School District Leadership Matters

School District Leadership Matters challenges policy makers, administrators, and academics in the field of educational leadership to reassess their traditional approaches to learning, working, and planning. The authors believe that government restructuring, standards-based reforms, and centrally imposed strategic planning have been painfully ineffective. As a consequence, student learning has become increasingly superficial and inauthentic. This book bridges the traditional divide between the generalizations of social science theory on the one hand and the world of educational practice on the other. It argues that a more promising approach to education reform is through effective school district leadership. Sheppard, Brown and Dibbon draw on their collective experience both as educational leaders and researchers of leadership, having spent five years researching and working in one school district. Here, they show how a district superintendent can successfully navigate the paradoxes and challenges of facilitating collaborative leadership in a school district with a traditionally hierarchical organizational structure. As a conclusion to their work, the authors highlight what they call five ‘recognitions’ that deepen readers’ understanding of school district leadership. They illuminate, too, ways that senior level practitioners can apply theory to practice in order to break down the traditional hierarchical bureaucracies that inhibit learning, and create professional learning communities. School District Leadership Matters urges researchers, graduate students, practitioners, and policymakers to focus on improving authentic learning for all students and argues that the best hope rests with effective school district leadership. This empirically-based yet practical book provides new insights and questions for academic researchers and will inspire policy makers and practitioners to imagine what could be and to work towards it.

This book provides a practical focus and framework for establishing insightful leadership that will enhance the learning of students with exceptionalities in the 21st century by discussing critical leadership dimensions and topics by leading academics. Topics discussed include the following: shifting leadership paradigms for all students in general and special education, district leadership strategies for implementing individualized academic and behavioral student interventions, preparing leaders to work with students with diverse learning needs, critical leadership roles for regular classroom teachers in educating learners with special needs, innovative leadership to increase school completion and graduation of general and special education learners, why psychologists need to be a part of the school leadership team, the importance of culturally responsive leadership in general and special education, the role of school leaders in helping learners with physical and health impairments, school leadership for all students in rural schools, the use of technology by leaders to improve special education services, an international example model of leadership in general and special education, and future perspectives of leadership in special education. Leadership Matters in the Education of Students with Special Needs in the 21st Century is a critically needed addition to the successful education of students with exceptionalities as it provides much needed and innovative leadership perspectives for effective instructional practices for today's students with special needs. The book can be a model for best practices for school district leadership teams challenged by the multifaceted needs of students with exceptionalities.

The benefits of distributed leadership are yours with this research-based change process. Distributed leadership—engaging the many rather than the few in school improvement—has long been a promising theory. It’s time to make it a reality. This book shows why harnessing educators’ collective expertise leads to better student outcomes, and details the collaborative processes to make distributed leadership happen. Insights include: How to translate the research on distributed leadership into tangible results for your school Methods for building the social capital necessary for sustainable institutional change How to distribute leadership widely and wisely through professional collaboration

Love To Teach: Research and Resources for every classroom is an exciting book that combines the latest educational research with examples of what this can look like in the classroom. Filled with research-informed ideas to support all teachers and leaders in both Primary and Secondary this book would be great for NQTs to more experienced teachers and leaders alike. The educational research is presented in a format which is accessible, helpful and informative and will help inform educators about cutting-edge research in practical and applicable ways. The practical resources are easily adaptable and ready to be implemented in any classroom and are grounded in Kate's own classroom practice. 'Written with the same passion, reflection and drive that runs through everything Kate does, Love To Teach is a real gem. Kate explores a huge range of practical pick-up-and-use strategies rooted deeply in educational research. The book is an equal balance between thought-provoking and extremely useful. Love to Teach is a great resource for all teachers who are committed to improving their practice and increasing their impact upon the futures of the young people they teach.' -- Sarah Findlater Secondary Principal at Gems First Point School Dubai. Author and Series Editor of the Bloomsbury CPD Library @msfindlater

This book reports the results of a series of studies of effective school district leadership

This updated edition of 'Leadership Matters: How Leaders at All Levels Can Create Great Schools' improves the educational outcomes for children by empowering educational leaders in national, regional and local contexts to examine, refine and develop their management skills. Revised and expanded, with new diagrams and graphics, the author takes an in-depth and diagnostic approach, encouraging leaders at all levels in schools to think about their own personal qualities; their specific situation; their own leadership actions; and their own overall leadership approach. 'Leadership Matters is one of the books I return to most frequently. It s a text for our time a epoch when leaders need, more than ever, to know what they stand for, what their non-negotiable principles are, how to communicate in a range of forms to a range of audiences, and how to sustain ourselves emotionally, morally, when times turn grim.' -- Geoff Barton, incoming general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders

Our fourth book in the International Research on School Leadership series focuses on school leadership in an era of high stakes accountability. Fueled by sweeping federal education accountability reforms, such as the United States’ No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race to the Top (R2T) and Australia’s Performance Measurement and Reporting Taskforce, school systems around the world are being forced to increase academic standards, participate in high-stakes testing, and raise evaluation standards for teachers and principals. These results-driven reforms are intended to hold educators “accountable for student learning and accountable to the public” (Anderson, 2005, p. 2, emphasis in original). While policymakers and the public debate the merits of student achievement accountability measures, P-12 educational leaders do not have the luxury to wait for clear guidance and resources to improve their schools and operating systems. Instead, successful leaders must balance the need to create learning communities, manage the organizational climate, and encourage community involvement with the consequences testing has on teacher morale and public scrutiny. The chapters in this volume clearly indicate that as school leaders attend to these potentially competing forces, this affects their problem-solving strategies, ability to facilitate change, and encourage community involvement. We were delighted with the responses from colleagues around the world who were eager to share their research dealing with how leaders are functioning effectively within a high-accountability environment. The nine chapters in this volume provide empirical evidence of the strategies school leaders use to cope with problems and negotiate external demands while improving student performance. In particular, the voices and actions of principals, superintendents, and school board members are captured in a blend of quantitative and qualitative studies. The breadth of studies is impressive, ranging from case studies of individual principals to cross-district comparisons to national data from the National Center for Education Statistics. To highlight important findings, we have organized the book into five sections. The first section (Chapters 2, 3, and 4) highlights the problem-solving strategies used by principals and superintendents when pressured to turn around low-performing schools. In the second section (Chapters 5 and 6), attention is devoted to ways in which school leaders act as “buffers” by reducing the impact of external demands within their local school contexts. Next, Chapters 7 and 8 explore creative ways in which financial analyses can be used to assess the cost effectiveness of programs and services. Chapters 9 and 10 examine how principals enact their instructional leadership roles in managing curriculum reforms and evaluating teachers. Finally, in the last section (Chapter 11), Kenneth Leithwood synthesizes the major themes and ideas emerging across these chapters, paying particular attention to practical issues influencing school leaders in this era of school reform and accountability as well as promising areas for future research.

Leadership Matters: How leaders at all levels can create great schools improves the educational outcomes for children by empowering educational leaders in national, regional and local contexts to examine, refine and develop their management skills. Andy takes in-depth and diagnostic approach, encouraging leaders at all levels in schools to think about their own personal qualities; their specific situation; their own leadership actions; and their own overall leadership approach.