School systems nationwide are struggling to excel as they lurch from crisis to crisis-teacher shortages, school shootings, high turnover rates, weak discipline systems, and more. These things can pull the focus of school boards away from why school systems exist: to educate students. Airick Journey Crabill has a track record of helping school systems improve student literacy, numeracy, and career and college readiness rates while simultaneously strengthening the school's financial and operational standing. Great on Their Behalf is your practical guide to igniting the transformation of your school board and enabling it to create the conditions for improving what students know and can do. Step by step, the exercises in this book inspire board members to adopt a student-outcomes-focused mindset as they reevaluate their impact on those they serve. It challenges them to explore effective ways to focus on what students need. Then it provides the necessary knowledge and skills for school boards to empower their students for success.

School systems nationwide are struggling to excel as they lurch from crisis to crisis-teacher shortages, school shootings, high turnover rates, weak discipline systems, and more. These things can pull the focus of school boards away from why school systems exist: to educate students. airick journey crabill has a track record of helping school systems improve student literacy, numeracy, and career- and college-readiness rates while simultaneously strengthening the school's financial and operational standing. Great on Their Behalf is your practical guide to igniting the transformation of your school board and enabling it to create the conditions for improving what students know and are able to do. Step by step, the exercises in this book inspire board members to adopt a student-outcomes-focused mindset as they reevaluate their impact on those they serve. It challenges them to explore effective ways to focus on what students need. Then, it provides the necessary knowledge and skills for school boards to empower their students for success.

A sober yet encouraging look at how urban public schools have confronted challenges, defied expectations, and continued to improve

Veteran school board member Richard E. Mayer's humorous approach to administrator-board relations presents negative behavior scenarios and analyses, offers alternatives, and provides win-win solutions.

Bridge the great divide between distanced administrative duties and daily classroom impact. This book introduces a top-down power mechanism called defined autonomy, a concept that focuses on district-defined, nonnegotiable, common goals and a system of accountability supported by assessment tools. Defined autonomy creates an effective balance of centralized direction and individualized empowerment that allows building-level staff the stylistic freedom to respond quickly and effectively to student failure.

Working together for excellence for all children As our society faces daunting and evolving challenges, education might well be the social institution that offers the most hope and opportunity for change. Overloaded with multiple, diverse issues, however, where do educational leaders even begin? Davis Campbell and Michael Fullan believe efficacy must be achieved with a systems focus. The Governance Core provides strategies and tools for board members, superintendents and school leaders to unify and face the complex challenges of school governance together. Practical and authentic, the Governance Core is based upon: A governance mindset A shared moral imperative A unified, cohesive governance system A commitment to system-wide coherence A focus on continuous improvement in the district Essential for local education governance – school boards in collaboration with district and school leadership – this guide will help you operate at the highest levels of effectiveness.

To provide essential guidance to urban school board members committed to high achievement for all children, Don McAdams presents a comprehensive approach to board leadership he calls reform governance. This accessible framework brings together all the work of an urban school board, including everything from big ideas about core beliefs and theories of action for change to the fundamental relationships and processes through which boards and superintendents work together and the leadership role boards have in building community support for sustained change. Taking into account the hot political arena of urban education, reform governance: Helps school board members understand why it is necessary to redesign urban districts and what their role in the process should be. Sets forth principles that boards can use as guides to action, and gives real-life examples of how they work. Shows how a strong board and superintendent team can work together to be agents for change.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.