"This engaging book will guide your journey through the morass of curriculum alignment, development, and assessment. Our school struggled through missteps in curriculum alignment and implementing common assessments without the benefit of Makas′ wisdom and experience. I highly recommend this book for teachers, administrators, and interested parents." —Robert A. Martin, Leadership Consultant Oakland Schools, Waterford, MI Raise schoolwide performance with a systematic, teacher-driven approach to curriculum development! Purposeful curriculum design is essential to attaining consistent academic improvement. Educators often find, however, that a viable curriculum based on mandated standards can be exceedingly challenging to create, implement, and sustain. In this book, curriculum consultant Elaine Makas provides a step-by-step guide to establishing the processes and documents necessary to build a stable, cohesive curriculum system that aligns to educational benchmarks. Based on the DAILY model (Data, Alignment, Instructional Pace Guides, Local Common Assessment, and Yearly Review), this system deconstructs the curriculum process into sequential steps that facilitate the development of instructional priorities, reveal students in need of intervention, and help ensure continuous process improvement. With numerous templates, samples, and reflective exercises, this book clearly demonstrates how to: Collect and analyze data, identify expectations, and recognize learning gaps Develop curriculum maps that align with standards and grade-level subject goals Pace instruction throughout the year according to specific objectives Create assessments that predict standardized test performance Conduct yearly improvement reviews and documentation revisions An essential resource for all schools or districts, whether struggling or successful, From Mandate to Achievement enables K–12 principals, district administrators, curriculum facilitators, and teacher teams to establish a consistent and accurate curriculum process that increases academic achievement and drives continuous school improvement.

In From Mandate to Blueprint, Thomas Fingar offers a guide for new federal government appointees faced with the complex task of rebuilding institutions and transitioning to a new administration. Synthesizing his own experience implementing the most comprehensive reforms to the national security establishment since 1947, Fingar provides crucial guidance to newly appointed officials. When Fingar was appointed the first Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis in 2005, he discovered the challenges of establishing a new federal agency and implementing sweeping reforms of intelligence procedure and performance. The mandate required prompt action but provided no guidance on how to achieve required and desirable changes. Fingar describes how he defined and prioritized the tasks involved in building and staffing a new organization, integrating and improving the work of sixteen agencies, and contending with pressure from powerful players. For appointees without the luxury of taking command of fully staffed and well-functioning federal agencies, From Mandate to Blueprint is an informed and practical guide for the challenges ahead.

The SAGE Guide to Educational Leadership and Management allows readers to gain knowledge of educational management in practice while providing insights into challenges facing educational leaders and the strategies, skills, and techniques needed to enhance administrative performance. This guide emphasizes the important skills that effective leaders must develop and refine, including communication, developing teams, coaching and motivating, and managing time and priorities. While being brief, simply written, and a highly practical overview for individuals who are new to this field, this reference guide will combine practice and research, indicate current issues and directions, and choices that need to be made. Features & Benefits: 30 brief, signed chapters are organized in 10 thematic parts in one volume available in a choice of electronic or print formats designed to enable quick access to basic information. Selective boxes enrich and support the narrative chapters with case examples of effective leadership in action. Chapters conclude with bibliographic endnotes and references to further readings to guide students to more in-depth presentations in other published sources. Back matter includes an annotated listing of organizations, associations, and journals focused on educational leadership and administration and a detailed index. This reference guide will serve as a vital source of knowledge to any students pursuing an education degree as well as for individuals interested in the subject matter that do not have a strong foundation of the topic.

**Winner of the nasen Special Educational Needs Academic Book award 2008** There is an enduring and widespread perception amongst policy makers and practitioners that certain groups of children, in particular those who find learning difficult, have a detrimental effect on the achievement of other children. Challenging this basic assumption, Achievement and Inclusion in Schools argues that high levels of inclusion can be entirely compatible with high levels of achievement and that combining the two is not only possible but essential if all children are to have the opportunity to participate fully in education. Packed with vivid case studies that explore the benefits and tensions for children and schools, this book sets out to answer the following questions: What is the nature of the relationship between the inclusion of some children and the achievement of all? Are there strategies which can raise the achievement of all children, whilst safeguarding the inclusion of others who are more vulnerable? What changes can a school make to ensure high levels of inclusion as well as high levels of achievement for all its children? Achievement and Inclusion in Schools offers an up-to-date analysis of current issues, provides practical guidance for practitioners and policy-makers, and will be of interest to anyone passionate about inclusive education.

Aligned with the latest iteration of the Standard – ISO 27001:2013 – this new edition of the original no-nonsense guide to successful ISO 27001 certification is ideal for anyone tackling ISO 27001 for the first time, and covers each element of the ISO 27001 project in simple, non-technical language

This encyclopedia provides an inter-disciplinary approach, discussing the sociocultural viewpoints, policy implications, educational applications and ethical issues involved in a wide range of disorders and interventions.

This book examines 46 UN peacekeeping operations, initiated from 1956 through 2006, to identify the most significant factors that could help to explain the success or lack of success of such operations.

This series of essays address the ongoing debate centered on how patriotism is defined and who is a patriot. True patriotism is much broader than how it has been traditionally described in American society. There is a spirit of opposition within the nation’s history that has never been credited for being the primary source of developing American democracy. “On Resistance” makes the case that activist groups such as the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, (BPP) have set the tone by making our nation a more just and open society. I offer a new definition for patriotism that highlights the voice of opposition and activism. The nation’s “Radical Democratic Tradition” has been at the forefront of articulating the true meaning of democracy in our society. Readers of this book will see how this “Radical” tradition became the strength behind shifting our nation beyond the preservation of the basic “property rights” of our citizens to an emphasis in upholding our citizen’s basic civil rights.