| Tool/Resource |
Description |
| Leading to Learn |
A framework focusing on the principles of "learning”. There are three domains where learning occurs:
- Student learning
- Professional learning
- System learning
Acting on three domains there are five areas of action:
- Establishing a focus on learning – persistently and publicly focusing our own attention and others on learning and teaching
- Building professional communities that value learning – nurturing work cultures that value and support teachers’ learning
- Engaging external communities that matter for learning – building relationships and securing resources from outside groups that can foster students’ or teachers’ learning
- Acting strategically and sharing leadership – mobilizing effort along multiple “pathways” that lead to student, professional or system learning, and distributing leadership across levels and among individuals on different positions
- Creating coherence – connecting student, professional and system learning with one another and with learning goals
|
| Leading in a Culture of Change |
The book focuses on a framework for "leading change”. Five components of leadership summarized include:
- Moral purpose –acting with the intention of making a positive difference
- Understanding change -is essential to survive without becoming a martyr
- Relationship Building -fostering purposeful interaction and problem solving on the toughest questions
- Knowledge Creation and Sharing -building the capacity of the organization to constantly generate and increase knowlege
- Coherence Making –tolerating enough ambuigity while striving to identify meaningful patterns worth retaining
|
| Change Forces with a Vengenace |
The book provides further insights learned from Leading in a Culture of Change work from above. Three levels: The school, The school district and The state are examined to determine how to better create environments for better results. |
| Leading Schools: Distinguishing the Essential from the Important |
Identifies 21 leadership responsibilities and associated practices of effective principals. |
| Beyond Islands of Excellence |
A report from the Learning First Alliance on district wide approaches on improving student learning. Studying five school districts they found seven predictors for successful improvement:
- Districts had the courage to acknowledge poor performance and the will to
seek solutions
- Districts put in place a systemwide approach to improving instruction—one
that articulated curricular content and provided instructional supports
- Districts instilled visions that focused on student learning and guided instructional improvement
- Districts made decisions based on data, not instinct
- Districts adopted new approaches to professional development that involved a coherent and district-organized set of strategies to improve instruction
- Districts redefined leadership roles
- Districts committed to sustaining reform over the long haul
|
| Anatomy of School
System
Improvement: Performance-Driven Practices in Urban School Districts |
The executive summary from a 100 page report in a three-year effort to define how educators are
beginning to embrace performance-driven practices in order to transform
public education systems into learning organizations. The report’s
authors
examine how this process of change is unfolding in 28 medium and large
urban school systems, and illuminate the major barriers and needs that
educators and school systems must overcome in order to create true
performance-driven organizations. |
| Equity/Excellence Section |
An overview of the issues and challenges related to equity and excellence in Alameda. |
| School Communities that Work for Results and Equity |
A report examining why school district's paramount function is ensuring equity. Here are the essential functions that disctrict can perform:
- Provide schools, students, and teachers with needed support and timely interventions.
- Ensure that schools have the power and resources to make good decisions.
- Make decisions and hold people throughout the system accountable by using indicators of school and district performance and practices.
|
| Equity-Driven Achievement Focused School Districts |
A summary of 50 page article on district wide practices of districts who had been identified as achieving academic success for students of color or low Socio-Economic Status. |
| Single School Plans |
An overview of the Alameda's Single School Plan process along the tools used in the process. |
| Coalition for Essential Schools |
A directory of articles on school improvement practices including assessing student work and using the cycle of inquiry. |
| No Excuses - Closing the Racial Achievement Gap |
A summary of a book about closing racial achievement gap. |
| Building Sustainable Leadership |
An article on the seven principles of sustainable leadership in schools. |
| Point of Views |
A compliation of articles on:
- Role of Public Education/Government/Politics
- Public Education Financing
- Public Education Reform
- No Child Left Behind
- Race and Education
|
| Eight Characteristics of Effective Shool Boards |
An article that highlights eight characteristics of effective school boards.
|
