The Conditions For School Success

This book analyses the role played by schools themselves in the high rates of educational exclusion and dropping out that affects many European education systems. The author frames the analysis according to three aspects of justice – redistribution, recognition and care – to explore both how teachers explain and react to the processes of educational failure and early school leaving, and how young people make sense and cope with the same failures. Using extensive qualitative data from schools in the Barcelona area, the author analyses the impact of school segregation, methods for managing diversity and teaching expectations: and subsequently how they can contribute to the production and reproduction of the risks of failure and ESL in contemporary education systems. This book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of educational exclusion, as well as school leaders.

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.

This book clarifies the core values which all great educators have in common and contribute to school success. For all those who want to create better schools, these factors are at the center of behaviors which lead to results. The 4 CORE Factors are Communication, Observation, Relationships, and Expectations.

First Published in 2001. This is the second edition of this school’s improvement handbook of staff development activities by the IQEA (Improving Education for All) project. This book is not about what changes should be introduced into a school but rather about creating the conditions for supporting those changes which schools or individuals believe should be introduced. To be effective at managing change schools and teachers need to modify the internal conditions of the school at the same time as introducing changes in teaching or curriculum. The book therefore provides ideas and materials to help colleagues in school to create such conditions and suggests a strategic approach.

Student Success in College describes policies, programs, and practices that a diverse set of institutions have used to enhance student achievement. This book clearly shows the benefits of student learning and educational effectiveness that can be realized when these conditions are present. Based on the Documenting Effective Educational Practice (DEEP) project from the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University, this book provides concrete examples from twenty institutions that other colleges and universities can learn from and adapt to help create a success-oriented campus culture and learning environment.

Designed for busy teachers and other school-based professionals, this book presents step-by-step guidelines for implementing seven highly effective strategies to improve classroom management and instructional delivery. These key low-intensity strategies are grounded in the principles of positive behavior intervention and support (PBIS), and are easy to integrate into routine teaching practice. Chapters discuss exactly how to use each strategy to decrease disruptive behavior and enhance student engagement and achievement. Checklists for success are provided, together with concise reviews of the evidence base and ways to measure outcomes. Illustrative case examples span the full K-12 grade range. Reproducible intervention tools can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. See also Managing Challenging Behaviors in Schools, by Kathleen Lynn Lane et al., which shows how these key strategies fit into a broader framework of prevention and intervention.

The leadership of schools can make a significant difference to enhancing the life chances of students in schools and enabling them to succeed. This book examines leadership within schools, focusing on securing success within a challenging social and political environment. It explores the approaches to leadership adopted by four successful secondary school headteachers in a local authority situated in an area of high social deprivation and identifies the impact the headteachers of these schools have on staff, students and community. It analyses the key leadership strategies of these successful school leaders, strategies that can be deployed in all schools, and explores the links between leadership theories and leadership actions. The book goes on to examine how these strategies were actually implemented in a failing school in challenging circumstances and shows how other schools might benefit from such strategies and the insights on which they are based.

This practitioner-focused guide to creating identity-safe classrooms presents four categories of core instructional practices: Child-centered teaching ; Classroom relationships ; Caring environments ; Cultivating diversity. The book presents a set of strategies that can be implemented immediately by teachers. It includes a wealth of vignettes taken from identity-safe classrooms as well as reflective exercises that can be completed by individual teachers or teacher teams.