This volume provides informed arguments, theory and practical examples based on research about what it looks like when educators, policy makers, and even students, try to rethink and change their practices by engaging in evidence-based conversations to challenge and inform their work. It allows the reader to experience these conversations. Each story reveals the depth of thinking that change requires and gives important insights into the challenge associated with changing thinking and practice. Some of the stories are encouraging and others are frustrating. Taken together, they give tremendous insight into what it takes for conceptual change that will fundamentally shift educational practice.

This text focuses on "participatory evaluation," an approach that involves teachers and educational administrators as partners with researchers in a broad range of school and school system-based evaluation tasks with the explicit goal of using such data to improve practice.; Participatory evaluation is a natural, suitable and effective approach to school improvement and educational change, and has been practiced by the editors and several colleagues for many years. Though participatory applied research strategies are growing in popularity, there is a paucity of documented empirical support for the approach. presenting a set of original empirical studies and a critical analysis of them this book will add to our knowledge about variations in the approach, conditions that support it, its viability within the culture of schools and school systems and its likely impact defined in terms of the use of research data and organisational learning.; The book will be useful for educational practitioners interested in critically evaluating the potential of participatory evaluation as an integral part of their own approach to educational reform. It will also clarify an agenda for research to further our understanding of the organisational benefits of this type of collaborative systematic enquiry.

This text focuses on "participatory evaluation," an approach that involves teachers and educational administrators as partners with researchers in a broad range of school and school system-based evaluation tasks with the explicit goal of using such data to improve practice.; Participatory evaluation is a natural, suitable and effective approach to school improvement and educational change, and has been practiced by the editors and several colleagues for many years. Though participatory applied research strategies are growing in popularity, there is a paucity of documented empirical support for the approach. presenting a set of original empirical studies and a critical analysis of them this book will add to our knowledge about variations in the approach, conditions that support it, its viability within the culture of schools and school systems and its likely impact defined in terms of the use of research data and organisational learning.; The book will be useful for educational practitioners interested in critically evaluating the potential of participatory evaluation as an integral part of their own approach to educational reform. It will also clarify an agenda for research to further our understanding of the organisational benefits of this type of collaborative systematic enquiry.

Take the confusion out of assessment, and make it work to enhance the learning process?every day!

Assessment and evaluation are central to educational reform, and they represent major shifts in thinking about learning, about schools, and about teaching. Assessment as Learning represents one of these crucial changes, but it encompasses more than just using a variety of new techniques. The concept of Assessment as Learning allows teachers to use their judgment about children?s understanding to inform the teaching process and to determine what to do for individual children.

This timely resource takes the mystery and confusion out of assessment by reframing its purpose in student evaluation and learning. It will provide teachers and school and district administrators with:

• Mechanisms for effective use of assessment as learning in a variety of contexts
• Compelling, real-life examples and case studies drawn from the author?s own experiences
• Sample rubrics and lesson plans as well as "Ideas for Follow-up" at the end of each chapter
• An understanding of the possible confusion surrounding assessment and its place in the learning process
• A detailed discussion of the changing role of schooling and our increasing knowledge about the complex nature of learning

Learn to embrace assessment, not just as a tool for student evaluation, but as a valuable strategy for everyday classroom learning.

Ideal for school leaders, teacher leaders, and superintendents leading district-level change, this book describes how separate professional learning communities can be purposefully linked across schools to create effective Networked Learning Communities (NLCs). Steven Katz, Lorna M. Earl, and Sonia Ben Jaafar demonstrate how NLCs can effectively engage schools in creating and sharing professional knowledge and develop the kind of deep and sustained changes that enhance student learning, engagement, and success.Based on the authorsAE research and work with districts and schools in North America and England, the book defines NLCs, explains how they work, and leads readers in examining:The importance of having a clear, evidence-based focusCollaborative inquiry as a process that challenges thinking and practice and generates new learning for teachersThe role of formal and informal leaders in both professional learning communities and networked learning communitiesBuilding and Connecting Learning Communities demonstrates how to work together to create the conditions for focused professional learning for teachers and tackles the challenge of how to sustain the work of NLCs.

This volume provides informed arguments, theory and practical examples based on research about what it looks like when educators, policy makers, and even students, try to rethink and change their practices by engaging in evidence-based conversations to challenge and inform their work. It allows the reader to experience these conversations. Each story reveals the depth of thinking that change requires, showing that change requires new learning and new learning is hard.

Take the confusion out of assessment, and make it work to enhance the learning process?every day!

Assessment and evaluation are central to educational reform, and they represent major shifts in thinking about learning, about schools, and about teaching. Assessment as Learning represents one of these crucial changes, but it encompasses more than just using a variety of new techniques. The concept of Assessment as Learning allows teachers to use their judgment about children?s understanding to inform the teaching process and to determine what to do for individual children.

This timely resource takes the mystery and confusion out of assessment by reframing its purpose in student evaluation and learning. It will provide teachers and school and district administrators with:

• Mechanisms for effective use of assessment as learning in a variety of contexts
• Compelling, real-life examples and case studies drawn from the author?s own experiences
• Sample rubrics and lesson plans as well as "Ideas for Follow-up" at the end of each chapter
• An understanding of the possible confusion surrounding assessment and its place in the learning process
• A detailed discussion of the changing role of schooling and our increasing knowledge about the complex nature of learning

Learn to embrace assessment, not just as a tool for student evaluation, but as a valuable strategy for everyday classroom learning.

More versatile than mere number crunching and statistics, data can be an effective tool-even a powerful catalyst-for change within a school. By replacing cynicism with conviction, learning to harness data's power, and becoming good users of data to positively impact student achievement, school leaders can develop three crucial capacities: an inquiry habit of mind, data literacy, and a culture of inquiry. Lorna M. Earl and Steven Katz show educators how to become comfortable with data and provide valuable tools for school improvement teams to use in their work, including: o Vignettes to support group discussion o Activities for practicing the ideas and concepts in the book o Task sheets o Short case studies with actual school data that show how the full process works in a school To improve schools, data can and should be a vital force in the change process. Using this essential resource, school leaders, school teams, study groups, and students of education can all make sense of data to plan and reform for maximum benefit.

This is a book for teachers and school leaders on formative assessmentui.e., assessment as learninguwhere assessment occurs throughout the learning process to inform learning as opposed to assessment that occurs at the end of a learning unit to measure what students have learned (summative assessment). Formative assessment emphasizes the role of the student, not only as a contributor to the assessment and learning process, but the critical connector between them.Defines assessment of learning, assessment for learning and assessment as learning, making a case for assessment as learning. Addresses assessment in the context of what learning is Shows how to use formative assessment to motivate student learning, help students make connections so that they move from emergent to proficient, extend their learning and to help them become reflective self-regulators of their own learning Explores how teachers can make the shift to formative assessment by engaging in conceptual change

Ideal for school leaders, teacher leaders, and superintendents leading district-level change, this book describes how separate professional learning communities can be purposefully linked across schools to create effective Networked Learning Communities (NLCs). Steven Katz, Lorna M. Earl, and Sonia Ben Jaafar demonstrate how NLCs can effectively engage schools in creating and sharing professional knowledge and develop the kind of deep and sustained changes that enhance student learning, engagement, and success.Based on the authorsAE research and work with districts and schools in North America and England, the book defines NLCs, explains how they work, and leads readers in examining:The importance of having a clear, evidence-based focusCollaborative inquiry as a process that challenges thinking and practice and generates new learning for teachersThe role of formal and informal leaders in both professional learning communities and networked learning communitiesBuilding and Connecting Learning Communities demonstrates how to work together to create the conditions for focused professional learning for teachers and tackles the challenge of how to sustain the work of NLCs.

Designed around the bestseller by Lorna M. Earl and Steven Katz, this Facilitator's Guide to Leading Schools in a Data-Rich World gives staff developers and workshop leaders the tools to facilitate book study groups, seminars, and professional development events to help school leaders integrate data as a vital force in the school reform process. This facilitator's guide features chapter summaries, discussion questions, journal prompts, staff development activities, resources, a seminar evaluation form, and more.