Helping educational leaders sustain continuous innovation and improvement in schools, this text presents a framework for understanding the norms, behaviours and structures that make school systems so intractable to change.

The New York City School Construction Authority's (SCA) mission is to design and construct safe, attractive, and environmentally sound public schools for children throughout the communities of the City's five boroughs. Since its creation in 1988, the SCA has kept moving forward, constantly innovating to ensure that it designs and builds schools that meet the current needs of the City's students and teachers. In addition to building and modernizing educational facilities, the SCA is invested in developing much-needed resources and capacity building mechanisms for engaging diverse communities in the construction process. The SCA maintains one of the most successful small business development programs in the country and recently established a workforce development and small business initiative for college students. As the SCA celebrates its 30-year anniversary, its primary goal remains the same as on the day of its creation: to ensure that all children in the country's largest public school system have the facilities necessary to prepare them for the twenty-first century and beyond.

The Achievable Dream: College Board Lessons on Creating Great Schools is an inspiring look at solutions to the challenges facing education in America, from one of the nation's leading authorities. Based on the personal observations of Gaston Caperton, President of the College Board and former Governor of West Virginia, these stories provide hope for the future and specific lessons of educational success that can be replicated in schools across the country – featuring students, parents, educators, policy-makers and communities that are bucking the trends and demonstrating how America can again be a world leader in education. Using 10-15 real-world case studies that highlight common traits of successful schools – including rigorous coursework taught by dedicated and skilled teachers; parental involvement; high standards that engage and challenge students; and support from local communities, colleges, and businesses – Caperton highlights models of success that reinforce one central theme: Improving education in America requires a shared commitment to learning that must become a national priority.

A thorough examination of the characteristics of a high- performing school, written by Sir Cyril Taylor (Chairman of the Specialist Schools Trust) and Conor Ryan (senior adviser to Tony Blair on Education).

Make the leap from ordinary to stellar school leadership! "What can I do to make a difference and lift my school to excellence?" Principals will find answers to this question and other critical leadership issues in this comprehensive resource, which examines how to apply lessons from the private sector to public education. The authors provide templates, implementation tips, and additional resources, and help school leaders discover nine essential characteristics of high-performing "Level 5" leaders through: In-depth discussions and case studies of "star" principals A comparison of principals and corporate leaders, including qualities exclusive to school leadership Reflection questions for more effective application of leadership principles

What makes a school great? Studies into good schools are numerous, but there has been much less written about great schools. The former are more common, but with success comes complacency; good is the enemy of great. In 2009 the London Leadership Strategy established the Going for Great programme, creating a forum for leaders of schools rated `outstanding' by Ofsted. This collaboration sought to identify and share best practice; based on their case studies, school-to-school visits, the research literature and through seminar, debates and discussions, a model of great schooling has emerged.This publication seeks to explore in depth the Nine Pillars of Greatness written by the course leaders of the Going for Great programme. It considers the range of characteristics that define great schooling, from a school's values and ethos, leadership and teaching to its curriculum, approach to professional development, learning community and ongoing self-evaluation.Supported by a wealth of academic pedagogical texts and written by three authors who have spent their lives in education, The Nine Pillars of Great Schools examines the commonalities between the most successful institutions and demonstrates how to transform a good school into a great school.

Use the power of equity audits to help eliminate achievement gaps and educational bias! Grounded solidly in theory and the use of data, this resource provides practical, easy-to-implement strategies for effectively using equity audits to ensure a high-quality education for all students, regardless of socio-economic class. Readers will discover how to increase equity awareness at school and district levels and remedy inequalities in teacher quality, program design, and student achievement by using: A set of “inequity indicators” for evaluating schools, generating essential data, and identifying problem areas Nine skill sets for improved equity-oriented teaching Charts, graphs, and support materials that can be customized for specific settings

This book provides comprehensive research on high school reform from leading education experts, candid examples from the author's 26 years as a principal, and valuable insights from other leaders who have answered the call to make their schools better.

How do you propel student achievement and meet students' social and emotional needs at the same time? How do you transform school culture so that students are eager to come to school every single day? After decades of leading schools to G.R.E.A.T.ness, Dr. Andy unlocks his time-tested pillars that educators can use to transform school culture and increase student achievement. Using each pillar of his G.R.E.A.T. Leadership Philosophy?, his school: - Moved from having one of the highest dropout rates to one of the lowest in the state. - Leapt from having one of the lowest graduation rates to one of the highest in the state. - Won 7 state championships over a five-year period, compared to one in the school's history. - Achieved consistent student academic growth each school year. - Reduced assaults and fights to almost zero each year.

We began, prompted by the late Chris Gonnet, Superintendent of Grande Prairie Public Schools, to explore the question 'What Makes a Great School?'in December 2010 at a meeting in Boston. We concluded that it involved many inter-connected elements, but that the key components were focused teacher leadership enabled by being empowered and resourced to make a difference. Rethinking Leadership sees evidence-informed practice as the fulcrum point for leveraging school improvement, especially if it systematically supported within a systematic way at the jurisdiction and provincial levels to build school leadership capacity. We also concluded that the framing conditions for the work of the school - the provincial/ state policies, curriculum requirements, financial arrangements, assessment regimes as well as the policies of school boards and districts - either enables or impairs the ability of a team within the school to create a great school for all students.