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Rural America is rapidly becoming more diverse, yet rural communities remain different from their urban and suburban counterparts. Despite several decades of economic hardship in rural areas, rural schools are under researched by scholars and under prioritized by policymakers. Therefore, this study was designed to better understand how school and district leaders in rural contexts are meeting contemporary challenges while strengthening equitable teaching and learning opportunities for rural students. While exploring learning-focused leadership at the local level, this study also investigates the relationship between regional agencies and local districts to better understand the role of educational service agencies in regional learning improvement efforts and the role of the state in supporting a network of educational service agencies. This study draws upon interviews with 16 educational service agency administrators from across three of Washington state’s nine regions and interviews with 15 principals and superintendents leading eight schools across seven districts in these regions. Policy coherence and leadership for learning improvement frameworks are employed to investigate the development of regional learning improvement agendas within the educational service agency regions and the learning improvement and resource allocation practices of local school and district leaders. This study contributes to two areas of research. First, findings suggest that, in addition to creating economies of scale by coordinating supports for rural districts, educational service agencies can also play a pivotal role in fostering policy coherence for teaching and learning priorities and the development of regional learning improvement agendas. Additionally, this study explores the dimensions of learning improvement work in rural schools demonstrating a general upward trend in standardized test scores. The findings explore the ways in which rural school and district leaders engage communities in teaching and learning efforts. In doing so, rural school and district leaders leverage their highly visible roles as community leaders and the important roles students play in rural communities to establish formal and informal resource pathways that support student learning. Nested within these contexts are the political implications school and district leaders face when pursuing equity-focused learning improvement agendas in tight-knit communities, and this study explores school and district leaders’ use of partnerships and community engagement to navigate these dynamics. Study findings lead to several policy considerations for investing in local and state-supported infrastructure that empowers learning-focused leadership in rural schools. Additionally, this study signals implications for differentiated educational leadership preparation programs that prepare rural school and district leaders for careers in rural contexts.
This book, by two editors of Data Wise: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching and Learning, attempts to bring about a fundamental shift in how educators think about the meetings we attend. They make the case that these gatherings are potentially the most important venue where adult and organizational learning can take place in schools, and that making more effective use of this time is the key to increasing student achievement. In Meeting Wise, the authors show why meeting planning is a high-leverage strategy for changing how people work together in the service of school improvement. To this end, they have created a meeting-planning “checklist” to develop a common language for discussing and improving the quality of meetings. In addition, they provide guidelines for readers on “wise facilitating” and “wise participating,” and also include “top tips” and common dilemmas. Simple, succinct, and practical, Meeting Wise is designed to be read and applied at every level of the educational enterprise: district leadership meetings with central office staff, charter-school management summits, principals’ meetings with teachers, professional development sessions, teacher-team meetings, and even teachers’ meetings with parents and students.
Drawing on ten years of research into whole-of-school teaching improvement, this engaging text explains what teaching improvement requires, how it is achieved, and how to maintain it in your classroom and school. Based on studies involving real schools and real teachers, The Teaching Improvement Agenda is focused on what really matters for teachers and leaders in today’s schools. The book begins with an examination of the education field to identify the fundamental elements which inform and generate teaching improvement. This lays the foundations for an instructive set of innovative, research-informed strategies which have been designed to empower the teacher and school leader to improve teaching across the whole school. The book closes with a series of case studies that demonstrate these approaches in action. Answering the "what?" and "how?" questions of teaching improvement, this book is an essential guide for school leaders and teachers, as well as instructors and students in initial teacher education.
In an educational context where school and district performance is of increasing focus, it’s essential for leaders at all levels of the educational system to focus on improving student performance. This volume zeros in on a promising set of strategies and practices for all leaders to motivate, support, and sustain learning in contemporary schools. Learning-Focused Leadership in Action explores what it means for educational leadership to be "learning-focused," what this looks like in practice at both the school and district level, and how such leadership changes can be set in motion. Drawing on extensive case study research in schools and districts that are making progress on learning improvement, this volume explores how leaders at all levels of the educational system can productively seek to improve the quality of learning opportunities and student performance, no matter how challenging the circumstances.
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.
What kind of leadership makes learning possible for all students? How can school leaders help teachers increase their knowledge and improve their instructional abilities? What actions should leaders take to ensure that learning occurs? In Connecting Leadership with Learning: A Framework for Reflection, Planning, and Action, Michael A. Copland and Michael S. Knapp give educational leaders a new way to answer these questions and find solutions perfect for their particular school environment. Copland and Knapp assert that far too many educational leaders are struggling with outdated curricula, demands that don't align with their school or district goals, and professional meetings that are high on complaints but low on solutions. Instead of prescribing a linear or rigid approach, the authors encourage educators to be attentive and tune into their leadership actions by using the Leading for Learning Framework. The framework provides different vantage points to help leaders reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, plan for improvement, and take actions to foster learning for students, teachers and professionals, and school and district leaders. The Leading for Learning Framework will empower leaders to *Establish a focus on equitable learning *Build professional communities *Engage communities and external partnerships *Act strategically and share leadership *Create coherence in their leadership actions The book includes extended case studies, descriptions of 23 different leadership "pathways," and many examples from schools and districts that show the Leading for Learning Framework in action. There is no magic formula for great school leadership, but Copland and Knapp conclude that magic can happen when leaders reframe their efforts to focus more clearly on learning.
• Aligns improvement efforts with two sets of standards, NELP and PSEL – no other books in the field do this. • To help ground the main points in this volume, each chapter features a case that presents a leader who is simultaneously leading a school while also learning about improvement science in their graduate class. • To help instructors use this book in their courses, each chapter includes teaching notes and an action inventory aligned to the case examples and chapters. • Uses Improvement Science as a method of continuous change and equity as a values framework—this book centers equity in every improvement effort • This book helps to reframe the conversation about how data can be used by leaders for improvement -- it emphasizes creating a data culture that allows for experimentation and learning from failure and does not limit emphasis on lagging accountability data. • This book is comprehensive with attention to foundational theory and research on continuous improvement, practical methods of continuous improvement, and the leadership of continuous improvement