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The Superintendent's Fieldbook

A Guide for Leaders of Learning

By: Nelda Cambron-McCabe, Luvern L. Cunningham, James Harvey, Robert H. Koff

Learn how to navigate effectively through the new demands facing districts and schools!

The challenges for district leaders are constantly changing. Leadership and governance are only parts of the puzzle when other elements such as the NCLB legislation, budgets, and changing demographics are brought into the picture. Drawing on the experiences of nearly 200 superintendents, the authors identify seven key "commonplaces" of the successful superintendent including:

Understanding and addressing standards and assessment
Considering race, class, and the achievement gap
Developing your schools' principals from building managers to leaders of learning
Exploring collaborations with agencies of government and organizational allies
Engaging your community to construct a shared vision of the future

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781412906104
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2004
Page Count: 368
Publication date: August 10, 2004

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Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.

Description

"Much of what we know about how to be successful in our roles as superintendent is generally learned the hard way. Having a resource to turn to in an effort to mitigate the trial and error nature of our approaches in dealing with the challenges of today's superintendency provides a compelling reason to pick up the book."
Howard Smith, Superintendent of Schools
Public Schools of the Tarrytowns, Sleepy Hollow, NY

"New and current superintendents, or prospective school leaders should read this book. I think the authors tied in a lot of leadership theory and practices that would compliment individual styles of school superintendents."
Gina Segobiano, Superintendent
Signal Hill School District, Belleville, Illinois

Learn how to navigate effectively through the new demands facing districts and schools!

The goals and challenges for district leaders are constantly changing. Leadership and governance are only parts of the puzzle when other elements such as the NCLB legislation, budgets, standards and assessment, changing demographics, and public engagement are brought into the picture. Today's superintendent needs an effective tool to help steer the school district to success.

Drawing on the experiences of nearly 200 superintendents over the past ten years, The Superintendent's Fieldbook offers guidance that can be referenced again and again. Written for current and future superintendents, principals, school board members and teachers, this valuable guide is divided into nine sections--each offering ideas to implement, practical lessons, exercises, and questions for reflective practice.

The authors identify seven key "commonplaces" of the successful modern superintendent including:

Leading within a governance structure
Understanding and addressing standards and assessment
Considering race, class, and the achievement gap
Developing your schools' principals from building managers to leaders of learning
Exploring collaborations with agencies of government and organizational allies
Engaging your community to construct a shared vision of the future

Vignettes describing real events and situations will help you connect lessons learned to your own district experiences, and help you and your district thrive in the rapidly changing world of education.

Author(s)

Nelda Cambron-McCabe

Nelda Cambron-McCabe is a professor, Department of Educational Leadership, Miami University, Ohio. She was an advisory board member and a coordinator of the Danforth Foundation Forum for the American School Superintendent. Her recent publications include co-author with McCarthy and Thomas, Public School Law: Teachers’ and Students’ Rights 5th ed., (Needham, MA.; Allyn & Bacon, 2004) and co-author with Senge, Lucas, Smith, Dutton, and Kleiner, Schools That Learn (New York: Doubleday, 2000).

Luvern L. Cunningham

Luvern L. Cunningham, Ed. D., University of Oregon, has served in administrative and teaching roles from K-12 through graduate school over more than four decades. A member of the Danforth Forum advisory board, his specialties are educational leadership, the school superintendency, educational governance, inter-institutional collaboration and inter-professional education and practice. He served in university professorships at Chicago, Minnesota and Ohio State and, for several years, as Dean of the College of Education, Ohio State University.

James Harvey

James Harvey is the Executive Director of the National Superintendents Roundtable and a doctoral student at Seattle Unviersity. He is Senior Fellow at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of Washington, and was a member of the Danforth Forum’s advisory board. Earlier he served in the Carter administration and on the staff of the Education and Labor Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. He helped write A Nation at Risk (1983) and, co-authored A Legacy of Learning with David Kearns, former CEO of the Xerox Corporation (Washington: Brookings Press, 2000).

Robert H. Koff

Robert H. Koff directed the Center for Advanced Learning at Washington University, St. Louis. He previously served as Senior Vice President of the Danforth Foundation, Dean of the School of Education, SUNY at Albany, and professor of education at Stanford University. He served on a number of state and national advisory bodies at the invitations of Governor Mario Cuomo and President Carter and provided editorial advice to journals such as the Journal of Educational Psychology.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

I. Orientation

1. Preface

2. Introduction: Leading Learning in New Times

3. The "Commonplaces" of School Leadership

II. Leading Your Schools

1. Orientation: Leadership Theory for the Theoretically Challenged

2. Thinking About Your Organization

3. Encouraging Adaptive Leadership

4. Creating Your Learning Organization

5. Reflective Practice

III. Coping With Governance Challenges

1. Orientation

2. It's Rough Out There

3. Working With Your Board

4. Dealing With Your Unions

5. General Rules of the Road

6. Reflective Practice

IV. Understanding Standards and Assessment

1. Orientation

2. Where We Are on Standards and Assessment

3. What the Data Tell You

4. Questions for Reflective Practice

V. Addressing Race and Class

1. Orientation: Why Race and Class?

2. Difficult Conversations

3. What's Going On Inside Schools

4. . . . And What's Going On Outside Them

5. Reflective Practice

VI. Developing Your Principals

1. Leading Student Learning

2. The Instructional Leader's Toolkit

3. Facilitating Change

4. Questions for Reflective Practice

VII. Collaborating With Your Allies

1. Orientation: What Is Collaboration?

2. What Does Collaboration Require?

3. Collaboration in the Field: Early Care and Education

4. Questions for Reflective Practice

VIII. Engaging Your Community

1. Orientation

2. Public Engagement

3. Working With Your News and Media Outlets

4. Communications Planning

5. Reflective Practice

IX. So What Does All This Mean?

1. Reconciling Commonplaces and Images

2. Four Leadership Styles

3. Questions for Reflective Practice

Appendices

Appendix A: The Forum for the American School Superintendent

Appendix B: Members of the Forum for the American School Superintendent

Appendix C: Contributors

Index

Reviews

"Much of what we know about how to be successful in our roles as superintendent is generally learned the hard way. Having a resource to turn to in an effort to mitigate the trial and error nature of our approaches in dealing with the challenges of today's superintendency provides a compelling reason to pick up the book."

Howard Smith, Superintendent of Schools
Public Schools of the Tarrytowns, Sleepy Hollow, NY

"New and current superintendents, or prospective school leaders should read this book. I think the authors tied in a lot of leadership theory and practices that would compliment individual styles of school superintendents."

Gina Segobiano, Superintendent
Signal Hill School District, Belleville, Illinois

"Being a superintendent, I can speak to the fact that I can use the tips and techniques presented with my staff and school community."

Glenn Sewell, Superintendent/Principal
Wheatland Union High School District, CA

Other Titles in: Principalship | Leadership | Superintendents & District Administration

Available As:

Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.