Turn ideas into goals—and goals into impact The road to school improvement and student achievement is paved with good intentions—so why does the destination seem so far away? If you’re like most educators, the answer is a pothole known as the implementation gap. This book provides a road map to bypassing that gap in your school or district, offering a carefully researched, field-tested methodology that takes leadership teams, professional learning communities, and educators all the way from good ideas to systematic impact. Following the five Ds, you’ll: Discover goals worth pursuing and problems worth addressing Design instruments and actions that generate deep impact Deliver interventions and collect data Double-back to monitor your progress and evaluate the impact Double-up to enhance, sustain, and scale your success You became an educator to make a difference in students’ lives. With this playbook, you’ll transform research and ideas into achievable actions—and make maximum impact.

This guide to the designs, technologies and materials that really make green buildings work will help architects, specifiers and clients make informed choices, based on reliable technical information. Low Impact Building: Housing using Renewable Materials is about changing the way we build houses to reduce their ‘carbon’ footprint and to minimise environmental damage. One of the ways this can be done is by reducing the energy and environmental impact of the materials and resources used to construct buildings by choosing alternative products and systems. In particular, we need to recognise the potential for using natural and renewable construction materials as a way to reduce both carbon emissions but also build in a more benign and healthy way. This book is an account of some attempts to introduce this into mainstream house construction and the problems and obstacles that need to be overcome to gain wider acceptance of genuinely environmental construction methods. The book explores the nature of renewable materials in depth: where do they come from, what are they made of and how do they get into the construction supply chain? The difference between artisan and self-build materials like earth and straw, and more highly processed and manufactured products such as wood fibre insulation boards is explored. The author then gives an account of the Renewable House Programme in the UK explaining how it came about and how it was funded and managed by Government agencies. He analyses 12 case studies of projects from the Programme, setting out the design and methods of construction, buildability, environmental assessment tools used in the design, performance in terms of energy, air tightness, carbon footprint and post-occupancy issues. The policy context of energy and sustainability in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is subjected to a critical examination to show how this affects the use of natural and renewable materials in the market for insulation and other construction materials. The debate over energy usage and embodied energy is discussed, as this is central to the reason why even many environmentally progressive people ignore the case for natural and renewable materials. The book offers a discussion of building physics and science, considering energy performance, moisture, durability, health and similar issues. A critical evaluation of assessment, accreditation and labelling of materials and green buildings is central to this as well as a review of some of the key research in the field.

Learn how to promote teacher, student, and collective efficacy Teachers are a school’s greatest resource. Excellent teachers make excellent schools. Leading Impact Teams taps into the scheduled team planning time every school already has, and repurposes it in a model that provides the processes needed to build teacher expertise and increase student learning. The model combines two existing practices, formative assessment and collaborative inquiry, and promotes a school culture in which teachers and students are partners in learning. Readers will learn how to: Build a culture of efficacy Take collective action Embed student-centered assessment in the classroom culture Clarify learning goals for success Leverage progressions of learning for “just right” instruction Utilize evidence-based feedback

Construction projects involve a complex set of relationships, between parties with different professional backgrounds trying to achieve a very complex goal. Under these difficult circumstances, the quality of information on which projects are based should be of the highest possible standard. The line-based, two dimensional drawings on which conventional construction is based render this all but impossible. This is the source of some major shortcomings in the construction industry, and this book focuses on the two most fundamental of these: the failure to deliver projects predictably: to the required quality, on time and within budget; and the failure of most firms in the industry to make a survivable level of profit. By transforming the quality of information used in building, BIM aims to transform construction completely. After describing and explaining these problems, the way in which BIM promises to provide solutions is examined in detail. A discussion of the theory and practice of BIM is also provided, followed by a review of various recent surveys of BIM usage in the US, UK and selected European economies. The way in which other industries, including retail and manufacturing, have been transformed by information are explored and compared with current developments in the deployment of BIM in construction. Five case studies from the UK show how BIM is being implemented, and the effects it is having on architects and contractors. This book is perfect for any construction professional interested in improving the efficiency of their business, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students wishing to understand the importance of BIM.

As economic growth slows in the developed world, the base of the pyramid (BoP) represents perhaps the last great, untapped market. Of the world's 7 billion inhabitants, around 4 billion live in low-income markets in the developing world. These 4 billion people deserve—and, increasingly, are demanding—better lives. At the same time, the business community seeks new opportunities for growth, and the development community is striving to increase its impact. With these forces converging, the potential for mutual value creation is tremendous. This book provides a roadmap for realizing that potential. Drawing on over 25 years of experience across some eighty countries, Ted London offers concrete guidelines for how to build better enterprises while simultaneously alleviating poverty. He outlines three key components that must be integrated to achieve results: the lived experiences of enterprises to date—both successes and failures; the development of an ecosystem that is conducive to market creation; and the voices of the poor, so that entrants can truly understand what poverty alleviation is about. London provides aspiring market leaders and their stakeholders with the tools and techniques needed to succeed in the unique, opportunity-rich BoP.

Building a High-Impact Board-Superintendent Partnership will consist of 11 brief chapters, each covering a critical question that practitioners need to answer in building the board-superintendent partnership

In Building a Low Impact Roundhouse, Tony shares his many years of experience, skills, and techniques used to build this unique and affordable low-impact home. Always witty and inspiring, the author explains the process of visualizing and designing a house through to the practical side of lifting the living roof, infilling the walls, laying out rooms, and adding renewable, autonomous technology. Building a Low Impact Roundhouse has become a classic text sold all over the world. Tony's home and lifestyle have attracted much media interest, and he and his partner continue to inspire many individuals and communities to seek out ways of living more sustainably. Now in its third edition, with a fascinating ten-year update including a major new section on the couple's marvelous straw bale den, Tony also includes sections on the physical design, and he writes about the lifestyle required for living in a roundhouse. He offers advice on roofs, floors, walls, compost toilets, wood stoves, kitchens, windows, and planning permission. There are additional photographs of life in and around the dwelling and illustrations from the construction plans for one of the UK's most unique homes. This true and captivating story covers the realizing of a lifetime's dream as well as being a practical how to manual for anyone who loves the idea of low-impact living and wants to self-build an affordable, organic home.