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The Five Essentials of Organizational Excellence

Maximizing Schoolwide Student Achievement and Performance

By: Lawrence L. Marazza

Redefine leadership and engineer improved student achievement!

Educational reform. Organizational development. Increased diversity. Accountability. The climate in education today demands an understanding of key concepts. More important, educators beg for answers to important underlying questions. How can we reform education in order to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population? How can we develop an alliance that holds itself accountable to the success and failure of every school, every student? This guide leads you on a path of surprising answers and unorthodox solutions to the problems facing schools today.

The Five Essentials of Organizational Excellence explores the necessity for building strong relationships among administrators, teachers, parents, and the community by:

Planning strategically
Benchmarking for excellence
Leading collaboratively
Engaging the community
Governing by standards

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9780761939559
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2003
Page Count: 184
Publication date: June 18, 2003

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This book is not available as a review copy.

Description

"Marazza offers a prescription for how essential skills can empower school organizations that can ultimately lead to higher student achievement and stakeholder satisfaction."
John Pieno, Chairman
Florida Sterling Council

"Marazza's book displays both practicality and relevancy in school leadership, and examines leadership theories that triangulate his own methods of transforming today's schools."
Frank Rudnesky, Principal
Bellhaven Middle School, Linwood, NJ

"The Five Essentials of Organizational Excellence offers and explains what every administrator should know about collaborative leadership and the benefits for student achievement."
Nancy Noeske, President and CEO
PROACT Search, Inc.

Redefine leadership and engineer improved student achievement!

The Five Essentials of Organizational Excellence explores the necessity for building strong relationships among administrators, teachers, parents, and the community by:

Planning strategically
Benchmarking for excellence
Leading collaboratively
Engaging the community
Governing by standards

Leading a school to excellence involves more than just the principal--every member of the community must be involved in order to make a difference in a school's success.

Author(s)

Lawrence L. Marazza

Lawrence Marazza is the President and founder of The Lighthouse Management Group, a training and management consulting firm located in Russell, Ohio and focusing on the development of high performing school districts and quality assurance programs for public sector organizations. His career in education spans more than thirty years, twenty-six years as a Superintendent of Schools for three school districts located in two different states. He has also served as an elementary and secondary teacher, college instructor, and public administrator.

Throughout his career, he has been able to apply private sector leadership initiatives and practices to public schools. During his tenure as a superintendent he established partnerships with businesses and institutions of higher learning. Through these partnerships, he developed leadership training programs for parents, teachers, school administrators and other stakeholders in public education. Under his leadership, school district alliances with businesses and universities have produced innovative programs and practices that have resulted in significantly improved learning opportunities for students as well as the formation of collaborative teams of public school stakeholders meaningfully involved in school decision-making.

Dr. Marazza was named a "Distinguished Graduate in Teacher Education" by Mount Union College. He is also a Professional Fellow with the Weatherhead School of Business at Case Western Reserve University. In addition, he is a contributing author to The Power of Public Engagement: A Beacon of Hope for America’s Schools.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. The Missing Essential Connections to Educational Excellence

Unconnected Systems

Thinking and Planning Strategically

Benchmarking for Excellence

Leading Collaboratively

Engaging the Public

Standards-Based Governance and Quality Assurance

The Integrated Essentials

The Power of Consensus

Random Acts of Improvement

Summary

2. The Power of Thinking and Planning Strategically

Commitment by Governance

Preparing for Strategic Planning

The Power of Conversation in Public Education

The Politics of Strategic Planning

Training the Stakeholders

The Mission and Building Principals

Personal Investment in the Plan

Public Engagement in Communicating the Plan

Summary

3. Benchmarking for Excellence Using the Sterling System

Benchmarking, Intelligence, and the Sterling System

Student-Results Benchmarking

Benchmark for Organizational Success

Integrated Management Systems Designed for Student Excellence, Using Benchmarking and Competitive Intellgience To Achieve Excellence

Summary

4. Leading Collaboratively for Combined Wisdom

Transforming Leadership

Transformationg the Principalship

Change Comes From the Edge

The Role of Personality Preferences in the Restructured Organization

The Interpersonal Dynamics of Collaboration

Retro-Programs, Sacred Cows

Collaborative Organizations

Organizational Characteristics of a Personal Bureaucracy

At the Core of Collaborative Success

Leadership and Followership

Leadership Needed Today

Principles Governing a Principal's Work

Legitimate Followership

Local Leadership Academy

Systems Thinking

Summary

5. Engage the Public in a Productive and Proactive Manner

Nine Factors of Engagement

Public Involvement

Building Principals and the Nine Factors

Deeper Public Involvement

S.W.A.T. Teams: Schools Where Achievement Thrives

Kitchen Talks

School Block Talk

Principal-Led Parental Collaboration

Summary

6. Govern by Standards Developed With the Stakeholders

Building Principals and the Need for Standards of Excellence

Developing Standards of Excellence Consistent With School Vision

Govern by Standards

The Governance Model

Summary

7. Empower Integrated Management Systems With Five Essential Skills

The Sterling Criteria for Organizaitonal Performance Excellence

Principals, Five Essentials, and Sterling

What Drives Organizations to Sterling Excellence?

Sterling Core Values

Summary

8. Integrate the Five Essentials

Simultaneous Development

The Cycle of Implementation of the Five Essentials

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Administrative Arrangements versus Curricular Concerns

Justify or Eliminate

Summary

9. Chaos, Essentials, and Learning Organizations

Five Essentials and the New Science

Information, Relationships, and Chaos

The Five Essentials and School Culture

The Five Essentials and Learning Organizations

Summary

10. Conlusion

The Leadership Trap

The Discipline of Dialogue

Have You Told Them That?

Changing Times, Changing Challenges

Captain Education

What Now?

Summary

Epilogue

References

Index

Reviews

"The Five Essentials of Organizational Excellence offers and explains what every administrator should know about collaborative leadership and the benefits for student achievement."

Nancy Noeske, President and CEO
PROACT Search, Inc.

"After a long and distinguished career as a local school superintendent, Lawrence Marazza has laid out the precepts and practices that guided his success."

Richard Boyd, Visiting Professor, Education Leadership
The University of Mississippi

"Readers concerned about improving their school district will find the material applicable and adaptable to almost any situation."

Robert Blake, Principal
Mainland Regional High School, Linwood, NJ

"Marazza’s book displays both practicality and relevancy in school leadership, and examines leadership theories that triangulate his own methods of transforming today’s schools."

Frank Rudnesky, Principal
Belhaven Middle School, Linwood, NJ

"Marazza offers a prescription for how essential skills can empower school organizations that can ultimately lead to higher student achievement and stakeholder satisfaction."

John Pieno, Chairman
Florida Sterling Council

"This book . . . will help busy superintendents who are searching for integrative frameworks that bring together difficult concepts from various leadership literature into one overarching model."

The School Administrator, August 2004

Other Titles in: Principalship | Standards & Accountability

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