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Leverage
Using PLCs to Promote Lasting Improvement in Schools

Forward by Richard DuFour



September 2014 | 168 pages | Corwin

Discover high-impact leadership strategies for a thriving learning community!

Faced with the growing demands of leadership in today’s schools, how can principals and teacher leaders ensure their actions will impact teaching and learning in positive ways? This compelling new book by Thomas Many and Susan Sparks-Many provides straightforward solutions for the complex challenges school leaders face. Discover how implementing a few specific high-leverage strategies, grounded in the core beliefs of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), can promote lasting improvement in schools. This book’s concrete examples of high-leverage, evidence-based practices help you:

  • Understand the essential role principals and teacher leaders play in leading PLCs
  • Foster an understanding of how PLCs can support implementation of major instructional shifts such as the new     Common Core State Standards
  • Apply high-leverage strategies across your own school and district to improve instruction and better serve the needs       of all students

You’ll find invaluable self-assessment forms, templates, case studies, planning examples, and more. Use Leverage as your essential leadership tool to transform your school into a thriving learning community!

"In Leverage, the authors craft a coherent and compelling argument for doing less but going deeper in support of school reform.  A thoughtful sense of the literature informs approaches that we all need help with—how to integrate and align our efforts in supporting student success and how to do that in sustainable ways."
—Peter Dillon, Superintendent
Berkshire Hills Regional School District, Stockbridge, MA

"If you are wondering which items should be at the top of your priority list, read this book, after which you will truly know what is important and how to implement sustainable change in your school that will result in better student achievement."
—Jim Anderson, Principal
Andersen Jr. High School, Chandler, AZ

"This book addresses PRECISELY the tension that so many of us feel. The whole concept of leverage crystallizes what we've been wrestling with in our building."
—Ryan Giegling, Second-Grade Teacher
Ganiard Elementary, Mt. Pleasant, MI


 
Foreword by Richard DuFour
 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
Introduction
 
Section I: The Principal
 
1. Leadership Matters
Evidence of the Principal’s Impact on Student Learning

 
How Do Principals Impact Student Learning?

 
Different Forms of Leadership Impact Learning Differently

 
Leadership Matters, But the Right Kind of Leadership Matters More

 
 
2. Examining the Complex Role of the Principal
The Sheer Pandemonium of the Principalship

 
Trends Shaping the Current Reality of the Principalship

 
Creating a New Normal for Principals

 
 
3. Move the World: The Essence of Leverage
Creating an Operational Definition of Leverage

 
Where Can We Look for the Leverage Point?

 
 
4. Professional Learning Communities: The High-Leverage Strategy
An Overview of the PLC Model

 
Reflection Promotes Progress Toward Becoming a PLC: A Case Study

 
Identifying Leverage Points in a PLC

 
 
Section II: Practical Applications
 
5. The Secrete to Success: Leverage a Focus on Learning
What Matters Most

 
Creating an Operational Definition of What Is Essential

 
The Balanced and Coherent System of Assessment: Providing a Steady Stream of Information

 
The Need for SPEED: Criteria for Designing Effective Pyramids of Intervention

 
The Secret to Success

 
 
6. Take Away the Traning Wheels: Leverage a Collaborative Culture
A Rose by Any Other Name: What Is Important About Collaborative Teams?

 
The Elephant in the Room: Making Time for Collaboration

 
The Turning Point: Building Collective Capacity

 
Package Couriers, Meter Readers, and Copier Repairmen: Leveraging Opportunities to Share Best Practices

 
Take Away the Training Wheels: The Difference Between Monitoring and Micromanaging Teams

 
 
7. Reports From the Precinct Captains: Leverage a Results Orientation
The Right Interpretation of a Results Orientation

 
Three Rules for Using Data

 
Protocols: A Powerful Prescription for Professional Learning

 
It’s Not Pixie Dust; It’s Protocol

 
SOAP Notes: A Tool to Promote Reflective Dialogue About Student Learning

 
Reports From the Precinct Captains

 
Applying a Results Orientation in Schools

 
Tangible Benefits of Data Meetings

 
A Results-Oriented Practice Transforms School Culture

 
 
Section III: PLC Strategies
8. What’s on Your Refrigerator Door? Clear Away the Clutter to Clarify What’s Important in Your School

 
A Thousand Conversations: The Power of Consistent, Clear Messages About What Matters

 
Flying Kites: Understanding the Concept of Loose/Tight Leadership

 
 
9. Reboot the Principalship: Strategies to Rekindle, Reignite, Reenergize Your School
Get Off Your “Buts”: Responding to Resistors in Your School

 
Making Diamonds: Top-Down Pressure and Bottom-Up Support

 
Reboot the Principalship: Strategies to Rekindle, Reignite, Reenergize Your School

 
 
Bibliography
 
Additional Readings
 
Index

"In Leverage, the author Thomas Many crafts a coherent and compelling argument for doing less and going deeper in support of school reform.  A thoughtful sense of the literature informs approaches that we all need help with – how to integrate and align our efforts in supporting student success and how to do that in sustainable ways"

Peter Dillon, Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools
Berkshire Hills Regional School District

"It seems like with each passing year the expectations and requirements of a principal become greater and greater.  If you are wondering which items should be at the top of your priority list read this book, after which you will truly know what is important and how to implement sustainable change in your school that will result in better student achievement."

Jim Anderson, Principal
Andersen Jr. High School
Key features
(1) Focuses on a finite number of high-leverage actions that, when taken by principals, result in improvements in teaching and, ultimately, student learning.

(2) Supports principals by providing concrete examples of research and evidence-based practices that promote higher levels of learning and specific ways to accelerate the successful implementation of those strategies that make a difference.

(3) Establishes a connection between leverage and the "big ideas" of Professional Learning Communities: (a) focus on learning; (b) collaborative culture; (c) results orientation.

(4) Explores the role of PLC in ensuring the success of major initiatives such as implementation of the Common Core State Standards

(5) Special features include short articles that can be used by principals as discussion launchers, self assessment forms and templates, examples of completed planning documents.

Sample Materials & Chapters

Table of Contents

Introduction


For instructors

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ISBN: 9781483320519

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ISBN: 9781452259574
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