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Right From the Start

The Essential Guide to Implementing School Initiatives

By: James Marshall

Foreword by Douglas Fisher
A co-publication with Learning Forward

This guidebook walks through the entire process of implementation, from needs assessment to evaluation—with tools, pacing suggestions, and strategies that yield predictable results.

Full description

Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781071913444
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2023
Page Count: 280
Publication date: May 01, 2023

Price: $39.95

Description

Finally, clear guidance on how to design programs that last

How many initiatives start with great fanfare only to end up accumulating dust on a shelf? Right From the Start tackles this challenge head on by offering a reliable, evidence-based implementation process. With upbeat clarity, this book examines the meaning of initiative, provides an intuitively sequenced structure and eagerly shares a vast array of tools. This is quite simply the book all veterans wish they had years ago.

Drawing on Marshall’s thousands of hours evaluating educational programs, this guidebook walks through the entire process of implementation, from needs assessment (more important than you think!) to evaluation—while providing strategies that yield predictable results. Organized to allow for reading cover to cover or to focus on a particular stage, the book includes

Tools for analysis so you can effectively determine where you are and what you need
Opportunities for self-assessment and reflection
"Tales from the field" to help you avoid pitfalls and glean best practices
Discussion questions for professional learning communities

Every educator and policy maker has ideas and knows exactly what will improve their school. That’s the easy part. But does the solution really fit the need of the school? Do the school players have the commitment or readiness to venture forward? To get it right the first time, apply Marshall’s model of implementation in your school.

Author(s)

James Marshall

James Marshall’s lifelong work lies at the intersection of people and the organizations in which they work—and optimizing the synergy that fertile convergence holds. His scholarship, teaching, and consulting combine our understanding of human performance and organization development to assess strengths, devise strategy, and improve even the most vexing of challenges. Engagements have found him doing everything from evaluating virtual reality delivered training for active shooter containment, to devising strategy that improved the community-focused impacts realized by the national network of over 150 public television stations. He is currently Professor of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University, in the #1 ranked California State University College of Education. In his private practice, he serves as a thought partner to leaders seeking to hasten the collective impact of their organization’s investments—especially their human resources. From assessing strengths and needs to conceptualizing strategy and initiatives and then
measuring return on investment, Dr. Marshall’s unique approach relies on a proven mix of assessment and evaluation, appreciative inquiry, and empathic understanding that predictably yields quantifiable results. Clients particularly note his ability to use data—with novelty and persuasion—to drive change.

With over 200 publications to his credit, Dr. Marshall’s scholarship encompasses a diverse range of works that includes empirical research, program evaluation efforts, and policy development. His program evaluation endeavors are particularly significant and include over 250 individual studies of funded projects and program investments totaling more than $120 million dollars. This work has been funded by diverse agencies that include the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Library and Museum Services, the Public Broadcasting Service, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as well as the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Transportation Security Administration. His work with state and local education agencies, school systems, and regional offices of education encompasses forty of the fifty United States.

Internationally, Dr. Marshall has influenced human and organization performance through his service on the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction (IBSTPI) board of directors. Here, his needs assessment-focused research assisted the organization in better understanding its audiences and their needs, as IBSTPI reformulated its long-term strategy and support of learning leaders worldwide.

He can be reached at marshall@sdsu.edu.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

About the Author

Foreword by Douglas Fisher

Introduction: If Any Outcome Will Do...

Part I: Getting Smart Through Needs Assessment

Chapter 1: Success Starts with Understanding Needs

Chapter 2: What's Going on Here: Barriers and Strengths

Chapter 3: The People

Chapter 4: The Organization

Chapter 5: Summing Up Barriers and Strengths

Chapter 6: Let's Get Smart

Chapter 7: Collecting Needs Assessment Data

Chapter 8: Coming Closer to Clarity: Summarizing Needs

Part I Wrap-Up: Linda's Needs in Focus

Part II: Designing and Launching the Initiative

Chapter 9: Designing the Initiative

Chapter 10: Your Solution: Leading Initiative Design

Chapter 11: Facts About Fidelity

Chapter 12: Mapping the Initiative to Your School or District

Chapter 13: The Initiative Plan

Chapter 14: Leading Implementation Action Planning

Chapter 15: Early Wins

Chapter 16: Leadership to Sustain and Promote Programs Over Time

Chapter 17: Advice for Scaling Programs

Part II Wrap-up: Lessons in Leadership, Inventing the Initiative

Part III: From Implementation to Impact

Chapter 18: Continuous Monitoring and Adjustment

Chapter 19: Program Evaluation Planning

Chapter 20: The Evaluation Plan

Chapter 21: Three Program Evaluation Models

Chapter 22: Developing Evaluation Questions

Chapter 23: Data Collection Decisions

Chapter 24: Lining Things Up: A Critical Point in Evaluation Planning

Chapter 25: Making Findings Persuasive and Actionable

Chapter 26: Making Results Useful

Part III Wrap-up: Initiative Impact

Foreword by Douglas Fisher

Epilogue: Looking Ahead

Appendices

Glossary

References

Reviews

Every educator and policy maker has ideas and knows exactly what will improve
their school. That’s the easy part. But does the solution really fit the need of
the school? Do the school players have the commitment or readiness to venture
forward? To get it right the first time, apply Marshall’s model of implementation
in your school.

John Hattie
Emeritus Laureate Professor, University of Melbourne, Co-director, the Hattie Family Foundation

This is the strongest and most comprehensive book I have read on the topic of
implementation. James Marshall has a deep understanding of how school leaders
and teachers need to implement initiatives, and he lays out how to do just that.

Peter DeWitt
Corwin Author

Right From the Start offers poignant examples, tools, and processes, and it inspires
confidence in the potential for program and organizational transformation in
multiple contexts. If you are seeking powerful, practical advice, this is the resource
you’ve been looking for.

Michelle D. Young
Dean, Loyola Marymount University School of Education Professor of Leadership and Policy

James Marshall has a wise and dynamic approach to program design. I wish I had
found this book years ago.

Virginia E. Kelsen
Assistant Superintendent, Glendora Unified School District

James Marshall’s practical guide offers schools an invaluable tool to plan and
strategize efforts that will ensure the expected student outcomes. This is a must
read for leaders who are passionate about equity and excellence for all students.

Jose Francisco Escobedo
Executive Director, National Center of Urban School Transformation

Every leader who strives to make a difference can benefit from James Marshall’s
practical guide with its clear language and powerful examples. I wish I had studied
this book 40 years ago!

Joseph E. Johnson
Founding Director, National Center for Urban School Transformation Professor and Dean Emeritus, San Diego State University

Right From the Start provides leadership teams with a simple yet detailed framework
they can utilize to examine the suitability of a program and to develop suitable
programs for their context. It will help you identify key elements for consideration
to ensure a higher level of implementation success.

Ray Boyd
West Swan (Dayton) Primary School

These tools support planning, selecting, monitoring, evaluating, and revising
your programs collaboratively to raise teacher and student performance. The
intentional practices and questions lead from knowledge to action to reflection,
with appreciative inquiry.

Helene Alalouf
Educational Consultant

James Marshall provides guideposts to avoid common mistakes. You will find
common sense approaches to building good programs—understand the
audience, the needs, and the design with impact in mind. Stick with Marshall’s wise
observations and guidance to get it right for the long term.

Debra Tica Sanchez
Senior Vice President, Educational Media and Learning Experiences Corporation for Public Broadcasting

This is an essential guide for moving ideas into practice. All too often we are
disappointed when the intended outcomes of our initiatives are not achieved.
Marshall’s work provides what leaders need for action and success.

Andi Fourlis
Superintendent, Mesa Public Schools

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Getting Smart Through Needs Assessment - Right From the Start [Other]
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Introduction - Right From the Start [Other]
Mapping the Initiative to Your School or District - Right From the Start [Other]