The step-by-step guide to defining your vision—and making it reality

As a leader, it’s your job to look beyond the present and envision a brighter future for your school. Choosing the right path, however, can be a challenge.

This inspirational resource is your guide. By following its one-of-a-kind iterative visioning process, you’ll sharpen your vision into a road map for transformative change—tailored to the needs of your learning community. Features include: 

• Key strategies and tools for building a shared vision
• Practical implementation ideas
• Case studies from exemplary schools
• Common trends at the heart of impactful, positive change
• Thought-provoking vignettes 

Turn vision into reality, possibilities into plans, and create an environment that strengthens engagement, provides safe and nurturing learning opportunities, and produces students with the skills, knowledge, and disposition to be successful in life.

Discover how psychological safety, constructive conflict, and actionable learning create a powerful triple helix to transform teams!

In this ground-breaking resource, three experts in the field of education and teamwork each present one of three strands that, when woven together, support teamwork and forge collaborative interactions into a transformative way of working. You’ll learn approaches, processes and tools to overcome common obstacles to team effectiveness such as feelings of futility, anxiety, and poor morale. 

Drawing on research and practical experience the authors identify strategies and tools that show how to:

• Build psychological safety, where teams work towards resilient interpersonal relationships
• Use constructive conflict as a powerful catalyst for team learning and transformation
• Inquire into problems of practice to transform capabilities and produce actionable learning

Acquire ways to develop mindful, thoughtful, and constructive teams where authentic communication drives group awareness and clear processes and goals. 

Discover the game changer in school culture:  shared leadership

"This is the most comprehensive collection of current research and effective practices for successful, sustainable, school change available. It includes solid, practical guidance on the essential tools and processes needed to take our team’s efforts to the next level, and will undoubtedly become our manual for continuous improvement, districtwide."
Anne M. Lundquist, Superintendent
Red Lake School District #38, Minnesota

"Terry Wilhelm provides a unique perspective on a critical aspect of the PLC process—shared leadership. As the PLC movement continues to proliferate, such guidance is both needed and timely."
Robert J. Marzano, CEO
Marzano Research

"Technology has changed how we get information, how we entertain ourselves, how we communicate with others, how we do our work, how we teach, and how we learn. This book is also about why you as an individual and as a teacher must change the way you look at the world."
—Ian Jukes, Living on the Future Edge author

A GPS for 21st-century educators

Living on the Future Edge challenges school leaders to rethink longstanding paradigms and transform pedagogy for tomorrow's learners. Apple Computer, Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak's foreword underscores the overwhelming need to adjust traditional instruction to fit today's high-tech world. The book explores this new landscape and offers a compelling vision for the future through the lens of four exponential trends that educators cannot ignore:

• Moore's Law—processing power and speed multiply exponentially every year
• Photonics— bandwidth is dramatically increasing
• The Internet revolution continues to evolve
• We are living in an age of Infowhelm

"This is the most comprehensive analysis of homeless youth that exists. Joseph Murphy and Kerri Tobin patiently outline the demographic, sociohistorical, and psychological challenges facing one of our most vulnerable and least understood populations."
—William G. Tierney, Director, Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis
Professor, University of Southern California

Watch the book trailer for Homelessness Comes to School.

The seminal work on homeless students and our responsibility to educate them

School-aged children in homeless families and independent homeless youth represent the fastest-growing population of homeless individuals in the United States. This volume brings the issue to light with substantial and far-reaching research that describes the plight of these children, the legal framework surrounding the issue, and educators' roles in teaching homeless children. Homelessness Comes to School also outlines effective intervention programs and provides specific guidelines for teaching homeless students. Topics covered include:

• A history of homelessness, including its demographic patterns, causes, and impact on society
• The various programs schools have implemented to address homeless children's needs
• How schools, parents, and external community agencies can work together to educate homeless students

Evaluating the scope of the problem and developing interventions for these students at risk must be a priority for service providers and policy makers. This resource will give all involved parties a well-grounded understanding of homelessness and guidelines for working together toward a solution.

"Finally we have a book written on educational assessment that is easy to understand and keeps the reader engaged and focused on the topic. The author provides practical and useful information for both school administrators and classroom teachers."
—Kenneth Arndt, Superintendent
CUSD #300 Schools, Carpentersville, IL

"Popham asks thought-provoking questions and challenges the reader to follow through with staff."
—Marie Blum, Superintendent
Canaseraga Central School District, Canaseraga, NY

Educational assessment in a nutshell for busy school leaders!

W. James Popham, one of the most well-known and respected experts in educational assessment, discusses the key principles new and seasoned school leaders need to know about educational assessment to do their work effectively.

Readers will come away with crucial understandings that allow them to lead assessment of learning, meet accountability requirements, and communicate knowledgeably about accountability and test results with students, parents, the media, and the public. Using plain language, a witty and engaging writing style, and practical examples, Popham covers:

• Validity, reliability, and assessment bias
• The importance of formative assessment
• Assessing students with disabilities and English language learners
• Interpreting results of large-scale assessments
• Instructional sensitivity of accountability tests

Everything School Leaders Need to Know About Assessment is a concise, authoritative guide to a topic that all educational leaders must understand in these critical times.

"This is the first resource I have seen on this up-and-coming issue. The book takes a detailed, research-based look at a diverse population of children across the country and can be used effectively by classroom teachers, school divisions, and colleges."
—Katina Keener, Second-Grade Teacher
T. C. Walker Elementary School, Gloucester, VA

Nurture young children's self-esteem and boost learning by integrating family culture with instruction!

For the increasing number of diverse young learners, academic and social success can hinge on a teacher's ability to bridge home and school by making emotional connections with students and their families. This book demonstrates how combining teaching methods with an authentic appreciation of children's backgrounds builds the confidence they need to succeed.

Young Learners, Diverse Children offers a research-based instructional model that merges cognition, language, and culture to foster a supportive learning environment for diverse and low socioeconomic status (SES) students. Drawing on her direct experience in establishing a successful laboratory school for diverse preschoolers, Virginia Gonzalez presents examples of best teaching practices and provides lesson plans and alternative assessment tools to help readers:

• Improve literacy skills through storytelling that reflects students' everyday lives
• Collaborate with parents to increase student achievement
• Correlate curriculum with TESOL standards for young children
• Integrate academic standards across developmental levels and content areas

Using this practical handbook, early childhood educators can create richer, more positive learning experiences and help alleviate the real-life challenges of cultural adaptation for newly immigrated or low SES students and their families.

Transform your teaching and shape education through the power of inquiry.

Grounded in real-world examples and more than 30 years of research in professional development, the fifth edition of The Reflective Educator's Guide to Practitioner Inquiry addresses how inquiry fosters curiosity, reflection, and practical action to enhance effective classroom learning. This latest edition invites educators to view inquiry as a process, a product, and a stance.

The book offers new sections on the relationship between AI and teacher inquiry and the ways in which inquiry is changing with the times. Additional features and updates include:

• A new chapter that provides a step-by-step guide to crafting an intentional, actionable research plan
• Access exercises, inductive and deductive data analysis worksheets, ethical guidelines, and examples addressing today’s issues in education
• A discussion of the connections between practitioner inquiry and supporting the academic success of every student

The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Practitioner Inquiry, fifth edition, empowers educators at every stage in their careers to investigate their practice, drive sustained professional growth, and harness inquiry’s potential to create classrooms where both students and teachers thrive.

Math is not rote-memorizable. Math is not random-guessable. Math is figure-out-able.

Author Pamela Weber Harris argues that teaching real math—math that is free of distortions—will reach more students more effectively and result in deeper understanding and longer retention. This book is about teaching undistorted math using the kinds of mental reasoning that mathematicians do.

Memorization tricks and algorithms meant to make math “easier” are full of traps that sacrifice long-term student growth for short-lived gains. Students and teachers alike have been led to believe that they’ve learned more and more math, but in reality their brains never get any stronger. Using these tricks may make facts easier to memorize in isolation, but that very disconnect distorts the reality of math.

In her landmark book Developing Mathematical Reasoning: Avoiding the Trap of Algorithms, Pam emphasized the importance of teaching students increasingly sophisticated mathematical reasoning and understanding underlying concepts rather than relying on a set rule for solving problems. Now, in this first companion volume, Developing Mathematical Reasoning: The Strategies, Models, and Lessons to Teach the Big Ideas in Grades K-2, she demonstrates how counting and additive strategies serve as the foundation for creating efficient, accurate, and flexible thinkers.

Everyone is capable of understanding and doing real math. This book:

• Gives step-by-step guidance on how to teach the strategies, models, and big ideas that foster confidence and long-term success, preparing students for increasingly complex mathematical challenges
• Offers the “what to do” to teach counting, addition, and subtraction in ways that promote reasoning over rote memorization
• Provides practical tools such as problem strings, models, classroom routines, and discussion questions designed to implement reasoning-based practices
• Includes supporting resources for creating a classroom culture where students see math as figure-out-able and gain confidence as mathematical thinkers

By addressing common misconceptions about math and providing practical strategies for teaching real math, this book shows that everyone can use the mathematical relationships they already know to reason about new relationships. In other words, everyone can math—even the very youngest students!