Principals wear many hats, but the most significant role they have is improving teaching and learning so all students are successful. Bridging Leadership and School Improvement: Advice from the Field features narratives of successful principals across multiple states in the US, who have not only improved their schools but have created supportive and inclusive learning communities for both teachers and students. Each practitioner-author discusses an improvement practice that they successfully implemented in their school and key theories that support their practice. This book highlights how successful school leaders bridge theory and practice to improve school cultures, teaching, and learning.

"Trust is the single greatest indicator of successful leadership." This research-based observation is a definitive and shared conclusion within a wide range of industry sectors (e.g., manufacturing, retail, technology, government, non-profit organizations). Research also indicates that when high levels of trust mark school leadership, positive and significant influences on schoolwide improvement occur and are sustainable. Toby Travis utilizes a suspension bridge analogy to explain the roles and functions of trusted leadership, which are critical to school improvement initiatives. Dr. Travis outlines the six trusted school leadership components that must be in place for leaders to positively affect and direct school improvement. If any of the components are not securely in place, successful transit over the bridge to school improvement can be hazardous or even catastrophic. Learn how to assess, develop, repair, and ensure that all six leadership components are properly in place so that your school or district is TrustED®. View the TrustED Framework Overview video at https://videopress.com/v/oRcHsEmZ. About the Author: Dr. Toby A. Travis is the founder of TrustED®, a framework for school improvement focused on developing trusted leaders. The application of his research serves as the basis for the TrustED® School Leader 360 Assessment, which schools worldwide utilize to inform school improvement initiatives. In addition, he is an Executive Consultant with the Global School Consulting Group, an Adjunct Professor for the International Graduate Program of Educators for the State University of New York College at Buffalo, and an experienced teacher and administrator of PS-12 schools.

This book is a descriptive treatment of the Professional Standards for Education Leaders (PSEL), developed by several professors in Kentucky who teach graduate ed leadership courses, and their colleagues at the Kentucky Department of Education. PSEL has been adopted by the Kentucky Educational Professional Standards Board as the leadership standards that drive instruction and practice. This resource is an excellent guide for any school leader, as it breaks down PSEL, and follows with bulleted examples and scenarios that illustrate ‘best practice’ in serving a school effectively and creating a culture of school improvement.

Bridge the gap between good intentions and real results Instructional Leadership is one of the most researched and discussed leadership practices, but most school leaders don’t know where to begin or how to balance this role with all of their other responsibilities. Peter DeWitt’s Instructional Leadership provides practical tools for delivering lasting improvement through small, manageable changes over time. This step-by-step, how-to guide presents the six driving forces of instructional leadership—implementation, focus on learning, student engagement, instructional strategies, efficacy, and evaluation of impact—within an easy-to-follow, multi-stage implementation model. It also includes: · Practical strategies grounded in research · "Entry point" sections highlighting the best places to start · Help working with PLCs, faculty meetings, teacher observations, and walkthroughs · Study questions As a leader, you are the guide for your teachers, staff, and students. Let this book guide you to a vision of instructional leadership that really works.

This is the first chronicle of the history of social justice as a line of inquiry within the field of educational administration. Editors Tooms and Boske have amassed a collective voice of leaders in the field of Educational Administration who have broken barriers and expanded the field through their own work and scholarship within a national and international arena. Many of these narratives are the first time tellings of the challenges and successes found in the works of this group of scholars of historic significance. This collection is written and organized into practical and easy to digest sections. They are part history lesson, and part practical teaching tool for those who prepare school leaders. Anyone from school leaders to academics interested or charged with unpacking the messy intersections between school leadership and issues of social justice will find inspiration and easy to understand explanations of leadership and equity work within the chapters presented. Endorsement: “Bridge Leadership is a powerful and fascinating new volume that explores the intersections of social justice and educational leadership. What distinguishes it from other social justice work is that it is much more personal than most such texts. Many of the book’s authors share poignant excerpts of their life stories and connect them to the theoretical constructs, historical events, and political struggles of social justice. The foregrounding of these personal stories and the bridges they create with social justice gives the volume a raw power not found in other social justice works. I could not put the volume down!” ~ Ulrich C. Reitzug, University of North Carolina,Greensboro

Too much change, not enough improvement Planned changes often fail because those designing them underestimate the complexity of implementation. Reduce Change to Increase Improvement provides a practical structure for helping system and school leaders increase improvement while reducing ineffective change and innovation. By drilling down to the beliefs and values that inform the actual practice of change leaders, Robinson identifies the mindset, processes, and actual behaviors that contribute to successful reform efforts and, importantly, provide school leaders with concrete tools that enable them to be more effective. The structures described in the book are illustrated by numerous examples, cases, and conversation extracts and center on four phases of engagement: Agreeing about the problem to be solved Revealing the beliefs that sustain the current practices Evaluating the relative merit of the existing practices and proposed theory Implementing and monitoring the new theory of action "Finally, a serious, evidence-proven book about educational change that takes a different tact – beginning with the impact on the learner. Reduce Change to Increase Improvement is a treasure-trove of concrete information for educational leaders. Robinson, always cautious about "change for change sake", brilliantly delineates each step of the way for leaders using authentically-documented conversations and practical discussion-starters that guide us through this collective inquiry approach towards student improvement. All leaders need this concise, clearly-stated text to guide their intentional improvement practices. —Dr. Lyn Sharratt, International Consultant and Author OISE, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

For many years, the authors have been fellow travelers on the journey to help educators improve their schools. Their first coauthored book focuses on district leadership, principal leadership, and team leadership and addresses how individual teachers can be most effective in leading students—by learning with colleagues how to implement the most promising pedagogy in their classrooms