"This book is right on target with its thought-provoking ideas and concepts on the characteristics of successful educational leaders." —Thomas F. Leahy, Consultant, Executive Search Department, Illinois Association of School Boards "Our best teachers obtain great results by building positive relationships with their students. Gray and Streshly show how our best principals do the same thing and how these behaviors can be learned and practiced." —Kevin Singer, Superintendent, Topeka Public Schools, KS Build your capacity to lead your school to greatness! Great leaders are made, not born. Written by the authors of From Good Schools to Great Schools, this sequel shows how great school leaders can be developed and how leaders can acquire the powerful personal leadership characteristics that the best administrators use to lead their schools to greatness. Based on sound strategies and the work of Jim Collins, Susan Penny Gray and William A. Streshly tackle how to build relationships, communicate effectively, exercise your personal will with humility, face brutal facts, get faculty on board, and build a school culture of self-discipline. Chapters include: Case studies that provide an ongoing context for professional learning Self-assessments that reveal your inherent leadership dispositions Interviews and tips from exceptional principals in the field Strategies for developing specific leadership qualities Application exercises that reinforce how to put the strategies into action Reflection activities that encourage professional growth Appropriate for both individual and group professional development, Leading Good Schools to Greatness reveals how leadership skills can be learned and used to take your school to the next level.

This book series, International Research on School Leadership focuses on how present-day issues affect the theory and practice of school leadership. For this inaugural book, we focused on the challenges facing new principals and headteachers. Because the professional lives of school leaders have increasingly impinged on their personal well-being and resources have continued to shrink, it is important to understand how new principals or headteachers share and divide their energy, ideas, and time within the school day. It is also important to discover ways to provide professional development and support for new principals and headteachers as they strive to lead their schools in the 21st century. For these reasons, this book is dedicated to exploring the rarely-examined experiences of those who enter the role as new principals or headteachers. By giving voice to new principals and headteachers, we are able to determine what aspects of leadership preparation ring true and what aspects prove to be of little or no utility. Unlike leadership texts that have focused on conceptual considerations and personal narratives from the field, this book focuses on a collection of empirical efforts centered on the challenges and issues that new principals and headteachers experience during their initial and crucial years of induction. We solicited and accepted manuscripts that explore the multi-faceted dimensions of being a new principal or headteacher in the 21st century. Our goal was to create an edited book that examines the commonalities and differences that new principals and headteachers experience from an international perspective. This edited book is comprised of six chapters, each of which contributes a unique perspective on the responsibilities that new principals and headteachers are experiencing at the dawn of the 21st century.

Focuses on the changing context of education; the changing nature of self-managing schools; their own leadership and management skills within this environment.

The Four Dimensions of Leadership offers readers an invaluable guide to the latest reforms and modifications to school systems. Comprehensively incorporating each major leadership principle advocated for modern school leaders, the text not only gives the opportunity to read and study leadership principles, it also provides inventories, activities, and real life scenarios that turn theory into practice. A companion text to Practicing the Art of Leadership: A Problem-based Approach to Implementing the ISLLC Standards, this book confronts the challenges currently facing leadership roles in schools: standards, accountability measures, and the connection between school leaders and overall student achievement. Features Provides a set of inventories that the reader can use to assess his or her values, beliefs and behaviors-a fundamental step in establishing a foundation for leadership. Contains thirteen research-based core competencies that describe the requirements for leaders of modern-day schools, define their responsibilities, and assess the extent to which they have mastered those skills. Includes a series of scenarios throughout the book that transform theory into practice and allow readers to assess their skills in implementing standards and attaining competencies. Features "Implications for Leadership" boxes at the end of each chapter that examine causes and effects in relation to leadership and leadership skills. Reginald Leon Green is Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Memphis where he teaches courses with a focus on instructional leadership and participatory governance and change. He received the Ed. D. in Educational Administration and Supervision from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He served at the teacher, principal, deputy superintendent, and superintendent levels of K-12 education.

This CHOICE award-winning author has teamed up with national school district experts to write a comprehensive book on the role of the superintendent as an instructional leader. Everything you need to know about superintendent core competencies, instructional leadership, policy and politics, professional development, accountability and evaluation, standards, building capacity, managing finances and resources, and creating an environment for professional growth are covered. The book starts with the role of the superintendent and then presents original research on superintendent core competencies, strategies for effective instructional leadership, benchmarking school district performance, and how get results. Benefits and Features of Book: A comprehensive book covering all aspects of the superintendent position. Chapter objectives are aligned with the new ELCC and ISLLC, for accreditation and learning. Original research on superintendent core competencies. Each chapter contains a comprehensive case study and exercises for practical application. Provides a blend of academic, theory and practical perspectives on how the job of the superintendent and how to get results. Several handy resources are included in the appendices.

While developmental responsiveness is a deservingly key emphasis of middle grades education, this emphasis has often been to the detriment of focusing on the cultural needs of young adolescents. This Handbook volume explores research relating to equity and culturally responsive practices when working with young adolescents. Middle school philosophy largely centers on young adolescents as a collective group. This lack of focus has great implications for young adolescents of marginalized identities including but not limited to those with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, LGBTQ youth, and those living in poverty. If middle level educators claim to advocate for young adolescents, we need to mainstream conversations about supporting all young adolescents of marginalized identities. It empowers researchers, educators, and even young adolescents to critically examine and understand the intersectionality of identities that historically influenced (and continue to affect) young adolescents and why educators might perceive marginalized youth in certain ways. It is for these reasons that researchers, teachers, and other key constituents involved in the education of young adolescents must devote themselves to the critical examination and understanding of the historical and current socio-cultural factors affecting all young adolescents. The chapters in this volume serve as a means to open an intentional and explicit space for providing a critical lens on early adolescence–a lens that understands that both developmental and cultural needs of young adolescents need to be emphasized to create a learning environment that supports every young adolescent learner.