INSPIRE EMPLOYEES AND IMPROVE PERFORMANCE WITH SUPPORTIVE ACCOUNTABILITY LEADERSHIP: Some leaders are too harsh. Some are too lenient. Others are completely disengaged from employee performance management. Striking a delicate balance between supportive leadership and accountability is the key to ensuring employees are as effective and productive as possible.Sylvia Melena is the architect of the Supportive Accountability Leadership¿ Model, a simple but powerful framework that helps leaders create a motivating work environment while promoting accountability and improving performance. Through a mix of stories, actionable tips, and tools, you'll learn how to:¿Master the art of supportive leadership¿Inspire employees to advance your organization's vision¿Monitor performance and customer service efficiently¿Lead effective performance improvement conversations¿Pinpoint critical support factors to unleash performance¿Wield the power of employee recognition¿Boost performance through progressive discipline¿Document skillfully You'll also receive free access to the Performance Documentation Toolkit to help you ease the burden of employee performance documentation.

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.

"Looking to achieve greater results by creating a high-accountability culture in your organization? This book shows you how! By implementing this Accountability process, you can take your team to new levels of excellence. The practical methods outlined in this book will guide you to increase your personal and organization's success"--Book cover

Uncertainty is a fact of life. You can never know enough to make perfect decisions. Understanding this helps us balance an awareness of our tendency towards overconfidence with an acceptance of our own fallibility. The book discusses two opposed models of school improvement: the deficit model (which assumes problems are someone’s fault) and the surplus model (which assumes problems are unintended systemic flaws). By aligning ourselves to a surplus model we can create a system of Intelligent Accountability. The principles that make this possible are trust, accountability and fairness. While we thrive when trusted, unless someone cares about – and is holding us to account – for what we do, we’re unlikely to be our best. Some teachers deserve more trust and require less scrutiny than others, but in order to satisfy the demands of equality we end up treating all teachers as equally untrustworthy. The more we trust teachers, the more autonomy they should be given. To pursue a system of fair inequality we must accept that autonomy must be earned.

Youth mentoring programs must change in order to become truly effective. The world’s leading expert shows how. Youth mentoring is among the most popular forms of volunteering in the world. But does it work? Does mentoring actually help young people succeed? In Older and Wiser, mentoring expert Jean Rhodes draws on more than thirty years of empirical research to survey the state of the field. Her conclusion is sobering: there is little evidence that most programs—even renowned, trusted, and long-established ones—are effective. But there is also much reason for hope. Mentoring programs, Rhodes writes, do not focus on what young people need. Organizations typically prioritize building emotional bonds between mentors and mentees. But research makes clear that effective programs emphasize the development of specific social, emotional, and intellectual skills. Most mentoring programs are poorly suited to this effort because they rely overwhelmingly on volunteers, who rarely have the training necessary to teach these skills to young people. Moreover, the one-size-fits-all models of major mentoring organizations struggle to deal with the diverse backgrounds of mentees, the psychological effects of poverty on children, and increasingly hard limits to upward mobility in an unequal world. Rhodes doesn’t think we should give up on mentoring—far from it. She shows that evidence-based approaches can in fact create meaningful change in young people’s lives. She also recommends encouraging “organic” mentorship opportunities—in schools, youth sports leagues, and community organizations.

Hold anyone accountable. Master performance discussions. Get RESULTS. Broken promises, missed deadlines, poor behavior--they don't just make others' lives miserable; they can sap up to 50 percent of organizational performance and account for the vast majority of divorces. Crucial Accountability offers the tools for improving relationships in the workplace and in life and for resolving all these problems--permanently. PRAISE FOR CRUCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY: "Revolutionary ideas ... opportunities for breakthrough ..." -- Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People "Unleash the true potential of a relationship or organization and move it to the next level." -- Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager "The most recommended and most effective resource in my library." -- Stacey Allerton Firth, Vice President, Human Resources, Ford of Canada "Brilliant strategies for those difficult discussions at home and in the workplace." -- Soledad O’Brien, CNN news anchor and producer "This book is the real deal.... Read it, underline it, learn from it. It's a gem." -- Mike Murray, VP Human Resources and Administration (retired), Microsoft

'No Child Left' Behind, signed into law by President Bush in January 2002, is the most significant education legislation in decades. It calls for substantially expanded student testing, more stringent accountability requirements, and annual school-focused report cards at the state, district, and school levels. Despite the fact that it affects schooling at every possible level, few people understand its implications or reach. In America's 'Failing' Schools, Popham sets the record straight for teachers, students, and parents alike. In clear, accessible language the book explains the relevant.

An inspirational self-improvement guide from a leader in personal and organizational accountability. Every day, we are faced with decisions from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed. Decisions about our families, our business, our futures. We are accountable for making decision, big and small, the cast the paths of our lives. So why do we spend so much time finger-pointing and blaming others? Mark Samuel is a master of accountability. In his book, teaches us how to go from victim to accountable and how to actually do what we say we are going to do. Taking ownership of the power of personal choice, regardless of the obstacles, means not only walking the talk but knowing what talk you are going to walk. Faced with fear of blame, fear of failure and fear of success, Samuel provides inspiration and strategy for impacting the world by achieving your goals. One of Samuel's main arguments in owning accountability is recognizing your current reality. He challenges readers to embrace certain "tools" that can place us in the right frame of mind to accept responsibility and accomplish all of our set goals both individually and as team members including: ·Compassion: in taking accountability, also creating solutions that consider the welfare of all parties involved and for the entire organization in general. ·Openness: let each member of the team, regardless of rank, have a chance to speak up and share their perspective in problem-solving ·Sincerity: acknowledge the current reality with honesty yet without judgment. Call it what it is without criticizing at this stage From identifying the common roadblocks to accountability to focusing on the factor of forgiveness in taking responsibility, Samuel shows readers how to effectively stop the cycle of victimhood and blaming and shows us how to engage in the "accountability loop," a process of pragmatic self-examination, recognition and owning, and action. Using examples from the worlds of business, sports, parables and his own life story, Samuel highly-praised accountability lessons are now available for anyone to learn from.

The competition is evolving. The arena you compete in is evolving. The world is evolving. It is becoming more difficult for you to survive, with a static skillset. Things are zooming along at an alarming rate, and the possibility of being left behind is very real. Portable skills are the currency for today’s world, and being able to gain and use skills effectively can be the difference between gaining a lead, and falling behind. How will More Than 100% solve your problems? Written in a conversationally humorous style, More Than 100% is a book that gives you insights. On how to build your own value, in an easy to follow and implement strategy. You will see methods to do things differently for maximum impact, and be able to experience becoming More Than 100%. Ongoing support is available from the author, at Stackedskills.com, giving even more value than just the book itself.