Ideas for positive personal action to build confidence in our public schools.

Effective organizational communication begins with employees, who should be communications ambassadors for a district. From administrators to teachers to school bus drivers to custodians, employees set the tone for a district. The informal conversations they have at church, the bowling alley, the barbershop and other venues can make or break the image of a district. Armed with information, they can dispel misinformation. Without information, they can contribute to the grapevine of discontent. With the most credible sources of information about schools coming from teachers, parents, students and other school staff members, it is critical that school districts develop, fund, implement and evaluate their internal communications programs. "Building Public Confidence in Urban Schools: It Begins Inside the District" is a guide for administrators and board members to not only understand and appreciate the need for quality internal communications, but to begin developing an internal communications system to complement effective community outreach and media relations programs. The guide is a project of the Public Relations Executives Network of the Council of the Great City Schools based on annual meetings of the district communications directors.

Schools Cannot Do It Alone tells of Jamie Vollmer, businessman and attorney, as he travels through through the land of public education. His encounters with blueberries, bell curves, and smelly eighth graders lead him to two critical discoveries. First, we have a systems problem, not a people problem. We must change the system to get the graduates we need. Second, we cannot touch the system without touching the culture of the surrounding town; everything that goes on inside a school is tied to local attitudes, values, traditions, and beliefs. Drawing on his work in hundreds of districts, Jamie offers teachers, administrators, board members, and their allies a practical program to secure the understanding, trust, permission, and support they need to change the system and increase student succes

Most Americans agree on the necessity of education reform, but there is little consensus about how this goal might be achieved. The rhetoric of standards and vouchers has occupied center stage, polarizing public opinion and affording little room for reflection on the intangible conditions that make for good schools. Trust in Schools engages this debate with a compelling examination of the importance of social relationships in the successful implementation of school reform. Over the course of three years, Bryk and Schneider, together with a diverse team of other researchers and school practitioners, studied reform in twelve Chicago elementary schools. Each school was undergoing extensive reorganization in response to the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988, which called for greater involvement of parents and local community leaders in their neighborhood schools. Drawing on years longitudinal survey and achievement data, as well as in-depth interviews with principals, teachers, parents, and local community leaders, the authors develop a thorough account of how effective social relationships—which they term relational trust—can serve as a prime resource for school improvement. Using case studies of the network of relationships that make up the school community, Bryk and Schneider examine how the myriad social exchanges that make up daily life in a school community generate, or fail to generate, a successful educational environment. The personal dynamics among teachers, students, and their parents, for example, influence whether students regularly attend school and sustain their efforts in the difficult task of learning. In schools characterized by high relational trust, educators were more likely to experiment with new practices and work together with parents to advance improvements. As a result, these schools were also more likely to demonstrate marked gains in student learning. In contrast, schools with weak trust relations saw virtually no improvement in their reading or mathematics scores. Trust in Schools demonstrates convincingly that the quality of social relationships operating in and around schools is central to their functioning, and strongly predicts positive student outcomes. This book offer insights into how trust can be built and sustained in school communities, and identifies some features of public school systems that can impede such development. Bryk and Schneider show how a broad base of trust across a school community can provide a critical resource as education professional and parents embark on major school reforms. A Volume in the American Sociological Association's Rose Series in Sociology

Schools today are experiencing pressures that have never been faced before. Very often members of the public do not know how their schools are doing, and as a result voters respond negatively. In Promoting Your School: A Public Relations Handbook, Irene Lober clearly describes various processes, methods, and actions that schools can take to better disseminate their message to their district. By focusing on public relations and sharing information about school performance, districts can have a better sense of what is working and as a result support their schools better.

Provides an overview of the communication function and practical advice and considerations for building a public relations program in schools.

We are in an era of radical distrust of public education. Increasingly, we turn to standardized tests and standardized curricula-now adopted by all fifty states-as our national surrogates for trust. Legendary school founder and reformer Deborah Meier believes fiercely that schools have to win our faith by showing they can do their job. But she argues just as fiercely that standardized testing is precisely the wrong way to that end. The tests themselves, she argues, cannot give the results they claim. And in the meantime, they undermine the kind of education we actually want. In this multilayered exploration of trust and schools, Meier critiques the ideology of testing and puts forward a different vision, forged in the success stories of small public schools she and her colleagues have created in Boston and New York. These nationally acclaimed schools are built, famously, around trusting teachers-and students and parents-to use their own judgment. Meier traces the enormous educational value of trust; the crucial and complicated trust between parents and teachers; how teachers need to become better judges of each others' work; how race and class complicate trust at all levels; and how we can begin to 'scale up' from the kinds of successes she has created.

Written by a dedicated school psychologist and licensed behavioral specialist with more than 20 years experience working with families, schools, and communities, this guide includes: -Research- and experience-based strategies to help your child or student build confidence and become more cooperative-The science behind common behavioral challenges in youth explained in easy-to-understand terms-Practical, easy-to-use techniques that parents and educators can apply immediately

"Novice and experienced school leaders will find this updated edition of a bestseller packed with techniques for delivering a schoolѫs message effectively to internal and external constituencies and strengthening the partnership between schools, families, the community, and the private sector. Based on examples from successful schools, this comprehensive guide provides strategies, insights, and practical tools for successfully communicating school goals, successes, challenges, and educational priorities. The third edition offers updated strategies within each chapter and new chapters on using technology and gaining support for public schools. Readers will find: Information on media relations, crisis management, team building, and parent involvement; Coverage of school and community resources to build a support base of human, material, and financial capital; Forms, sample documents, handouts, and checklists for developing a customized school communications program; Promoting Your School serves as an ideal coach on how to be an articulate advocate for your own school and develop a supportive constituency to help advance school goals."--Publisher's website.