The long-term success of school improvement depends to a significant degree on the ability of those involved to participate in teamwork. This book explores various forms of collaboration in schools, including pairings, groups and committees, and suggests a framework for understanding how to build stronger working relationships.
The experiences of an educational organization that went through significant reform over a 13-year period are described in this book. The Kenmore-Tonawonda school district in the United States underwent changes in size, structure, leadership and skills to eventually become a nationally recognized school district of excellence.
Should public funds be used to support non-public education? Controversy over that question has raged since the early 19th century. This book helps lawmakers, opinion leaders, and the public to understand that voucher proposals threaten religious freedom, an already overburdened economy, the democratic structure of American education, and more.
This text describes the evolution and daily operation of the ""Primary Mental Health Project"", a school-based prevention programme that provides a practical alternative to traditional ""after-the fact"" intervention. It describes how to establish, maintain and evaluate such a programme.
A Powerful Way to Change Schools and Enhance Learning
Focusing on an important emerging issue in United States' education - school reform via privatization - this book is designed to meet three major goals: to examine the foundations and the context of the privatization movement; to review the evidence on privatization in areas other than schooling; and to shape decisions about privatization in the school-reform arena.
Communication and Conflict Resolution in the Schools
Among the greatest challenges faced by teachers and administrators are how to communicate effectively with students and how to resolve conflicts between them. Face to Face discusses the communication skills and conflict resolution principles necessary for the smooth functioning of schools and the effective teaching of students. The authors present a number of methods for improving teacher-student communication including: the use of reflective listening; open-ended questions; mediation programmes; problem-solving models; and interactive exchange. The book establishes a correlation between good communication skills and positive student outcomes, and offers practical tips that will help improve communication in the school.
A constructivist leader facilitates professional dialogue and inquiry to enable all teachers to make sense of their work together and to reconstruct the major purposes of schooling. Illustrating their work with vignettes of the activities of such leaders, the authors of this book create a clear picture of constructivist teaching and leadership. They also formulate strategies for altering the school culture to accommodate constructivist leadership.
The progress of a complex educational restructuring project in the US state of Arizona is the focus of this book. The goals of the project included: to improve dramatically student achievement in the core subjects; to develop new assessment and evaluation practices; and to develop teaching strategies, curricula and school structures that meet the needs of poor, minority and bilingual students.
Written from extensive experience, this book describes the author's perceptions of the role of the educational superintendent in the United States. Richard C Wallace Jr conveys an image of an educational director who provides vision-based leadership to improve the quality of education for students and the quality of performance of teachers and administrators.
