There?s a lot of conversation about how to make schools better. Unfortunately, the nature of those conversations often makes things worse. Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time maps out a way to change that. By taking a teacher-centered, no-fault, strengths-based approach to performance improvement, the Evocative Coaching model generates the motivation and movement that enables teachers and schools to achieve desired outcomes and enhance quality of life. Viewed as a dynamic dance, the model is choreographed in four steps ? Story, Empathy, Inquiry, Design ? which are each laid out in its own chapter with powerful illustrative materials and end-of-chapter discussion questions to prompt further reflection. Bringing together the best research and wisdom in educational leadership and professional coaching, authors Bob and Megan Tschannen-Moran have developed a simple yet profound way of facilitating new conversations in schools through Story Listening, Expressing Empathy, Appreciative Inquiry, and Design Thinking. It?s an iterative process that moves beyond old ways of thinking, doing, and being. It?s an inspirational process that reinvigorates the passion for making schools better, one conversation at a time. This happens when coaches: give teachers our full, undivided attention; accept and meet teachers where they are right now, without making them wrong; ask and trust teachers to take charge of their own learning and growth; make sure teachers are talking more than we are; enable teachers to appreciate the positive value of their own experiences; harness the strengths teachers have to meet challenges and overcome obstacles; reframe difficulties and challenges as opportunities to learn and grow; invite teachers to discover possibilities and find answers for themselves; dialogue with teachers regarding their higher purpose for teaching; uncover teachers? natural impulse to engage with colleagues and students; assist teachers to draw up a personal blueprint for professional mastery; support teachers in brainstorming and trying new ways of doing things; maintain an upbeat, energetic, and positive attitude at all times; collaborate with teachers to design and conduct appropriate learning experiments; enable teachers to build supportive environments and teams; use humor to lighten the load; and inspire and challenge teachers to go beyond what they would do alone. Each chapter provides a research-based theory to support the strategies presented, and includes specific suggestions and anecdotes. The Evocative Coaching model makes coaching enjoyable by getting people to focus on what they do best, and it invites larger, more integral conversations so that people talk about their work in the context of other things they care about. Resting on strong, evidence-based practices, the Evocative Coaching model offers educators the help they need to meet the challenges of increased accountability and expectations. This model can also be used effectively by coaches and leaders in other organizational contexts. Table of Contents: Chapter 1: What Is Evocative Coaching? Chapter 2: Coaching Presence Loop I: The No-Fault Turn Chapter 3: Story Listening Chapter 4: Expressing Empathy Loop II: The Strengths-Building Turn Chapter 5: Appreciative Inquiry Chapter 6: Design Thinking Chapter 7: Aligning Environments Chapter 8: Coaching Conversations Chapter 9: The Reflective Coach To learn more about Evocative Coaching and to sign up for the Evocative Coach Training Program, visit www.SchoolTransformation.com.

Radically reimagine our ways of being, learning, and doing Education can be transformed if we eradicate our fixation on big data like standardized test scores as the supreme measure of equity and learning. Instead of the focus being on "fixing" and "filling" academic gaps, we must envision and rebuild the system from the student up—with classrooms, schools and systems built around students’ brilliance, cultural wealth, and intellectual potential. Street data reminds us that what is measurable is not the same as what is valuable and that data can be humanizing, liberatory and healing. By breaking down street data fundamentals: what it is, how to gather it, and how it can complement other forms of data to guide a school or district’s equity journey, Safir and Dugan offer an actionable framework for school transformation. Written for educators and policymakers, this book · Offers fresh ideas and innovative tools to apply immediately · Provides an asset-based model to help educators look for what’s right in our students and communities instead of seeking what’s wrong · Explores a different application of data, from its capacity to help us diagnose root causes of inequity, to its potential to transform learning, and its power to reshape adult culture Now is the time to take an antiracist stance, interrogate our assumptions about knowledge, measurement, and what really matters when it comes to educating young people.

This guide to school transformation sends a wake-up call about the out-moded current school system. As educator and advocate during a sixty-year career, Wayne B. Jennings, PhD, writes in this revolutionary new text that our educational system remains stuck in the past. Jennings argues that the system should skip Band-Aid reforms and go for a full reboot! Jennings captures critical aspects of change. In School Transformation, he advances: · understanding the true purpose of education, · realizing we live in a new era, · seeing the fundamental flaws in the system, · bringing schools into the twenty-first century, · preparing students for an unknown future, · examining recent efforts to reform the system, · taking specific steps for transformation, and · considering examples of transformed schools. Jennings' experience as a teacher, principal, school board member, and university facility member energized him to start eight schools during his career. He believes community members, teachers, and students can respond to educational challenges and transform their schools. He describes specific steps and processes to follow and provides examples of transformed schools. He believes that transformed schools will make school an exciting, enriching experience for an entire generation of independent, innovative thinkers.

Small Schools, Big Ideas shows how the principle-based and equity-focused model from the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) can be used to redesign existing schools and create new schools that prepare students for this century's challenges and opportunities. Filled with inspirational stories and illustrative examples from schools that have successfully implemented CES principles and practices, Small Schools, Big Ideas offers information and inspiration needed to: Transform schools in order to achieve equitable outcomes for all students Understand various school design options Establish school vision, mission, and goals to raise educational expectations and results Develop transformational leadership Cultivate a professional learning community Implement student-centered teaching, learning, and curricula Build productive relationships with families and communities Establish strategies for sustainability These recommendations and proven strategies can help educators transform their schools to become truly equitable, personalized, and academically challenging.

The evidence is clear - school leaders make a difference to the learning of the pupils they serve. And yet, not all leaders have the same degree of impact. What are the factors that make the difference to student learning? Why are some leaders able to raise student achievement in schools in the most challenging circumstances whilst other leaders struggle to simply maintain the status quo? Drawing from international case study research over many years, from the experience of hundreds of school leaders serving widely diverse communities, Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser argue that there are six distinct mindsets that characterize the way successful, learning-oriented leaders operate and make sense of their professional world. These leaders are: motivated by intense moral purpose knowledgeable about current models of learning consistently inquiry-oriented able to build trusting relationships evidence-informed able to move to wise action. This book outlines an alternative way of thinking about school leadership. It examines research evidence that leaders will find most useful and suggests how they might use this evidence to maximise their learning and the learning of their students. Leadership Mindsets has been written specifically for aspiring to newly-appointed school leaders who are determined and motivated to create quality and equality for learners in the schools they serve, through networks of inquiry, learning and support.

While the world has propelled itself in the 21st Century with new technology, innovation, and ways of doing things, our schools are having a hard time catching up. Schools still shuffle hundreds of students daily to classrooms with inflexible learning spaces, an outdated curriculum, and work disconnected from the real world. What if as an educator you had the power to change that? What if you could transform student learning and still have time to cover your standards? What if someone who has made radical changes in education provided you with five simple strategies that you could implement in your school tomorrow? The power of SIMPLE The power of SIMPLE will inspire you to make those changes by documenting Kyle Wagner's entire journey in creating Futures Academy- a school that changes the way we educate. It is a school that adapts schedules every week depending on the learning experience; has students presenting regularly to experts in the field; and integrates learning around students exploring their passions and creating work of value in the real world. This book will empower you to create your own vision for school and provide simple and practical strategies to make that vision come to life. You will no longer be paralyzed by fear, but empowered by the fact that you can create real change, and it's not that hard.

LISTENING . . . THE KEY TO BECOMING A TRANSFORMATIVE SCHOOL LEADER The Listening Leader is a practical guide that will inspire school, district, and teacher leaders to make substantive change and increase equitable student outcomes. Rooted in the values of equity, relationships, and listening, this luminous book helps reimagine what is possible in education today. Drawing from more than twenty years of experience in public schools, Shane Safir incorporates hands-on strategies and powerful stories to show us how to leverage one of the most vital tools of leadership: listening. As a Listening Leader you'll feel more confident in these core competencies: Cultivating relationships with stakeholders Addressing equity challenges in your organization Gathering student, staff, and parent perspectives as rich data on improvement Fostering a thriving culture of collaboration and innovation The Listening Leader offers a much-needed leadership model to transform every facet of school life, and most importantly, to shape our schools into equitable places of learning. As Michael Fullan writes in the Foreword, "Read it, act on it, and reap the benefits for all." "This book is a 'must have' for any leader trying to move the needle on equity. Drawing from her lived experience as a principal and leadership coach, Safir offers stories that give insight and practical strategies that get results. It's one you'll keep coming back to." —Zaretta Hammond, author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain " The Listening Leader immediately changed the way I interact with students, teachers, families and community members." —Tamara Friedman, assistant principal, Berkeley High School "Shane Safir has written a brilliant book. As engaging as it is informative and as revelatory as it is relevant. It is a must-read for school leaders and those who aspire to lead." —Chris Emdin, associate professor of science education, Teachers College, Columbia University; author of For White Folks Who Teach In the Hood and the Rest of Ya'll too

Where are we now? Where are we going? : preparing our students for an uncertain future / Patricia A. Jennings, Anthony A. DeMauro, and Polina P. Mischenko -- A selective review of mindfulness training programs for children and adolescents in school settings / Rebecca N. Baelen, Michael V. Esposito, and Brian M. Galla -- Turn and listen : strengthening compassion and leadership in the adult community in schools / Pamela Seigle, Chip Wood, and Lisa Sankowski -- Modeling mindfulness : principal leadership and development for personal and organizational growth / Eleanor Drago-Severson and Jessica Blum-DeStefano -- Embodied teacher mindfulness in the classroom : the calm, clear, kind framework / Cynthia Taylor, Patricia A. Jennings, Alexis Harris, Deborah L. Schussler, and Robert W. Roeser -- Cultivating passion for practicing and teaching mindfulness : a multiple-case study of compassionate school project teachers / Polina P. Mischenko and Patricia A. Jennings -- The school counselor : change agent and collaborator for holistic student well-being / Rebecca L. Tadlock-Marlo and Meghan Damler -- Creating mindful and compassionate schools : including parents as partners / J. Douglas Coatsworth, Melissa Ward George, and Aimee Kleisner Walker -- Finding peace in chaos : mindfully prepared public school teachers / Richard C. Brown and Elizabeth Grassi -- Being in school transformation : toward equity and social justice / Velma L. Cobb.

Hands-on resources for new and seasoned school coaches This practical resource offers the foundational skills and tools needed by new coaching educators, as well as presenting an overview of the knowledge and theory base behind the practice. Established coaches will find numerous ways to deepen and refine their coaching practice. Principals and others who incorporate coaching strategies into their work will also find a wealth of resources. Aguilar offers a model for transformational coaching which could be implemented as professional development in schools or districts anywhere. Although she addresses the needs of adult learners, her model maintains a student-centered focus, with a specific lens on addressing equity issues in schools. Offers a practical resource for school coaches, principals, district leaders, and other administrators Presents a transformational coaching model which addresses systems change Pays explicit attention to surfacing and interrupting inequities in schools The Art of Coaching: Effective Strategies for School Transformation offers a compendium of school coaching ideas, the book's explicit, user-friendly structure enhances the ability to access the information.

Education Transformation, authored by the leading expert in customized online education, Ron Packard, shows why technology is critical to the future of education and the future of our nation’s children. We can no longer afford to lag, the benefits of technology must be harnessed for the benefit of students nationwide and around the globe. It is an imperative. One size does not fit all in education – Education Transformation shows us how technology can be used to accommodate individual’s needs rather than making each student force fit into the traditional classroom model which works for many but not for all. Like so many other modern conveniences, education can benefit from technological advancement, and only technology can provide personalized instruction affordably. Education Transformation has never been needed more than today. It is the future of education and of our nation’s children.