Leading school turnaround : how successful leaders transform low-performing schools

Leading School Turnaround offers new perspectives and concrete, evidence-based guidelines for the educational leaders and administrators faced with the challenge of turning our low-performing schools around. Using the tools outlined in this groundbreaking book, school leaders can guide their schools to higher levels of achievement and sustained academic success.

Based on research conducted in the United States, Canada, and England, Leading School Turnaround addresses in three parts the dynamic context of the turnaround environment, what turnaround leaders do, and the incredible challenges of moving from turnaround to "stay around."

Filled with illustrative examples, the book outlines the best practices and behaviors successful turnaround leaders exercise. The authors include detailed information for applying the four main categories of turnaround leadership: direction setting, developing people, redesigning the school, and managing the instructional program.

This important resource can help any school leader get their school back on the track to academic success.

Author Notes

THE AUTHORS

KENNETH LEITHWOOD is professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. His recent books include Distributed Leadership According to the Evidence and Leading With Teachers' Emotions In Mind . His most recent research was a Wallace Foundation supported study, with colleagues, aimed at determining how state, district, and school-level leadership influences student learning. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

ALMA HARRIS first trained as a secondary school teacher and taught in a number of challenging schools. She is the director of the London Centre for Leadership in Learning at the Institute of Education, London. Her research work focuses on organizational change and development. She is internationally known for her work on school improvement, particularly on improving schools in challenging circumstances.

TIIU STRAUSS is a project director working with Kenneth Leithwood in the Department of Theory and Policy Studies at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. She has published in the areas of leadership problem solving, distributed leadership, and leadership in turnaround schools.

Figures and Tables	p. v
The Authors	p. ix
Introduction: Understanding School Turnaround Leadership	p. 1
Part 1 The Dynamic Context in Which Turnaround Leaders Work	p. 23
1 Reasons for School Failure	p. 25
2 The Three Stages of School Turnaround	p. 43
3 The Stages Illustrated: A Case Study	p. 67
Part 2 What Turnaround Leaders Do, and How They Do It	p. 83
4 How Turnaround Leaders Create a Shared Sense of Direction in Their Schools	p. 85
5 How Turnaround Leaders Foster Capacity Development Among Their Teachers	p. 111
6 How Turnaround Leaders Redesign Their Schools	p. 129
7 How Turnaround Leaders Improve Their School's Instructional Program	p. 155
8 Turnaround Leadership Up Close and Personal	p. 181
Part 3 Outstanding Challenges	p. 213
9 How Schools Move from Turnaround to "Stay Around"	p. 215
10 How to Reach High Performance	p. 235
Conclusion	p. 257
Appendix: Methods Used for the Studies	p. 259
Notes	p. 267
References	p. 271
Index	p. 283

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Table of Contents