This is the second book in the series examining student achievement. The chapters in this book reflect the scholarly papers presented at the July 2006 Education Policy, Leadership Summer Institute (EPLSI) by K–16 educators, researchers, community advocates, and policymakers who work in urban communities. The Institute serves as a place where individuals interested in scholarly discussions and research directly related to: (1) how data can be utilized to inform policy; (2) examining the urban school context from the perspectives of the polity, school leaders; students; and other related internal and external actors; and (3) identifying strategies for improving student academic achievement can gather. During this week-long Institute, participants examined the structural problems and policy tensions affecting urban communities and student achievement. The Institute’s theme, Meeting the Challenges of Urban Schools is reflected throughout this book. Specifically, this edition explores the interrelated aspects of policy, practice and research and how they affect academic achievement. The five sections in this book examine different challenges facing urban schools and their impact on student performance.

This edited volume examines innovative ways of preparing, supervising, and evaluating principals and explores factors that promote effective leadership practices. Chapter authors consider how principals' leadership practices affect teachers' instruction, satisfaction, commitment, retention, and effectiveness, and present evidence that principals can influence key student outcomes as well. Covering topics such as school leaders' use of time, their efforts to reduce implicit bias, how leadership practices are associated with teachers' workplace attitudes, leadership and student achievement, and how school leaders can best be supported under new federal legislation, this volume is a "must read" for educational leadership and policy faculty, school and district administrators, and researchers committed to promoting effective principal leadership.

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.

This new book provides a comprehensive overview of school leadership in Malaysia, at a time when effective leadership is widely recognised to be an essential component of successful schools. It is also timely because leadership is regarded as a vital element in the Government’s ambitious educational reform agenda. The book is edited by a world leader in this field and includes contributors with deeply embedded understanding of the Malaysian schools’ context, based on engagement with policy, practice and research. The book addresses major aspects of school leadership, including instructional and distributed leadership, the role of the principal, the work of senior and middle leaders, professional learning communities, leadership and student outcomes, and leadership preparation. This book is essential reading for postgraduate students and researchers interested in educational leadership and management, and school reform, in an Asian context. It is also recommended for school leaders wishing to engage with policy, practice and research.

Linking Leadership to Student Learning Linking Leadership to Student Learning clearly shows how school leadership improves student achievement. The book is based on an ambitious five-year study on educational leadership that was sponsored by The Wallace Foundation. The authors studied 43 districts, across 9 states and 180 elementary, middle, and secondary schools. In this book, Kenneth Leithwood, Karen Seashore Louis, and their colleagues report on what they found. They examined leadership at each organizational level in the school system—classroom, school, district, community, and state. Their comprehensive approach to investigating school leadership offers a balanced understanding of how the structures within which leaders operate shape what they do. The results within will have significant implications for future policy and practice. Praise for Linking Leadership to Student Learning "Kenneth Leithwood and Karen Seashore Louis offer a seminal new contribution to the leadership field. They provide a rich and authoritative evidence base that demonstrates clearly just why school leadership is so important and how it promotes successful student learning." —PAMELA SAMMONS, Ph.D., Professor of Education, Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford "This ambitious, groundbreaking, and thought provoking treatment of the link between school leadership and student learning is a testament to the outstanding work of these exemplary scholars. This is a 'must read' for academics and practitioners alike." —MARTHA McCARTHY, President's Professor, Loyola Marymount University, and Chancellor's Professor Emeritus, Indiana University "The question is no longer whether school and district leader's impact student learning, but rather how they do it. The authors provide a convincing answer, one that recognizes the crucial interaction between leader and locality." —DANIEL L. DUKE, Professor of Educational Leadership, University of Virginia

While considerable evidence indicates that school leaders are able to make important contributions to the success of their students, much less is known about how such contributions are made. This book provides a comprehensive account of research aimed at filling this gap in our knowledge, along with guidelines about how school leaders might use this knowledge for their own school improvement work. Leadership practices known to be effective for improving student success are outlined in the first section of the book while the remaining sections identify four “paths” along which the influence of those practices “flow” to exercise an influence on student success. Each of the Rational, Emotional, Organizational and Family paths are populated by conditions or variables known to have relatively direct effects on student success and also open to influence by effective leadership practices. While the Four Path framework narrows the attention of school leaders to a still-considerable number conditions known to contribute to student success, it leaves school leaders the autonomy to select, for improvement efforts, the sub-set of conditions that make the most sense in their own local circumstances. The approach to leadership described in this book provides evidence-based guidance on what to lead and flexibility on how to lead for purposes of improving student learning.

Co-published with UCEA, this exciting new textbook is the first to tackle the ISLLC Standard #6—the political context of education. This unique volume helps aspiring school leaders understand the dynamics of educational policy in multiple arenas at the local, state, and federal levels. Leaders are responsible for promoting the success of every student by understanding, responding to, and influencing the political, social, economic, legal, and cultural contexts in which education and learning reside. Featuring Case studies and Suggested activities, this book provides an authentic illustration of the political dynamics that emanate from individual, social, economic, and cultural issues surrounding all schools and further aspiring school leaders’ understanding of political issues through experiences. By presenting problem-posing cases, theoretical grounding, relevant research, and implications for practice, this book provides aspiring leaders with the background, learning experiences, and analytical tools to successfully promote student success in their contexts. Companion website – includes shared resources relevant to all ISLLC standards, along with particular activities for ISLLC Standard #6

This book is based on the largest and most extensive empirical study of contemporary leadership in primary and secondary schools in England. The results demonstrate that heads of successful schools improve the quality of student learning and achievement through who they are – their values, virtues, dispositions and competencies – as well as their timely use of change and improvement strategies. Successful School Leadership provides a comprehensive analysis of the values and qualities of head teachers. It assesses the strategies they use and how they adapt these to their particular school context in order to ensure positive increases in the learning, well being and achievement of their students. The authors: Identify a basic set of leadership practices resulting from their findings Analyse and describe the leadership values, qualities and behaviours related to different phases in schools’ improvement journeys Provide illustrative case studies of primary and secondary schools that highlight context sensitive strategies Provide a contemporary overview of international research and thinking about successful school leadership Recognize similar and distinguishing features between schools in different socio-economic groups This book is valuable reading for…school leaders and senior teachers, educational policy makers and advisors, as well as anyone involved or interested in education and its leadership.

For many years, the authors have been fellow travelers on the journey to help educators improve their schools. Their first coauthored book focuses on district leadership, principal leadership, and team leadership and addresses how individual teachers can be most effective in leading students—by learning with colleagues how to implement the most promising pedagogy in their classrooms

In a context of increased politicization led by state and federal policymakers, corporate reformers, and for-profit educational organizations, The Politics of Education Policy in an Era of Inequality explores a new vision for leading schools grounded in culturally relevant advocacy and social justice theories. This timely volume tackles the origins and implications of growing accountability for educational leaders and reconsiders the role that educational leaders should and can play in education policy and political processes. This book provides a critical perspective and analysis of today’s education policy landscape and leadership practice; explores the challenges and opportunities associated with teaching in and leading schools; and examines the structural, political, and cultural interactions among school principals, district leaders, and state and federal policy actors. An important resource for practicing and aspiring leaders, The Politics of Education Policy in an Era of Inequality shares a theoretical framework and strategies for building bridges between education researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.