Hands-on, Practical Guidance for Educators

From math, literacy, equity, multilingual learners, and SEL, to assessment, school counseling, and education leadership, our books are research-based and authored by experts on topics most relevant to what educators are facing today.

 

Look Inside - opens in a new tab

Culture Re-Boot

Reinvigorating School Culture to Improve Student Outcomes

Packed with hands-on activities, this practical handbook shows you how to be the transformational leader your school needs to enact a culture change and improve student outcomes.

Full description

Culture Re-Boot - Book Cover Look Inside - opens in a new tab
Product Details
  • Grade Level: PreK-12
  • ISBN: 9781452217321
  • Published By: Corwin
  • Year: 2013
  • Page Count: 272
  • Publication date: January 31, 2013
Price: $46.95

Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.
< Back
Author(s) Table of Contents Reviews

Description

Your start-up menu for super-charged culture change

There's an invisible thread woven through your school that defines everything from dress codes to student success. It's your school culture, and reshaping it will yield highly visible improvements for teachers and students. Leslie Kaplan and William Owings guide you in improving leadership, teaching, learning, confidence, and trust throughout your school.

Culture Re-Boot reframes school culture to include organizational learning, relational trust, accountability, program improvement, and teacher effectiveness while showing you how to:

• Be the transformational leader your school needs to reinvigorate your school culture
• Establish a student-centered learning culture focused on student outcomes
• Engage teachers in culture-focused leadership teams that support teacher and student learning
• Get parents and community on-board to collaborate for student achievement
• Connect professional development and school culture for maximum results

Packed with hands-on culture re-boot activities to help school leaders and faculty revitalize their school's values and practices, this practical handbook for school improvement will energize your school's culture and build the capacity to help all students succeed.

"Ever since Seymour Sarason wrote his seminal book on The Culture of Schools and the Problem of Change, we have known that 'culture' is at the heart of all organizational performance. But reformers keep forgetting this key fact. Kaplan and Owings' book changes all that. Now in one place you can find everything you need to know to 're-boot' you own school's culture."
—Michael Fullan, Author of Motion Leadership

"As a principal focused on student achievement and school climate, I am excited to begin using these strategies and discussions to drive our conversations to a deeper and more meaningful level. The combination of school culture, professional learning community, and teacher/community leadership provides a compelling and unique exploration of real methods to sustain student achievement and school improvement."
—William Richard Hall, Jr., Principal
R. C. Longan Elementary School, Henrico, VA


Key features

  • Focused, readable, andauthoritative chapters on key aspects of school culture which impact teaching and learning and which can generate professional development.
  • Activities are located immediately following major concepts in each chapter. These reflective and practical exercises help readers find personal and shared meaning and relevance from the ideas just discussed, build collegial teams, and begin applying these ideas to their own school.
  • Presents questions and surveys to use in identifying and assessing school culture and planning for improvement.
  • Addresses important topics that aren't typically covered in existing books on school culture, such as trust, establishing a student-centered learning culture with a focus on student outcomes, building professional capacity, and cultivating teacher leadership.

Author(s)

Leslie S. Kaplan
Leslie S. Kaplan, Ed.D. is a retired school administrator in Newport News, VA and is currently a full-time education writer. She has provided middle and high school instructional and school improvement leadership as an assistant principal for instruction as well as central office leadership as a director of program development. Before becoming a school administrator, she worked as a middle and high school counselor, and these insights continue to infuse her leadership behaviors. Her professional interests focus on teacher quality, principal quality, and school finance and their relationship to school improvement and increasing student achievement. She has co-authored several books and monographs with William Owings including American Public School Finance (2nd edition); Educational Foundations (2nd edition); Leadership and Organizational Behavior in Education: Theory into Practice; The Effective Schools Movement: History, Analysis, and Application; Teacher Quality, Teaching Quality, and School Improvement; Best Practices, Best Thinking, and Emerging Issue in School Leadership; and Enhancing Teacher and Teaching Quality. Kaplan’s scholarly publications, co-authored with Owings’, appear in numerous peer-reviewed professional journals. Kaplan is co-editor of the Journal for Effective Schools, and also serves on the NASSP Bulletin Editorial Board. She is a past president of the Virginia Counselors’ Association and the Virginia Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and presently sits on the board of Voices for Virginia’s Children.


http://www.ejbe.org/EJBE2012Vol05No10p45OWINGS-KAPLAN-PIRIM.pdf

http://issuu.com/odujes/docs/journal_for_effective_schools/1?mode=a_p

http://www.effectiveschoolsjournal.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27&Itemid=72

http://www.ejbe.org/EJBE-2012-Nov-5-10.htm



William A. Owings
William A. Owings, Ed.D. is currently a professor of educational leadership at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. Owings has worked as a public school teacher, an elementary and high school principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent of schools. His professional interests are in school finance, principal quality, and teacher quality as they relate to school improvement and student achievement. In addition, his scholarly publications co-authored with Leslie Kaplan include articles in National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) Bulletin, Journal of School Leadership, Journal of Education Finance, Journal of Effective Schools, Phi Delta Kappan, and the Teachers College Record. Owings has served on the state and international board of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), is currently the editor of the Journal for Effective Schools, and is on the Journal of Education Finance Editorial Advisory Board. He is a frequent presenter at state and national conferences and a consultant on educational leadership, school finance, and instructional improvement. Owings and Kaplan share the 2008 Virginia Educational Research Association Charles Edgar Clear Research Award for Consistent and Substantial Contributions to Educational Research and Scholarship.


http://www.ejbe.org/EJBE2012Vol05No10p45OWINGS-KAPLAN-PIRIM.pdf

http://issuu.com/odujes/docs/journal_for_effective_schools/1?mode=a_p

http://www.effectiveschoolsjournal.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27&Itemid=72

http://www.ejbe.org/EJBE-2012-Nov-5-10.htm



Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

1. School Culture and Change as Learning

Focus Questions

Why 40 Years of School Reform Has Not Worked (and Why Culture Re-Boot Will)

What is Culture Re-Boot?

What is School Culture?

Components of Positive School Cultures

Change as Organizational Learning

Understanding Your School’s Culture

Research: The Impact of School Culture on Student Achievement

Resources

2. School Leadership as Culture Building

Focus Questions

Leadership as Culture Building

How Principal Leaders Transform Their Schools

Understanding the Dynamics and Resources for Culture Re-Boot

How Principals Can Prepare for Culture Re-Boot

Research: Principal Leadership and Student Achievement

Resources

3. School Culture, Ethical Behavior, and Relational Trust

Focus Questions

School Culture and Ethical Behavior

School Culture and Relational Trust

Building Relational Trust with Parents

Research: Trust and Student Achievement

Resources

4. Developing Professional Capacity and Shared Influence

Focus Questions

Why Schools Should Develop Professional Capacity

Building Teachers’ Instructional Capacity

Building Teachers’ Leadership Capacities

Where We Go From Here

Research: How Building Teachers’ Capacity Improves School Outcomes

Resources

5. Establishing a Student-Centered Learning Culture

Focus Questions

Why We Need to Educate Every Child to High Levels

A Safe and Orderly Learning Environment

Teacher Expectations

Academic Press and Supports

Relationships

References

6. Promoting and Creating Strong Parent-Community Ties

Focus Questions

Family Involvement and Student Outcomes

Challenges of Working with Parents in Culturally Diverse Communities

Ways to Involve Families with Schools

Working with the Community

References

7. Developing a Plan for Action

Focus Questions

Planning Overview

Index

Reviews

Quote by Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus, OISE/University of Toronto: "Ever since Seymour Sarason wrote his seminal book on The Culture of Schools and the Problem of Change we have known that 'culture' is at the heart of all organizational performance. But reformers keep forgetting this key fact. Kaplan and Owings' book changes all that. Here is a book the brings school culture back into the driver's seat—from the emphatic title of Re-Boot through all of the chapters the authors show clearly what culture is and how to understand and change it for the better. Now in one place you can find everything you need to know to 're-boot' you own school's culture."
"Ever since Seymour Sarason wrote his seminal book on The Culture of Schools and the Problem of Change we have known that 'culture' is at the heart of all organizational performance. But reformers keep forgetting this key fact. Kaplan and Owings' book changes all that. Here is a book the brings school culture back into the driver's seat—from the emphatic title of Re-Boot through all of the chapters the authors show clearly what culture is and how to understand and change it for the better. Now in one place you can find everything you need to know to 're-boot' you own school's culture."
Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus
OISE/University of Toronto
Quote by Elliot Y. Merenbloom, Educational Consultant, Baltimore, MD: "Efforts to reorganize, restructure, or reform a school is a difficult task at best. Change can only occur in a culture that brings together the salient factors that alter the teaching and learning processes. The authors bring numerous years of experience in educational leadership as they effectively show how principals and teachers can address the single most important component in raising student achievement—school culture."
"Efforts to reorganize, restructure, or reform a school is a difficult task at best. Change can only occur in a culture that brings together the salient factors that alter the teaching and learning processes. The authors bring numerous years of experience in educational leadership as they effectively show how principals and teachers can address the single most important component in raising student achievement—school culture."
Elliot Y. Merenbloom, Educational Consultant
Baltimore, MD
Quote by William Richard Hall, Jr., Principal, R. C. Longan Elementary School, Henrico, VA: "As a principal focused on student achievement and school climate, I am excited to take this book and begin to use the strategies and discussions to drive our conversations to a deeper and more meaningful level. The combination of the constructs of school culture, professional learning community, and teacher/community leadership provides a compelling and unique exploration of real methods to sustain student achievement and school improvement."
"As a principal focused on student achievement and school climate, I am excited to take this book and begin to use the strategies and discussions to drive our conversations to a deeper and more meaningful level. The combination of the constructs of school culture, professional learning community, and teacher/community leadership provides a compelling and unique exploration of real methods to sustain student achievement and school improvement."
William Richard Hall, Jr., Principal
R. C. Longan Elementary School, Henrico, VA
Quote by Robin Fogarty, President, Robin Fogarty & Associates Educational Consulting: "Leaders looking for a fresh and practical approach to change will welcome Kaplan and Owings compelling case about the omnipresent culture of a school and the unexplainable disregard it receives in the literature and in actual school improvement endeavors."
"Leaders looking for a fresh and practical approach to change will welcome Kaplan and Owings compelling case about the omnipresent culture of a school and the unexplainable disregard it receives in the literature and in actual school improvement endeavors."
Robin Fogarty, President
Robin Fogarty & Associates Educational Consulting
Price: $46.95

Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.

Related Resources

  • Access to companion resources is available with the purchase of this book.

Other Titles in: Principalship | Leadership | School Culture & Climate