"A wonderful tool! No educational jargon to weed through. The author meshes the real world with the ideal world and provides a concrete guide for principals to work with their faculty." —Marie Blum, Superintendent Canaseraga Central School, NY "Provides insight, evidence, humor, and most important, practical tools every educator and school leader can use. With the wisdom earned through decades of work in schools of every conceivable description, Cox guides us through the belief systems and data analysis, as well as the impact of demographic characteristics, teaching practices, and leadership decisions on student achievement." —Douglas Reeves, Chairman Center for Performance Assessment Focus on program quality—not just test scores—and watch student achievement climb! In this remarkable book, renowned educational consultant James Cox offers a smarter way to look at data, putting test scores in context, not in isolation. Rather than focusing on last year′s findings for school improvement, educators can learn how to evaluate the processes and practices that lead to those data by using a user-friendly, three-pronged framework for school improvement: teacher quality, program elements, and leadership. This concise, practical guide offers easy-to-use tools and techniques for schools and districts to evaluate their programs using both quantiative and qualitative data. School leaders will learn to look at data, program evaluation, and school improvement differently and discover how to effectively: Define a quality program Analyze what is and is not working Avoid "test score fatigue" Packed with worksheets, step-by-step instructions, and an extensive appendix of tools, this book provides readers with a complete improvement plan to put into action today!

Learn to define a quality program, analyze what is and is not working, and avoid "test score fatigue" with a user-friendly, three-part framework for school improvement.

This brief, inexpensive guide introduces students and novices to the key elements of qualitative research methods. Written in a friendly, conversational style, replete with good examples from multiple disciplines, student exercises, and key points to remember, the volume works ideally with other qualitative textbooks to provide a comprehensive overview to qualitative methods for students. Chapters cover the essentials of theory building, research design, methods, data collection and analysis, writing, ethics, rigor and proposal writing.

Buying or selling a business? Acquire the tools and learn the methods for accurate business valuation Business valuation is the process of determining the value of a business enterprise or ownership interest. Business Valuation For Dummies covers valuation methods, including advice on analyzing historical performance, evaluating assets and income value, understanding a company's financial statements, forecasting performance; estimating the cost of capital; and cash flow methods of valuation. Written in plain English, this no-nonsense guide is filled with expert guidance that business owners, managers at all levels, investors, and students can use when determining the value of a business. It contains a solid framework for valuation, including advice on analyzing historical performance, evaluating assets and income value, understanding a company's financial statements, estimating the cost of capital, business valuation models, and how to apply those models to different types of businesses. Business Valuation For Dummies takes you step-by-step through the business valuation process, explaining the major methods in an easy-to-understand manner with real-world examples. Inside you’ll discover: The value of business valuation, including when it’s necessary The fundamental methods and approaches to business valuation How to read a valuation report and financial statements The other players in the valuation process How to decide you’re ready to sell — and the best time to do so The three stages of due diligence: the meet and greet; the hunting and gathering; the once-over How to decide you’re ready to buy — and find the right business for you What due diligence means on the buying side of things When to call in the experts: divorce; estate planning and gifting; attracting investors and lenders This is an essential guide for anyone buying a business, selling a business, participating in a merger or acquisition, or evaluating for tax, loan, or credit purposes. Get your copy of Business Valuation For Dummies to get the information you need to successfully and accurately place a value on any business.

How to lead the change Analytics are driving big changes, not only in what marketing departments do but in how they are organized, staffed, led, and run. Leaders are grappling with issues that range from building an analytically driven marketing organization and determining the kinds of structure and talent that are needed to leading interactions with IT, finance, and sales and creating a unified view of the customer. The Analytical Marketer provides critical insight into the changing marketing organization—digital, agile, and analytical—and the tools for reinventing it. Written by the head of global marketing for SAS, The Analytical Marketer is based on the author’s firsthand experience of transforming a marketing organization from “art” to “art and science.” Challenged and inspired by their company’s own analytics products, the SAS marketing team was forced to rethink itself in order to take advantage of the new capabilities that those tools offer the modern marketer. Key marketers and managers at SAS tell their stories alongside the author’s candid lessons learned as she led the marketing organization’s transformation. With additional examples from other leading companies, this book is a practical guide and set of best practices for creating a new marketing culture that thrives on and adds value through data and analytics.

This book discusses measures of work-family, conflict, policies designed to reduce conflict, comparisons with other industrialized nations, and reasons why family-friendly work-policies have not been adopted with enthusiasm.

The practice of medicine has advanced dramatically in recent years, but the language used to discuss illness – by medical practitioners, patients and carers – has not kept pace. As a result, clinicians and, just as importantly, patients and their relatives and carers, are not able to communicate clearly in relation to illness. The upshot is misunderstanding and confusion on all sides. In this ground-breaking book, Dr Fergus Shanahan, an eminent gastroenterologist who has practised in Ireland, the United States and Canada, and published widely around the world, looks at memoirs of illness, and outlines the lessons we can learn from a better understanding of the words we use to describe illness. He looks at the ways in which language can act as a barrier with regard to illness, and proposes practical ways in which we can dismantle these barriers. The book is written for the general reader: as Dr Shanahan puts it himself, he is "enough of an expert to be wary of experts". The Language of Illness, part manifesto, part memoir, and part instruction manual, is an appeal for the use of clearer, more holistic language, by all those involved with, and affected by, illness. Like the great American poet-doctor William Carlos Williams, he aims to help us develop a new language by means of which we can develop a new way of living with illness – which is an integral part of the human condition. Put simply, it is a book for all those who care about caring.