The authors of this volume visited 25 small school districts in the US to meet, observe and interview students, teachers, principals and administrators. Here they present research that connects with reality. Through their fascinating description of the physical and educational landscape, the authors capture life in nonurban schools `as it is', and present information that is brutally honest. They provide the beginnings of a road map to help small, nonurban districts and communities begin their own journey on the road to better schools.
This readable book discusses the very practical management skills that school leaders must master. The authors tackle some of the most important functions school administrators must perform: building staff and community support, upgrading technology, selecting textbooks, keeping schools safe, operating a quality food service programme and applying sound budgeting techniques.
This purpose of this book is to fill the gap in administrative research concerning the important role of assistant principals in secondary schools in the United States. Based on discussions with 90 first year assistant principals, the authors illustrate the perceptions and emotions of new administrators during their transition from teacher to administrator, and detail how they coped with the adjustments to this faster-paced professional world.
The implementation of a 'high stakes', performace-based assessment system has resulted in financial rewards being granted to those schools demonstrating improved results, while sanctions have been imposed on schools whose academic performance is poor. Contributors to this book examine the complex issues associated with this system in the state of Kentucky and offer diverse opinion on the topic.
The authors address school change by juxtaposing Fritz's structural dynamics theory against K-12 school practice, providing steps to address structural tensions within schools to create a unified school vision, to develop professional learning communities and distributive leadership, to use data to drive decision making, and to contextualize the ......
The Learning Communities Guide To Improving Reading Instruction, book, with its rich collection of tools to assess and improve practice, identify and apply new approaches, improve and add to the instructional repertoire, will measurably help both teachers and instructional leaders and ultimately benefit students. The authors bring deep background ......
The Great Things That Happen When You Focus Students on Solutions, Not Problems
Shows the reader how to be a solution-focused educator, creating students who control their own choices and behaviours. Within each chapters the reader will find language lessons, practice scenarios, conversation worksheets, student worksheets, and many immediately usable ideas.
A series of teacher-friendly lessons designed to create a writers' workshop for pupils aged between seven and 13 years is contained in this step-by-step guide. The lessons range from introducing the terminology and methods of a writers' workshop to students to complex processes in creative and journalistic writing. Using the praise, questions and polish (PQP) strategies, each 10- to 15-minute lesson teaches a very specific writing skill.
At a time of increasingly curtailed school budgets, this book identifies potential funding sources for schools in the United States faced with the challenge of securing money from outside agencies to support innovative educational programmes. The authors also offer useful advice to teachers and administrators involved in each stage of the grantwriting process.
