Our fourth book in the International Research on School Leadership series focuses on school leadership in an era of high stakes accountability. Fueled by sweeping federal education accountability reforms, such as the United States’ No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race to the Top (R2T) and Australia’s Performance Measurement and Reporting Taskforce, school systems around the world are being forced to increase academic standards, participate in high-stakes testing, and raise evaluation standards for teachers and principals. These results-driven reforms are intended to hold educators “accountable for student learning and accountable to the public” (Anderson, 2005, p. 2, emphasis in original). While policymakers and the public debate the merits of student achievement accountability measures, P-12 educational leaders do not have the luxury to wait for clear guidance and resources to improve their schools and operating systems. Instead, successful leaders must balance the need to create learning communities, manage the organizational climate, and encourage community involvement with the consequences testing has on teacher morale and public scrutiny. The chapters in this volume clearly indicate that as school leaders attend to these potentially competing forces, this affects their problem-solving strategies, ability to facilitate change, and encourage community involvement. We were delighted with the responses from colleagues around the world who were eager to share their research dealing with how leaders are functioning effectively within a high-accountability environment. The nine chapters in this volume provide empirical evidence of the strategies school leaders use to cope with problems and negotiate external demands while improving student performance. In particular, the voices and actions of principals, superintendents, and school board members are captured in a blend of quantitative and qualitative studies. The breadth of studies is impressive, ranging from case studies of individual principals to cross-district comparisons to national data from the National Center for Education Statistics. To highlight important findings, we have organized the book into five sections. The first section (Chapters 2, 3, and 4) highlights the problem-solving strategies used by principals and superintendents when pressured to turn around low-performing schools. In the second section (Chapters 5 and 6), attention is devoted to ways in which school leaders act as “buffers” by reducing the impact of external demands within their local school contexts. Next, Chapters 7 and 8 explore creative ways in which financial analyses can be used to assess the cost effectiveness of programs and services. Chapters 9 and 10 examine how principals enact their instructional leadership roles in managing curriculum reforms and evaluating teachers. Finally, in the last section (Chapter 11), Kenneth Leithwood synthesizes the major themes and ideas emerging across these chapters, paying particular attention to practical issues influencing school leaders in this era of school reform and accountability as well as promising areas for future research.

The Essential School Board Book highlights effective practices that are common to high-functioning boards around the country--boards that are working successfully with their superintendents and communities to improve teaching and learning.

The monitoring of data within educational institutions is essential to ensure the success of its students and faculty. By continually analyzing data, educational leaders can increase quality and productivity in their institutions. Data Leadership for K-12 Schools in a Time of Accountability explores techniques and processes of educational data analysis and its application in developing solutions and systems for instructional concerns and next-generation learning. Providing extensive research covering areas such as data-driven culture, student accountability, and data dissemination, this unique reference is essential for principals, administrators, practitioners, academicians, students, and educational consultants looking to maximize their institution’s performance.

State education departments and school districts face an important challenge in implementing a new law that requires disadvantaged students to be held to the same standards as other students. The new requirements come from provisions of the 1994 reauthorization of Title I, the largest federal effort in precollegiate education, which provides aid to "level the field" for disadvantaged students. Testing, Teaching, and Learning is written to help states and school districts comply with the new law, offering guidance for designing and implementing assessment and accountability systems. This book examines standards-based education reform and reviews the research on student assessment, focusing on the needs of disadvantaged students covered by Title I. With examples of states and districts that have track records in new systems, the committee develops a practical "decision framework" for education officials. The book explores how best to design assessment and accountability systems that support high levels of student learning and to work toward continuous improvement. Testing, Teaching, and Learning will be an important tool for all involved in educating disadvantaged studentsâ€"state and local administrators and classroom teachers.

Our fifth book in the International Research on School Leadership series focuses on the use of data in schools and districts as useful information for leadership and decision making. Schools are awash in data and information, from test scores, to grades, to discipline reports, and attendance as just a short list of student information sources, while additional streams of data feed into schools and districts from teachers and parents as well as local, regional and national policy levels. To deal with the data, schools have implemented a variety of data practices, from data rooms, to data days, data walks, and data protocols. However, despite the flood of data, successful school leaders are leveraging an analysis of their school’s data as a means to bring about continuous improvement in an effort to improve instruction for all students. Nevertheless, some drown, some swim, while others find success. Our goal in this book volume is to bring together a set of chapters by authors who examine successful data use as it relates to leadership and school improvement. In particular, the chapters in this volume consider important issues in this domain, including: • How educational leaders use data to inform their practice. • What types of data and data analysis are most useful to successful school leaders. • To what extent are data driven and data informed practices helping school leaders positively change instructional practice? • In what ways does good data collection and analysis feed into successful continuous improvement and holistic systems thinking? • How have school leadership practices changed as more data and data analysis techniques have become available? • What are the major obstacles facing school leaders when using data for decision making and how do they overcome them?

Children in today's world are inundated with information about who to be, what to do and how to live. But what if there was a way to teach children how to manage priorities, focus on goals and be a positive influence on the world around them? The Leader in Meis that programme. It's based on a hugely successful initiative carried out at the A.B. Combs Elementary School in North Carolina. To hear the parents of A. B Combs talk about the school is to be amazed. In 1999, the school debuted a programme that taught The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peopleto a pilot group of students. The parents reported an incredible change in their children, who blossomed under the programme. By the end of the following year the average end-of-grade scores had leapt from 84 to 94. This book will launch the message onto a much larger platform. Stephen R. Covey takes the 7 Habits, that have already changed the lives of millions of people, and shows how children can use them as they develop. Those habits -- be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek to understand and then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the saw -- are critical skills to learn at a young age and bring incredible results, proving that it's never too early to teach someone how to live well.

In this era of accountability and high-stakes testing, school leaders must find more sophisticated ways to help all students succeed. But how can districts make adequate yearly progress without a coherent system for addressing state standards? In From Standards to Success, education professor Mark R. O'Shea introduces the Standards Achievement Planning Cycle (SAPC), a comprehensive protocol for meeting the standards. To illustrate his multi-layered approach, O'Shea takes readers to a fictional school as it prepares to install the SAPC. We meet the superintendent, who organizes the district for curriculum reform; the principal, who supervises standards-based instruction; and the teachers, who collaboratively plan lessons and evaluate their students' work. From teacher observation to student assessment, O'Shea offers innovative strategies to help school leaders * identify and analyze which standards are most important * select appropriate curriculum materials and resources * provide instructional planning time for teachers * create a benchmark-testing program * design effective professional development Checklists at the end of each chapter highlight best practices, and sample lessons show how to plan curriculum that enables students to meet state standards. The result is a thorough and sensible guide to realizing the promise of standards-based education.

This edited book highlights the importance and complexity of the assistant principalship. As noted in all the chapters, the assistant principal is a critical partner in creating a professional learning community that serves all students well. Often neglected or ignored in the literature, assistant principals are more than disciplinarians and student or building managers. In the best of all worlds, they provide the professional support and partnership with their principals to create high-performing schools. Unfortunately, as noted in some of the chapters, the ideal and actual roles that assistant principals exercise often create a gap that seethes with disillusionment and dissatisfaction. The challenge for the profession is to better align the roles and expectations of assistant principals so that they can experience the best of being a school leader.

An authoritative guide to educational supervision in today’s complex environment The Wiley Handbook of Educational Supervision offers a comprehensive resource that explores the evolution of supervision through contributions from a panel of noted experts. The text explores a wealth of topics including recent and dramatic changes in the complex context of today’s schools. This important resource: Describes supervision in a historical context Includes a review of adult learning and professional community Reviews new teacher preparation and comprehensive induction systems Contains perspectives on administrative feedback, peer coaching and collaboration Presents information on professional development and job-embedding learning Examines policy and implementation challenges in teacher evaluation Written for researchers, policy analysts, school administrators and supervisors, The Wiley Handbook of Educational Supervision draws on concepts, theories and research from other closely related fields of study to enhance and challenge our understanding of educational supervision.

Describes a variety of leaders hip responsibilities that have an effect on student achievement.