| Leading change is a topic of paramount importance. But a missing ingredient for many leaders has been how to translate concepts into actions, continuous improvements and sustainable results. This toolkit by Wallace Senior Education Program Officer Jody Spiro was developed to fill that need in several key areas of the change process: assessing and improving participants’ readiness; engaging stakeholders; planning “early wins;” minimizing resistance; using collaborative planning methods; and developing ways to bring initiatives to scale and sustain them over time. |
| This report from the National Working Group on Funding Student Learning explores the problems with state finance systems and offers solutions on how to align resource with student learning goals. It is a product from a five-year, in-depth study of K-12 school finances in the United States. The researchers found school finance systems need to be transformed, not tinkered with; to meet today’s student achievement goals. Elements of fixing school finance systems include: allowing federal, state and local dollars to follow students; integrating resource decisions with instructional plans and then measuring and analyzing results of the expenditures; defining and funding research and development that investigates resource use; make resources use and student achievement central to financial reporting practices; and using funding contingencies to create fair and meaningful accountability. |
| In this article Hirsh and Killion identify eight fundamental principles of profession learning that are essential to system-wide and school improvement.<span> </span>The article discusses that despite the large research base on effective professional learning, we still lack a clarity around which practices are most effective. The authors stress that principles, not practices, are essential to sustained system-wide and school improvement because principles transfer across context and content. The importance of principles can guide our decision making, despite the differences of context and content across education. Some of the principles the authors discuss are that: “leaders are responsible for building capacity in individuals, teams, and organizations to be leaders and learners,”ambitious goals lead to powerful actions and remarkable results,” and “evaluation strengthens performance and results.” |
| Lawmakers in 22 states enacted 39 laws in 2008 to support school leadership initiatives, according to this second annual roundup by the National Conference of State Legislatures, a partner in Wallace’s education leadership initiative. The report summarizes state legislative actions in a range of topics: leaders’ roles, responsibilities and authority; preparation and leadership academies; licensure and certification; mentoring and induction; professional development; assessing leader effectiveness; compensation and incentives; and governance structure issues. |
| This video vignette features the national School Administration Manager (SAM) Project, which helps principals understand how they use their time, gives them a staff person (the “SAM”) to whom operations responsibilities are delegated and provides them with strategies for what to do with their newly found time to lead efforts to improve instruction in the school. This video demonstrates how one school in Louisville, Kentucky, reshaped school leadership. Follow Principal Opal Dawson as she receives increasing support to get out of her office and into classrooms, strengthens relationships with teachers and gets to know students better than ever before. Witness a principal who meets with her SAM on a daily basis, gets professional support from a coach and uses new tools and strategies to spend more time on improving teaching and learning. Along with the video vignette, viewers can access a conversation guide to investigate the issues, strategies and actions raised in the video. |
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