Full Description
Journey to a High-Achieving School: Eliminate Destructive Excuses examines the range of devastating excuses often expressed for failure to attain significant improvement in our schools. Using the methods of systems thinking and leadership practices that are employed in high-performing organizations of all kinds, this book shows concretely and specifically that what is at the root of these excuses can be overcome. The core ideas at work in the volume are based on the authors' well-regarded Academy for Education Leaders, an intensive course of seminars conducted for school superintendents, principals, and other educational leaders for the past several years.
This is not a "quick fix" manual offering magic wands or silver bullets. It is a carefully-structured guidebook that can clearly and demonstrably help educational leaders at all levels of accountability begin to build a serious culture of excellence within their schools and school districts. Improvement will take time, but as the processes become familiar, school leaders can uncover and address the complex, but confused assumptions that keep standing in the way of the substantial and measurable improvements that must be made for our society's educational future.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Why Another Book About Education?
Chapter2: The Excuse-riddled Mindset
Some Preliminaries
Number One: "You Just Don't Get Our Problem"
Number Two: "Students Aren't Interested in Learning"
Number Three: "Our Community Doesn't Support Us, is Probably Against Us"
Number Four: "Change is Something That Teachers by Nature Resist"
Number Five: "Tenure Makes Good Teaching About as Valuable as Acne"
Number Six: "School Leaders are Really Terrible Models of Excellence"
Number Seven: "School Board Politics Will Destroy Every One of Us Anyway"
A Few Reflections
Ideas for Further Consideration
Chapter 3: Defeating the Excuses, Part 1
The Dirty Little Secret in an Excuse-riddled Organization
Where We Go Right: The Culture of Success
The Critical Role of Leadership: Performing the Truth
The Lessons of Authentic Leadership
Challenging the Ghosts of the Past
Ideas for Further Consideration
Chapter 4: Defeating the Excuses, Part 2
The Excuses Examined
A Few More Points about Eliminating Excuses
Ideas for Further Consideration
Chapter 5: Can These Things Work in Any School? Even Mine? You're Kidding!
Leadership Underscored (Again)
The Model: Plan-Do-Check-Act
Systems Thinking and Leadership
The Excuses Re-examined: The Power of I.D.E.A.S.
The Journey to High-achieving Schools
IDEAS at Work: One District's Experience
What the Case Shows
Ideas for Further Consideration
Chapter 6: Every Journey Has a Few Potholes. Here's Some Help in How to Handle Them.
The Frustration Factor
Magic Bullet Myths
The "Good Enough" Syndrome
Damn the Facts-Full Speed Ahead!
The Blame Game
Organizational Amnesia
Conspiracy Theory
Fire Fighting
Blurred Vision
One or Two Concluding Thoughts
Ideas for Further Consideration
Appendix
The Eight Lessons of Authentic Leadership
An Authentic Leader's Self-assessment
A Glossary of Some Useful Terms
Leaders and Leadership: Some Sources
IDEAS Project Report Template
