Description
When school systems learn, professional practice improves and student achievement increases
Picture this: Teachers sharing insights and challenges. Principals leading with trust. Central office leaders inspiring and supporting principals. A synergistic learning system that results in all students succeeding.
This practitioner's guide to creating a system-wide learning organization focuses on professional learning as the stimulus to improving student achievement. Experienced superintendents Paul Ash and John D'Auria provide a blueprint to:
- Improve schools through system-wide professional learning
- Increase student achievement by instilling a deep-rooted culture of curiosity
- Bolster faculty and staff morale with trust-building initiatives
- Align professional development with student-centered district standards
School Systems That Learn shows how professional development in a K-12 district can create synergy between educators and students that results in growth and achievement for all!
"Paul Ash and John D'Auria draw on their deep understanding of school districts to help explain why so many American students are left behind. Their solution—to build the capacity of educators through collaboration and honest reflection—should make their book required reading for anyone who aspires to educational leadership."
—Karin Chenoweth, Co-author of Getting It Done: Leading Academic Success in Unexpected Schools
"This is a carefully developed and immensely practical guide for educators on how to build trust, develop collaborative capacity, and foster leadership at all levels—from the classroom teacher to the superintendent."
—Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School
Author of Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate and Compete in the Knowledge Economy
Key features
(1) Grounded in the idea that system-wide professional learning is the key lever for school improvement and achievement for all students.
(2) Explores four essential drivers that collectively create learning at all levels of the system: a climate of trust; effective leadership at all levels; capacity-building; collaboration.
(3) Unique system-wide perspective: rather than focusing on improvement within a single school, this book explores the characteristics of a K-12 school system working as a learning unit, capable of nimbly responding to change, and focused on meeting the varied needs of all students.
(4) Strong practitioner orientation: one of the authors -- a district superintendent -- implemented the principles of this book in a high-achieving school district in Massachusetts. The Lexington Public Schools district was acknowledged for it's outstanding Professional Development program in the November 10, 2010 issue of Education Week.
(5) Powerful concluding chapter on whole system change and diffusion of innovation.
