Is it possible for high-poverty schools to be high achieving? Of course it is! Real schools with students living in poverty do post high levels of student achievement. Learn what these schools do to help students succeed—and how you and your school can adopt the same practices—no matter what socio-economic climate students live in. Lessons learned and practical advice from seven of these high-performing/high-poverty (HP/HP) schools, along with hundreds of others that have been the subject of intensive research, are the focus of this book. Authors William Parrett and Kathleen Budge have synthesized the research, studied the schools in depth, and show you critical components that set these institutions apart from their struggling peers. After setting the context by examining poverty and its stunning effects on students, the authors then zero in on what HP/HP schools stopped doing or eliminated and what they started doing or improved on in three key areas of performance: * Building leadership capacity; * Fostering a safe, healthy, and supportive learning environment; and; * Focusing on student, professional, and system learning.; Principals, teacher-leaders, and district leaders can benefit from the real-world examples and practical guidelines, all based on research and experience. Rather than suggesting a one-size-fits-all approach, the authors acknowledge the unique context of individual schools and urge readers to engage in self-assessment, reflection, and coordinated action to learn together and lead together, with rubrics and planning templates provided to guide the process. The reality is that any school willing to refocus its efforts can become a high-performing school.

This book provides detailed insights on the training and development for Pacific Island school leaders. It draws extensively on original empirical research that explores school leaders’ perceptions of how leadership and management training impacted their professional practices, and how these practices in turn impacted the dynamics of school operations. This book addresses a critical need to understand how to support leadership development for all Pacific schools, but especially in schools that are faced with the increasing challenges of learning and teaching conditions. In small island developing states in the Pacific region, school leaders face a myriad of challenges due to limited human and material resources, and a fragile economic base. Written by Pacific Islander authors, this book provides insights from different countries in the Pacific Islands. It shows how contextual challenges can exert enormous pressure on school leaders who are leading and managing schools without any leadership preparation. Given the importance of effective leadership practices and its impact on student learning outcomes, this book aims to be a source of reference for practitioners and educational authorities who have a vested interest in the provision of quality education in the Pacific region and beyond.

Keeping and Improving Today's school leaders examines the process of sustaining and retaining quality leaders at the school and district levels. Beginning with a foreword by Michelle D. Young on the importance of administrative leadership in schools, subsequent chapters address the following: six steps of critical organizational supports for leaders; the need for socializing assistant principals into their roles; administrators' perceptions of their administrative teams; school routines and rituals; the need for administrator mentoring of Latino/a leaders; and the relationship between superintendent leadership and principal job satisfaction and efficacy. Concluding with thoughts about retaining and sustaining the best leaders in dynamic environments, the chapters offer contemporary views on retaining and encouraging school administrators throughout the life cycle. The chapters provide needed insight into what should and must be done to develop the best leaders for U.S. schools. --From cover.

This book explores a range of educational issues in the Pacific Islands, from school leadership in various contexts to the importance of forging cordial school and community partnerships. By presenting perspectives from a wide range of stakeholders, including community leaders, teachers, parents and students, it adds to the ongoing dialogue on educational issues in the Pacific Islands. Moreover, it promotes the forging of healthy school ecosystems that value equality, diversity, community engagement, fruitful citizenship, proactive school leadership, and valuable student learning, to drive an educated Pacific Islands population into the future.

The Journal of School Leadership is broadening the conversation about schools and leadership and is currently accepting manuscripts. We welcome manuscripts based on cutting-edge research from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological orientations. The editorial team is particularly interested in working with international authors, authors from traditionally marginalized populations, and in work that is relevant to practitioners around the world. Growing numbers of educators and professors look to the six bimonthly issues to: deal with problems directly related to contemporary school leadership practice teach courses on school leadership and policy use as a quality reference in writing articles about school leadership and improvement.