievement. Learn three powerful, doable techniques proven to support long-term retention: spaced repetition, interleaving, and retrieval (SIR). Explore engaging activities designed to improve student retention, application, and transfer by easily integrating SIR into your classroom. This user-friendly guide to sticky learning will help K–12 teachers Understand the SIR techniques that support a brain-compatible classroom Use activities to better implement SIR in the classroom Understand the importance of utilizing repetition and interleaving alongside retrieval Increase student achievement Reflect on their own growth and success in implementing SIR techniques Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: An Overview of the SIR Techniques Chapter 2: Spaced Repetition Chapter 3: Interleaving Chapter 4: Retrieval Chapter 5: The SIR Quick Start Guide Epilogue Appendix: Frequently Asked Questions References and Resources Index

This is a book about the struggles over reforming reading instruction and the corresponding effort to improve reading achievement in the United States over the last seven decades.

Guiding educators to navigate a clear and coherent path of progress for sustainable improvement Schools are the unit of change for district-wide, systemic improvement. Creating a coherent system of equitable, continuous improvement at each school site requires constructing shared depth of understanding and precision of practices among educators. But how? Schools on the Move provides a roadmap for reducing the variances in climate, culture, capacity, and coherence that impede a school—and all its students—from realizing growth in learning. It applies the transformational wisdom of Districts on the Move at the building level to guide school staff in creating an environment that makes continuous improvement not only possible, but inevitable. Grounded in Visible Learning research and brought to life through case studies of impactful practices in action, it asserts a simplified and focused process for driving school improvement in four key areas Clarity of focus—creating a shared, strategic focus driven by equitable student growth. Shared leadership—cultivating a culture of co-leading and co-learning among school staff. Collective expertise—developing instructional coherence and precision of pedagogy. Continuous improvement—maintaining progress through evidence-based feedback loops. Full of practical tools and resources, including templates for analyzing student learning and rubrics for each of the four key drivers of school improvement, leaders will find the support they need in the transformational process of becoming a School on the Move.

Educators, you are the hope you've been looking for. Have you ever wondered what it would look like for you and your colleagues to really change how things are done in your school? For over twenty-five years, Partners in School Innovation has empowered educators in doing just that, across twenty-two school districts and eight states, dramatically improving underperforming schools in the process. Their secrets? Specialized adult learning tools, a results-oriented cycle of inquiry, professional development systems focused on coaching and collaboration, implementing improvement science, understanding the roles of race, class, culture, and power in schools, and more. This book presents those time-tested, research-based practices through narratives chronicling the efforts of real-life educators. It presents thoughtful checklists and discussion questions to help educators strengthen the skill sets and mindsets needed to implement sustainable school improvement. A lot has changed in recent years, but the solution to turning schools into lively, loving, learning communities remains the same: you. This book provides a blueprint for you to become the change agent your students need.

Aim high to improve leading, teaching, and learning Skillful leadership is critical as schools return to a new normalcy. Improving students'learning and addressing the challenges many learners experienced due to recent learning interruptions are top priorities for all school leaders. Aiming High offers leaders a framework for creating an environment where both effective instruction and a focus on social and emotional needs benefits all students and teachers. Evan Robb maps a route to building a positive, trusting culture of collaboration, creativity, and empowerment. Features include: An outline of the leadership elements required to build a learner-focused culture Tools for fostering productive collaboration, creating shared teacher leadership, and building trusting relationships Insightful tips for addressing complexities that come with new learning formats Provocative questions that guide readers toward redefining instructional leadership Your mission as leader is clear: aim high, work intentionally and collaboratively with teachers, and create a refreshed school culture centered on learning and growth for all.

Wallowing in Mediocrity: Or Rising Above the Dismal State of Education provides a comprehensive comparative look at educational programs in several key countries across the globe. The myriad advantages of these countries'programs are counterpoised to the many fault lines in education as practiced in the United States. To offset these problematic areas, this book takes a critical look at how the United States could rectify the many problems associated with its system of education, especially concerning inefficient and unsustainable practices at the secondary and postsecondary levels.Examples include the lack of universally-accepted parameters for admission to most schools of higher education; the lack of exit exams from both secondary and post-secondary schools; the illogical repetition of propaedeutic courses the first two years at the university; the misdirection of community colleges, forcing them to make up for the shortfall of too many students not prepared for acceptance to a 4 year university; the shenanigans associated with for-profit schools, which, for the most part, prey on veterans and those seeking a better job through education; and the almost preposterous system in place for students to finance their education.Most of these shortcomings concerning the American educational system are not part and parcel of systems across the globe. For one, the Bologna Process unified degrees among participants, providing a logical means for member states to collaborate and, most important, to provide students the opportunity to transfer from one institution to another without penalty. Several countries do not charge any tuition whatsoever; others have established a fair and logical means for repayment.

This book draws from the successes of award-winning schools, teachers, students, and parents to help leaders understand how they can positively change the educational experience of Black students. When Black Students Excel offers real-life examples of outstanding elementary, middle, and high schools where teachers and school leaders have rejected policies and practices built upon deficit perceptions about the capacity of Black students. Chapters highlight leadership implications and offer specific suggestions for educators who are seeking to transform their schools in ways that advance the success of Black students. This practical guide includes questions to ask students and their parents, self-assessment tools, and an array of leadership and teaching practices that are effective to empower Black students, elevate school attendance and academic engagement, and improve other important outcomes. Unpacking important themes that influence the success of Black students, this book is a useful tool for educators who are seeking to understand how they can change programs, procedures, and practices in ways that engage and empower Black students.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 As we write this book, we are experiencing a quadruple pandemic: COVID-19, systemic racism, near economic collapse, and climate change. #2 Street data is the qualitative and experiential data that arises at eye level and on lower frequencies when we train our brains to discern it. It is asset based, and it helps educators look for what's right in their students, schools, and communities instead of seeking out what's wrong. #3 I have learned that there are many ways of learning and succeeding outside of the traditional American and Western education system. Learning does not require a school building or a classroom. Equity work is primarily pedagogical. #4 We hope to offer you a vision of an educational system that doesn't yet exist, one rooted in human experience and decolonized ways of being, knowing, and learning.

This engaging and timely book showcases practical ways that PreK–12 teachers and school leaders can create and implement sustainability-focused projects and practices in their classrooms and schools, helping promote a healthy, sustainable environment and curriculum for students and leading the way towards becoming a green school.Sharing real-world case studies and detailed walk-throughs of sustainable schools in action – from Madison, Alabama, to Bali, Indonesia – author Linda H. Plevyak lays out the benefits, principles and practices of creating a sustainable school from beginner classroom projects like creating a garden, recycling and composting to more complex and school-wide initiatives like energy audits, creating an environmental management system, engaging with policy and building and leveraging community partnerships. Plevyak highlights sustainable practices that can be developed with little to no budget and focuses on those that support the development of critical thinking skills, promote project-based learning and consider the environment as a learning tool, incorporating sustainability as a natural progression of the learning process.The book outlines extensive resources teachers and schools can use to embed sustainability in their programs and curriculum, offering teachers, school leaders and policy makers the tools they need to provide this generation of students with the knowledge and skills to create a more sustainable world.