School improvement that lasts: find out how with this masterful guide!

Common Core requirements, merit-based pay, new teacher evaluations, project-based learning—21st-century learning is a demanding and rapidly changing landscape. Advance from overwhelmed to empowered with Alan Blankstein’s Failure Is Not an Option, used by more than 350,000 educators to create schools that sustain success for every student.

New case studies and field-tested techniques uncover indispensable insights into successful school change. Develop high-performing leadership teams through

• Powerful engagement strategies and capacity-building questions to help staff and students leverage what’s working and target measurable goals
• New real-world examples to help stakeholders maintain collaborative cultures in the face of new teacher evaluations and merit pay, sustain successful RTI and Common Core initiatives, thrive in diverse settings, and promote community engagement
• New tools, forms, and video segments on a companion website

Use this handbook to discover what makes results-oriented, enduring school improvement models work!

Praise for the Second Edition:
“An overwhelming body of research shows that educational change and improvement must come from the inside. Here is a practical road map for improving the climate and culture of schools in ways that are meaningful and enduring. We must be open to new ideas, new strategies, and new opportunities. School transformation is something you do with educators, not to them. This book will show you how.”
—Dennis Van Roekel, President
National Education Association

1. Offers school leaders the FNO framework for action, which consists of 6 principles for building and sustaining a professional learning community that will result in a high-performing school.
2. Brief case examples and longer case stories, all drawn from the author's/HOPE Foundation's work with school leaders and schools/districts to vividly illustrate concepts with which the reader will connect and show how to implement the 6 principles.
3. Numerous tools in the Resources section provide school leaders with concrete assistance in applying the 6 principles of the FNO framework for action.