"We can't do that in our school district." "I don't have time to add that to my curriculum." "We're fighting against impossible odds with these students." Sound familiar? School improvement can often feel like a losing battle, but it doesn't have to be. In this fully revised and updated second edition of The Learning Leader, Douglas B. Reeves helps leadership teams go beyond excuses to capitalize on their strengths, reduce their weaknesses, and reset their mindset and priorities to achieve unprecedented success. A critical key is recognizing student achievement as more than just a set of test scores. Reeves asserts that when leaders focus exclusively on results, they fail to measure and understand the importance of their own actions. He offers an alternative-the Leadership for Learning Framework, which helps leaders identify and distinguish among four different types of educators and provide more effective, tailored support to: "Lucky" educators, who achieve high results but don't understand how their actions influence achievement. "Losing" educators, who achieve low results yet keep doing the same thing, expecting different outcomes. "Learning" educators, who have not yet achieved the desired results but are working their way toward excellence. "Leading" educators, who achieve high results and understand how their actions influence their success. Reeves stresses that effective leadership is neither a unitary skill nor a solitary activity. The Learning Leader helps leaders reconceptualize their roles in the school improvement process and motivate themselves and their colleagues to keep working to better serve their students.

In this book, eCoaching pioneer Marcia Rock draws on best-practice research and decades of experience to offer a blueprint for professional development that maximizes teacher and student growth.The eCoaching Continuum for Educators provides teachers, administrators, and other school professionals a step-by-step guide to the four connected, coordinated components of technology-enabled professional development: (1) studying theory and practice to build knowledge of specific content and pedagogy; (2) observing theory and practice to aid in the transfer of new knowledge to classroom practice; (3) one-on-one coaching to give teachers the feedback they need to improve classroom practice; and (4) group coaching to build capacity for identifying and solving problems of professional practice. Rock offers a practical approach for putting professional development where it can do the most good-in the classroom. You'll learn: Why technology is so well suited for authentic, job-embedded professional development. How to cultivate a culture in which the eCoaching continuum can have the greatest impact. Which technologies are the most useful for carrying out eCoaching in a variety of settings. How to capture and evaluate the impact of eCoaching on teachers and students. The eCoaching Continuum for Educators integrates best practice in coaching for professional development with a detailed account of how teachers and other school professionals can use today's technologies to improve their practice and ensure their students are fully engaged and learning.

So, you want to be a principal? Are you a new principal who could benefit from the wisdom of a successful four-time principal? Could you use help preparing for a school administrator job interview? Then this is the book for you. In The Aspiring Principal 50, school leadership expert Baruti Kafele presents reflective questions aimed at assisting both new and aspiring school leaders as they work to become effective school leaders and consider making a leap to a leadership position, respectively. This book will help aspiring principals determine whether ""The Principal"" is truly who they want to be and help new principals grow and thrive in the principalship. Additionally, the book contains an entire chapter devoted to preparing for the school administrator job interview.Kafele infuses the book from beginning to end with succinct advice on everything from remaining focused on the principal's number one priority-student achievement-to addressing maintenance concerns, managing budget allocations, and ensuring that the school's website puts the school in the best possible light. With The Aspiring Principal 50, you can increase the likelihood that your tenure as principal will be a successful, beneficial, and healthful one.

For every teacher it's different, but you know who they are for you-the students who are "hard to teach." Maybe they're reading far below grade level. Maybe they're English learners. Maybe they have diagnosed learning disabilities or behavioral issues. Maybe they're underachieving for reasons that are unknown. They have been overlooked or underserved or frustrated, and they're not learning as they should. Until now. Until you. How to Reach the Hard to Teach presents a thoughtful and practical approach to achieving breakthrough success with linguistically and culturally diverse students who struggle in school. Combining elements of the SIOP (R) Model and the FIT Teaching (R) approach, authors Jana Echevarria, Nancy Frey, and Douglas Fisher take stock of what we know about excellent instruction and distill it into five guiding principles: Set high expectations. Provide access to the core curriculum. Use assessment to inform instruction. Attend to language development-both English and academic. Create a supportive classroom climate. You'll learn specific practices associated with each principle and see how real-life teachers are employing these practices in their classrooms so that all students have the opportunity to learn and receive optimal support for that learning. Every teacher has had the experience of seeing a "hard to teach" student in a new light and realizing all he or she might achieve. This book is about shining that light of possibility on the students who challenge us most, interrogating our beliefs, and taking action to ensure they receive the best instruction we have to offer.

Exam Board: AQA Academic Level: GCSE Subject: History: Conflict and tension between East and West, 1945-1972 First teaching: September 2016 First Exams: Summer 2018 Designed for hassle-free, independent study and priced to meet both your and your students' budgets, this combined Revision Guide and Workbook is the smart choice for those revising for AQA GCSE (9-1) History and includes: A FREE online edition One-topic-per-page format 'Now Try This' practice questions on topic pages Exam skills pages including Worked examples with exemplar answers Exam-style practice pages with practice questions in the style of the exams Guided support and hints providing additional scaffolding, to help avoid common pitfalls Full set of practice papers written to match the specification exactly

What will it take to create equitable educational opportunities for all students? According to veteran educator Vernita Mayfield, teachers and school leaders need to learn how to recognize culturally embedded narratives about racial hierarchy and dismantle the systems of privilege and the institutions that perpetuate them with knowledge, action, and advocacy. Cultural Competence Now provides a structure to begin meaningful conversations about race, culture, bias, privilege, and power within the time constraints of an ordinary school. The 56 exercises include activities, discussions, and readings in which to engage during each of the four quarters of the school year. School leaders will discover how to facilitate learning through the four steps-awaken and assess; apply and act; analyze and align; advocate and lead-as you and your colleagues: Increase your awareness of privilege and bias. Adapt your professional practices to meet the needs of all students. Examine policies and practices that inhibit opportunities for marginalized populations. Align resources to eradicate inequity in your school. Mayfield offers advice on establishing a safe environment for professional conversations, setting goals for cultural competency, overcoming resistance, reviewing school data and the school's vision and mission through the lens of race and culture, and strategically managing what can be a transformative yet uncomfortable change process. Cultural Competence Now responds to the urgent need to build the cultural competency of educators-for the sake of children and in the interest of supporting and retaining all educators.

Students can succeed in school-but they must be in school to do so. Addressing absenteeism is as important as addressing problematic behavior and academic difficulties in the classroom. To address the pervasive issue of chronic absenteeism-that is, missing 10 percent of school days for any reason-educators must begin to move away from a model of reliance on reactive and punitive approaches and toward one that is preventive and positive, and that uses proven principles of behavioral change. Teacher's Guide to Tackling Attendance Challenges, by nationally known educators Jessica Sprick and Tricia Berg, provides teachers with the information and resources they need to build a strong classroom-based initiative to improve the attendance of all students, creating a classroom culture of attendance with easy-to-implement strategies. Sprick and Berg provide concrete and practical strategies for teachers to implement in their own classrooms to address chronic absence and improve the attendance of all students, including: A framework for implementation. Sample lesson plans. Examples and reproducibles for reinforcement systems. Talking points for use with students and families. Real-world examples of successful classroom-based approaches. Handouts for parents on establishing routines, dealing with technology and more. When teachers apply the easy-to-implement and minimally invasive presented, they will see significant improvements in student attendance. This book is a copublication of ASCD and Ancora Publishing.

It's no secret that in today's complex world, students face unparalleled demands as they prepare for college, careers, and active citizenship. However, those demands won't be met without a fundamental shift from traditional, teacher-centered instruction toward innovative, student-centered teaching and learning. For schools ready to make such a shift, project-based learning (PBL) offers a proven framework to help students be better equipped to tackle future challenges. Project Based Teachers encourage active questioning, curiosity, and peer learning; create learning environments in which every student has a voice; and have a mastery of content but are also comfortable responding to students' questions by saying, ""I don't know. Let's find out together."" In this book, Suzie Boss and John Larmer build on the framework for Gold Standard PBL originally presented in Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning and explore the seven practices integral to Project Based Teaching: Build the Culture. Design and Plan. Align to Standards. Manage Activities. Assess Student Learning. Scaffold Student Learning. Engage and Coach. For each practice, the authors present a wide range of practical strategies and include teachers' reflections about and suggestions from their classroom experiences. This book and a related series of free videos provide a detailed look at what's happening in PBL classrooms from the perspective of the Project Based Teacher. Let's find out together. A copublication of ASCD and Buck Institute for Education (BIE).

With foreword by Harry K. Wong Change is coming at us from all angles: technological, cultural, social, and environmental. This presents a great challenge (and a great opportunity) in schools and in the teaching profession. With Owning It, you'll discover an array of easy-to-implement strategies designed to help you excel in the myriad of modern-day responsibilities of teachers and educators: classroom leader, mentor, colleague, team member, and public professional. This book will empower teachers to own their careers, teach effectively, and develop strong relationships: Acquire straightforward strategies for dealing with everyday situations found in classrooms, schools, and communities. Understand the multifaceted role of a teacher in today's schools and how to balance the numerous responsibilities -- from classroom management to relationships with colleagues. Feel inspired and motivated to bring out the best in yourself as well as in your students. Observe creative approaches to improve teaching strategies and student engagement. Answer reflection questions to connect with and relate to the strategies covered in the book. Contents: Part 1: Owning It in Your Classroom: Strategies for Creating an Environment of Achievement Chapter 1: Revisit Your Personal Philosophy's Value Chapter 2: Make the Most of the First Five Minutes of Any Class Chapter 3: Increase Your Classroom Presence to Seem Like You're Everywhere at Once Chapter 4: Never Sabotage a Teachable Moment Chapter 5: Help Students Learn Out Loud and Still Keep a Handle on Your Classroom Chapter 6: Transform Your Perception of Data and Help Your Students Succeed Chapter 7: Think Outside the Bubble on All-Important Standardized Tests Part 2: Owning It With Your Most Challenging Students: Strategies for Succeeding With At-Risk and Struggling Student Populations Chapter 8: Bring Ethnic Identity and Culturally Relevant Curriculum Into Your Classroom Chapter 9: Close the Achievement Gap With At-Risk Students Chapter 10: Succeed With At-Risk Youth Chapter 11: Manage Disruptive Classroom Behavior Chapter 12: Establish a Negotiation With At-Risk and Struggling Students Chapter 13: Reel Parents in With Three Basic Strategies Chapter 14: Empower Students by Putting Them in Charge Part 3: Owning It at Your School and District: Strategies for Succeeding as a Member of a Staff Team Chapter 15: Turn Not Another Meeting Into Let's Get to Business! Chapter 16: Help Your School's New Teachers Succeed (and Stick Around) Chapter 17: Improve Schools by Minding Collegial Generation Gaps Chapter 18: Approach a Colleague About a Conflict Chapter 19: Five Ways to Make Shared Positions Work for Teachers, Students, and Administrators Part 4: Owning It in Your Community: Strategies for Making a Positive Impact Beyond Your School and Classroom Chapter 20: Turn Potential Foes Into Supportive Allies Chapter 21: Put the Spotlight on Your School Chapter 22: Get Teachers Into the Community and the Community Into Teachers Chapter 23: Step Up and Share Your Ideas With Fellow Educators Chapter 24: Make Blogs an Essential Support Mechanism for Teaching

Telling Tales Out of School Chronicling the tales he had collected throughout his career in education started as a lockdown pastime for Chris Lowe. The end result is Telling Tales Out of School: fifty tales to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Prince William School, Oundle. The Tales are all based on true events or stories told to Chris by fellow teachers: stories, about growing up, about learning, teaching and coping together. All proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to the James Rutterford Trust, which is targeted at families who need financial support to enable their children at PWS to take part in school activities, school trips, to provide equipment to aid their study or to support out-of-hours school activities. Please visit tellingtales.bigcartel.com for more information about the project and to buy further copies of Telling Tales Out of School.

Did you know that close to half of today's jobs in the U.S. could be done by robots and that proportion is rapidly increasing? It is quite possible that about half of today's high school graduates will not have the knowledge or skills needed to get a decent job when they graduate. Tomorrow's high school graduates will be able to thrive in this environment, but only if school superintendents, central office executives, and principals use the strategies employed by the world's top-performing education systems to build the high-performance education systems today's students will need to succeed tomorrow. In Leading High-Performance School Systems: Lessons from the World's Best, Marc Tucker, a leading expert on top-performing school systems with more than 30 years of experience studying the global economy and education systems worldwide, details how top-performing school systems have met head-on the challenges facing school leaders today. You'll learn why our current system is obsolete, explore the knowledge and skills needed to design and build first-rate education systems, and gain a solid understanding of the key elements of high-performance school systems, including the following: A powerful, coherent instructional system with school-leaving certifications that mean much more than today's high school diploma. Partnerships with first-rate universities to ensure a steady supply of highly capable, well-educated, and well-trained teachers. Schools reorganized around highly qualified professional teachers with a career ladder they can climb. High expectations and personalized support to ensure that children arrive at each grade level ready to learn. An equitable system that closes the gaps in student performance. Vocational education for talented youth seeking an applied, academically rigorous education. Leading High-Performance School Systems is an invaluable resource for school leaders preparing today's students for tomorrow's world. This book is a copublication of ASCD and NCEE.

Conversations between administrators and teachers take place every day, for many reasons, but what can we do to elevate them so that they lead to better professional relationships, more effective school leaders and teachers, and improved learning for students? C.R.A.F.T. Conversations for Teacher Growth offers the answer, demonstrating how exchanges that are clear, realistic, appropriate, flexible, and timely can be transformational. The authors explain how C.R.A.F.T. conversations support leaders' efforts in four ""cornerstone"" areas: Building Capacity, Invoking Change, Promoting Collaboration, and Prioritizing Celebration. With this foundation in place, they offer explicit guidance for developing the skills necessary to move through all components of a C.R.A.F.T. conversation: planning, opening, engaging, closing, reflecting, and following up. Extended vignettes featuring administrators and teachers bring each component to life, illustrating how focused efforts on improving how we communicate and build relationships can help schools achieve their goals and become places where adults-and students-thrive.

In this comprehensive resource for elementary school teachers, Kristina J. Doubet and Jessica A. Hockett explore how to use differentiated instruction to help students be more successful learners-regardless of background, native language, learning preference, or motivation. They explain how to: Create a healthy classroom community in which students' unique qualities and needs are as important as the ones they have in common. Translate curriculum into manageable and meaningful learning goals that are fit to be differentiated. Use pre-assessment and formative assessment to uncover students' learning needs, tailor tasks accordingly, and ensure that students are ""getting it."" Provide interactive learning experiences that encourage students to engage with both the content and one another. Present students with avenues to take in, process, and produce knowledge that appeal to their varied interests and learning preferences. Navigate potential roadblocks to differentiation. Each chapter provides a plethora of practical tools, templates, and strategies for a variety of subject areas developed by and for real teachers. Whether you're new to differentiated instruction or looking to expand your repertoire of DI strategies, Differentiation in the Elementary Grades will show you classroom-tested ways to better engage students and help them succeed every day. Includes URL and password for free downloadable forms.

""Why do I lead?"" With this deceptively simple question, best-selling author Baruti K. Kafele begins a powerful examination of what it takes to make a school community achieve the greatest success in the classroom and beyond. In The Principal 50: Critical Leadership Questions for Inspiring Schoolwide Excellence, Kafele, a veteran school administrator, guides motivated school leaders through 50 self-reflection exercises designed to yield a deeper understanding of the meaning behind the work that they do. Along with many other insights, this book shows how best to: Inspire and motivate students, teachers, and other school staff to approach their work with vigor and purpose. Ensure that all students, regardless of color, creed, or origin, are valued and represented in the school culture. Focus mission and vision statements to address students' most critical needs and integrate shared values and objectives into the fabric of the school. Engage parents and other community members so that they feel a stake in the school's success. Brimming with passion, written from the heart, and informed by hard-earned experience, this transformative book is essential reading for principals and other building-level administrators determined to reinvigorate their practice, revitalize their staff, and-most importantly-guarantee the strongest outcomes for students.

The Beautiful Me Collection - Big Kids Edition 6+ Makeeda and the Painting ~ Have you ever heard the expression - "a picture is worth a thousand words,a How often do we look at an image without text and know just what the painting or photograph is trying to say? It is almost as if there is a silent coversation taking place, and only those who speak the language can be part of this mysterious dimension of thought. It has been said that where there is art there are no lonely hearts. In this story, Makeeda gets really close to uncovering a secret only artists know.... This story was written by Marlene Service and co-written by both of her daughters Nylah-May Service aged 9 and Xi-Ana Ray Service aged 6. Credit for the creative concept of this story must be given to the girls who really tapped into their imagination and came up with such a fun and layered idea. Celebrating Diversity - There are 5 delightful books in The Beautiful Me Collection and to learn more you can visit www.thebeautifulmecollection.com

Students learning math are expected to do more than just solve problems; they must also be able to demonstrate their thinking and share their ideas, both orally and in writing. As many classroom teachers have discovered, these can be challenging tasks for students. The good news is, mathematical communication can be taught and mastered. In Teaching Students to Communicate Mathematically, Laney Sammons provides practical assistance for K-8 classroom teachers. Drawing on her vast knowledge and experience as a classroom teacher, she covers the basics of effective mathematical communication and offers specific strategies for teaching students how to speak and write about math. Sammons also presents useful suggestions for helping students incorporate correct vocabulary and appropriate representations when presenting their mathematical ideas. This must-have resource will help you help your students improve their understanding of and their skill and confidence in mathematical communication.

A four-step process for effective equity practices in schools, with an array of professional development activities, leadership tips, and downloadable tools. Recent years have brought new calls to dismantle discriminatory policies and practices in U.S. schools. But adopting an equity focus doesn't guarantee the desired results. There's a risk that doing equity will be toothless-surface level and designed more to avoid tension and blame than to build a better educational system. In Leading Your School Toward Equity, veteran educator Dwayne Chism shows district, school, and teacher leaders a four-step process for taking equity work beyond talk and into effective action. You'll learn concrete ways to: Define and clarify equity. Guide even reluctant staff to a consensus understanding of what equity is, why it's necessary, and what it will look like. Create productive discomfort. Use intentional dialogue to lead staff to a place where they can talk frankly about privilege, bias, racial inequality, and how these affect students' experience of schooling. Build efficacy. Help staff develop higher levels of individual and shared professional efficacy-the number one factor influencing equitable educational outcomes-and create an empowered group of educational equity allies united for results. Normalize action. Support the day-to-day use of an equity lens, a mindset that empowers all teachers to counteract stereotypes and rectify conditions that negatively affect students of color. To make this complicated work a little easier, Chism provides an array of assessments, coaching guides, and activities to use with staff. If you're committed to creating a true equity-driven culture, if you're ready for courageous leadership, this book is for you.

Unlike ""fix-it"" strategies that targeted teachers are likely to resist, educator-centered instructional coaching-ECIC-offers respectful coaching for professionals within their schoolwide community. Evidence-based results across all content areas, authentic practices for data collection and analysis, along with nonevaluative, confidential collaboration offer a productive and promising path to teacher development. Coaches and teachers implement ECIC through a before-during-after-BDA-cycle that includes comprehensive planning between coach and teacher; classroom visitation and data collection; and debriefing and reflection. Drawing on their extensive experience with ECIC, authors Ellen B. Eisenberg, Bruce P. Eisenberg, Elliott A. Medrich, and Ivan Charner offer this detailed guidance for coaches and school leaders on how you and your school can: Create the conditions for an effective ECIC program. Get buy-in from teachers. Clearly define the role of coach. Roll out a coaching initiative. Ensure ongoing success with coaching. Filled with authentic advice from coaches, Instructional Coaching in Action provides valuable insight and demonstrates how educator-centered instructional coaching can make a difference in teacher learning, instructional practice, and student outcomes.

It's time to move our assessment practices from the 1950s to the century we're living in. It's time to invest in our teachers and local school leaders instead of in more tests. It's time to help all students understand how to unleash their strengths and gain a sense of themselves as learners capable of choosing their own paths to success. In The Perfect Assessment System, Rick Stiggins calls for the ground-up redevelopment of assessment in U.S. education. Speaking from more than 40 years of experience in the field-and speaking for all learners who hope to succeed, the teachers who want them to succeed, and the local school leaders whose aspirations for success have been thwarted by assessment traditions-Stiggins maps out the adjustments in practice and culture necessary to generate both accurate accountability data and the specific evidence of individual mastery that will support sound instructional decision making and better learning in the classroom. He addresses: Assessment purpose-how (and why) to clarify the reason for every assessment and the users it will serve. Learning targets to be assessed-how to make sure we focus on the right competencies and set consistent definitions of success. Assessment quality-how to ensure every assessment, at every level, is an excellent one. Communication of assessment results-how to share information in ways that best support diverse purposes. Assessment impact-how to link assessment to truly productive, universal student motivation. We have not yet begun to explore assessment's true potential to enhance both school quality and student well-being. Stiggins kicks off this critical conversation and charts a course for a new system that promises much higher levels of student success at a fraction of our current testing costs. The door is open for assessment reform; here is a bold plan for getting it right.

What is a true learning organization, and how can your school become one? To excel, schools must embrace continuous school improvement and evaluation, as well as systems thinking. In Measuring What We Do in Schools, author Victoria L. Bernhardt details the critical role program evaluation serves in school success and how to implement meaningful evaluations that make a difference. She provides a roadmap of how to conduct comprehensive, systemwide evaluations of programs and processes; the tools needed to obtain usable, pertinent information; and how to use these data to expand teachers' and administrators' data-informed decision-making focus. Educators will learn how to Assess what is working and not working for students. Determine which processes need to change. Use data to improve practices on an ongoing basis. Although challenging for many schools, program evaluation and data analysis can begin with a single program or process, over time building on the expanded knowledge of the school's processes and the results they produce. An effective tool-The Program Evaluation Tool-enables schools to easily identify the purpose and intended outcomes of any school program, along with whom it serves, and how it should be implemented, monitored, and evaluated. These data can then be used to improve every aspect of a school's programs and processes and the outcomes achieved. Filled with practical strategies and featuring an in-depth case study, this book is designed to help educators see that evaluation work is logical and easy to do. They'll gain the confidence to do this work on a regular basis-working together to become a true learning organization.

For years, the teaching and learning of fractions has been associated with rote memorization. But this mechanical approach to instruction-which strips students of an ability to reason or make sense of math-has resulted in a failure of understanding. Author Monica Neagoy, drawing on decades of research studies, evidence from teacher practice, and 25 years of experience working around the world with teachers, students, and parents, addresses seven big ideas in the teaching and learning of fractions in grades 2-6. Each idea is supported by a vignette from a real classroom, common misconceptions, a thorough unpacking of productive mathematical thinking, and several multistep and thought-provoking problems for teachers to explore. She offers three fundamental reasons why it's imperative for us to take a closer look at how we teach fractions: Fractions play a key role in students' feelings about mathematics. Fractions are fundamental to school math and daily life. Fractions are foundational to success in algebra. While a solid grounding in algebra is necessary for a STEM career, the worthy goal of "algebra for all" will not be possible until "fractions for all" is a reality. Unpacking Fractions provides teachers with concrete strategies for achieving that reality-in short, helping all students gain the knowledge they need to feel at ease with fractions.