"Overall this text is a very interesting read with significant applicability to both advisors and faculty. The creative advisor will have no problem synthesizing Materna's ideas and theories of brain-compatible learning strategies into daily interactions with students and faculty." —Jennifer Varney, Hesser College

"This outstanding book combines neuroscience and education to create an energetic and practical guide to the adult brain. You'll finish it feeling as if you've just been entertained and enlightened."
—Sheryl Feinstein, Augustana College

Use brain-based learning techniques for powerful staff development!

Brain-compatible learning promotes the brain's natural capacity to learn, and more and more educators have been using this technique to help young students become successful learners. By combining adult education theory with brain-compatible learning, noted educator Laurie Materna offers practical, brain-friendly instructional approaches for working with adults in both informal and formal environments.

This user-friendly guide provides valuable background information about adult learning styles, memory, and how the brain learns. Engaging, interactive strategies for classrooms or workshops include graphic organizers, music energizers, exercise activities, and self-assessments, and each strategy is accompanied by a wide range of real-life examples.

Educators will be able to motivate adult learners to

• Become more self-directed in their own learning
• Improve their ability to recall, comprehend, and apply complex information
• Unleash their creative potential as they explore a variety of learning modalities
• Turn their education into a meaningful and rewarding experience

Ideal for staff developers, trainers, principals, teacher leaders, coaches, mentors, adult education instructors, adult learners, and consultants, Jump Start the Adult Learner provides everything staff developers need to successfully implement this dynamic and learner-centered approach in any adult learning environment.

"This resource provides a no-nonsense approach to working collaboratively with parents, students, and administrators to stop bullying situations and prevent bullying in the future. The author provides practical, easy-to-use strategies that can be adapted for different situations. A must-have for educators who want to instill changes."
—Leigh Cassidy, Counselor
Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Greenbelt, MD

"The author provides a thought-provoking book on an important subject neglected by both researchers and writers. The book is full of down-to-earth, commonsense advice that educators will find very helpful in addressing a difficult and complex issue."
—Rob Osborn, Anti-Bullying Strategy Manager
Leicestershire Children and Young People's Service and Anti-Bullying Alliance

Strengthen bully prevention efforts through collaborative dialogue with parents!

This concise book helps educators expand skills for communicating with parents about the thorny subject of bullying. In realistic language, the author explores common concerns of both parties and offers practical strategies to help school staff carry out conversations and interventions with even the most persistent or resistant parents. Readers will find sample dialogues and vignettes written by parents of bullies and victims, plus:

• An eight-point plan for talking with parents about bullying
• Six "fair expectations" to encourage effective teacher-parent collaborations
• Talking points to help parents dialogue with their children about bullying

The lessons from this resource can help administrators, counselors, and teachers partner effectively with parents to create a positive learning climate for all students.

"These successful principals move beyond platitudes and optimistic denial and learn to face the facts of what is necessary to improve schools—then they do it. These star principals learn to work with teachers and their union rather than around them."
—Charles Taylor Kerchner, Hollis P. Allen Professor
Claremont Graduate University

"Links Collins's work to success in the school setting. The examples of school leaders who were able to lead effective, systemic change are powerful."
—Brenda Dean, Assistant Director of Curriculum and Instruction
Hamblen County Department of Education, TN

Make the leap from ordinary to stellar school leadership!

"What can I do to make a difference and lift my school to excellence?" From Good Schools to Great Schools answers this question for principals and considers other critical issues in a detailed examination of school leadership.

Based on the concepts from the national bestseller Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, this guidebook identifies nine characteristics of high-performing "Level 5" school leaders through:

• In-depth discussions and detailed case studies of six "star" school principals
• A comparison of principals and corporate leaders, including qualities exclusive to school leadership
• Reflection questions for more effective application of leadership principles
• Templates, implementation tips, and additional resources

Correlated with ISLLC standards, this comprehensive resource is a valuable resource for aspiring and practicing school administrators, site leaders, and supervisors.

Shifting from remediation to preparation so all students can thrive in mathematics

Traditional math interventions often focus on remediation, addressing gaps only after students have fallen behind. Proactive Mathematics Interventions, Grades 2–5: Priming for Success Through Engaging Tasks and Purposeful Design presents a game-changing approach that shifts the focus from "fixing kids" to fixing systems. Designed with a strengths-based perspective, this resource equips educators to prime students for success by preparing them with the foundational skills and confidence needed for grade-level success and beyond.

Grounded in the latest research, the book tackles critical challenges such as systemic inequities, math anxiety, and gaps in student readiness. By integrating formative assessment, asset-based strategies, and practical intervention tasks, this comprehensive guide supports teachers, math coaches, interventionists, and school leaders to create proactive systems that meet every learner where they’re at.

Packed with 40+ adaptable tasks, more than 100 printable instructional resources, and actionable strategies, this guide

• Provides a strength-based intervention model to help uncover and build on students’ existing strengths to cultivate their mathematical confidence
• Gives step-by-step guidance on creating a proactive intervention system—from collaborative planning to formative assessment
• Includes engaging and adaptable low-floor, high-ceiling tasks to support grade-level instruction on critical mathematical topics
• Offers voices from the field with real-life success stories from educators implementing proactive strategies in their classrooms, their intervention sessions, and their tutoring sessions

Start transforming your approach to intervention today to make a lasting impact on your student's mathematical successes and identities. This is a must-have tool for educators committed to addressing inequities and redefining intervention, this book ensures every student can be a confident, capable doer of mathematics.

Dramatically increase your effectiveness as a presenter

Like a well-choreographed dance, an effective presentation involves leading and following, building rapport and trust, sharing passions, and living in the moment. In The Choreography of Presenting, global consultant and educator, Kendall Zoller reveals the common “dance steps” effective presenters employ to create optimum learning environments for their audiences. Following the 7 Essential Abilities of Effective Presenters Framework and emphasizing the importance of planning and flexibility, this thoroughly updated edition includes:

• A new chapter on how to use the crucial first 5 minutes of any presentation to establish credibility, build connections, and gauge group dynamics
• A new, timely chapter on designing and facilitating impactful and memorable virtual presentations
• A new chapter on the structure of presenting, from gathering intel to design with an inward look at yourself
• Planning tools to prepare presentations with the audience in mind, while also leaving room for spontaneity, improvisation, and necessary detours
• Personal reflections, case studies, practice prompts, and chapter summaries

Written in a welcoming and humorous style, this guide encapsulates the skills, knowledge, and abilities that effective presenters rely on to ignite their participants’ passion for learning.

Empowering multilingual learners, families, and teachers

With its emphasis on relationship building as the backdrop for linguistically and culturally sustainable assessment, the bestselling second edition of Assessing Multilingual Learners significantly impacted the field of language education. Applying the groundbreaking assessment “as,” “for,” and “of” learning model to new contexts, this updated third edition offers educators welcoming and encouraging ways to support multilingual learners to succeed in school and beyond.

Through eight thoroughly revised chapters, Dr. Margo Gottlieb ties assessment to teaching and learning to foster agency and empowerment for multilingual learners, families, and teachers. This book envisions assessment as a process integral to and embedded in curriculum and instruction through:

• Assets-based language
• Student-centered activities
• Classroom assessment tools
• Portraits of practice illustrating authentic assessment practices
• References and resources for stimulating discussion
• Deep questioning for thinking through processes, dilemmas, or challenges

Assessing Multilingual Learners explores the realities and possibilities of classroom assessment as a road to inspire multilingual learners, their families, and teachers to reach great heights.

• Guiding principles for student voice, equalizing status and cultivating acceptance across race, ethnicity, gender and other differences
• Ideas and examples for anti-racist dialogue and activities for teachers and students that counter colorblind practices, stereotype threat and biases
• Vignettes, and examples of identity safe practices for students and adult learning for staff, families and the community
• Systems for student-centered assessment and data collection
• Resources for developing equitable school policies and a comprehensive identity safety plan for your school

Educators fulfill the promise of an equitable education when students of all backgrounds know that who they are and what they think matters. Start the journey to become an identity safe school and see the results for yourself!


“Belonging and Inclusion in Identity Safe Schools: A Guide for Educational Leaders is a timely and important book.  For several years, the nation's schools have been asked to focus their energies on raising student achievement.  However, too often educators have ignored the need to honor, support and affirm the identities of the students they serve.  For educators who serve children of color, particularly Black, Native American and Latinx children who are often subject to overt and covert forms of forced assimilation, this book will be an invaluable resource on how to create learning opportunities that make it possible for such children to thrive.”
~Pedro Noguera, Dean of Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California


“Bravo to authors Cohn-Vargas, Gogolewski, Creer Kahn, and Epstein for their ground-breaking book on Identify Safe Schools for Administrators and Teacher and Staff Leaders!  They provide much-needed evidence for educators to elevate and even inspire the equity, empowerment, and academic growth needed to wholly support all children to flourish in school and their lives.”  
~Debbie Zacarian, Director, Zacarian and Associates

• Authentic Unit Plan Exemplars for each fluency
• Assessment rubric examples
• Discussion questions

Design high-impact professional learning programs with results-based evaluations

With increasing accountability pressure for evidence-based strategies and ever-tightening budgets, you want to make sure that the time, effort, and resources you are investing in your professional learning programs is truly making an impact on educator effectiveness and student achievement. 

In this third edition of Assessing Impact, Joellen Killion guides administrators, professional learning leaders, school improvement teams, and evaluators step by step through the rigors of producing an effective, in-depth, results-based analysis of your professional learning programs. A recognized expert in professional learning, Killion emphasizes the critical role of evaluation in bolstering effectiveness and retaining stakeholder support for ongoing educator development. The methods outlined here help you:

• Adhere to changes in federal and state policy relating to professional learning and educator development
• Facilitate the use of extensive datasets crucial for measuring feasibility, equity, sustainability, and impact of professional learning
• Produce more powerful, data-driven professional learning programs that benefit both students and educators
• Evaluate the effectiveness and impact of professional learning to make data-informed decisions and increase quality and results
  
  

Assessing Impact is a vital resource for staff developers and educational leaders seeking to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of professional learning, while retaining the support of parents and the public alike. 

Praise for the Second Edition:

"Anyone who reads this book has to feel obligated to 'set their world on fire.' The text not only forces the reader to see how we are failing our children and their teachers, it provides the means for each of us to do better."
—Michael J. Ford, Superintendent
Phelps-Clifton Springs CSD, Clifton Springs, NY
 

 

Re-evaluate your perspective on teacher evaluation to truly transform school performance!

The tools, strategies, and reflections in this book provide realistic solutions to the problem faced by many schools: meaningless evaluation. A considerable amount of time, energy, and money is spent on the teacher evaluation process, yet the question remains whether it is truly transforming the learning of teachers and, therefore, students.

This practical guide shows how evaluation can become the tie that binds all school improvement activities together to:

• Bring clarity and purpose to all educators making their roles more effective
• Improve teacher practice since they receive better support
• Increase student achievement and overall school culture

"For years, building leaders have been agonizing over teacher evaluations, pouring countless hours into a practice that consistently fails to produce the desired result; more meaningful conversations that produce improved quality instructional practices and increases in student achievement. In his book, Making Evaluation Meaningful, PJ Caposey shares a step by step framework filled with quick & easy to follow “Tips for Tomorrow,” as well as detailed examples to help you shift your mindset and behave yourself to a more effective instructional leader. This book will leave you questioning your own evaluation system while at the same time inspiring you to re-commit the time and resources needed to help grow and develop your teachers."

—Jimmy Casas, Principal and CEO

" PJ Caposey, through a practitioner lens, has developed an incredible guide that not only helps to demystify the evaluation process, but also provide ready-to- use strategies to ensure reflection and growth are the result. In the end evaluation must be meaningful for both parties. This book will help get you there."

—Eric Sheninger, Author/Consultant, Senior Fellow/Thought Leader

"PJ Caposey has developed a great resource on teacher evaluation that actually provides realistic, encouraging, and supportive guidance instead of an arbitrary checklist!"

—Larry Ferlazzo, Teacher, Author and Education Week Teacher advice blogger