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The Instructional Leadership Toolbox - Book Cover

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Updated Edition of Bestseller

The Instructional Leadership Toolbox

A Handbook for Improving Practice

Second Edition
By: Sandra Lee Gupton

This updated resource provides principals and other school administrators with the tools needed to become effective instructional leaders, build teamwork, and boost student achievement.

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Product Details

Grade Level: K-12
ISBN: 9781412975407
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2009
Page Count: 216
Publication date: November 18, 2009

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Description

"I applaud Gupton's focus on the learner. This is the most important tenet for a school administrator's decision making. Each chapter describes a portion of school leadership that the successful principal needs to master."
—Sharon Madsen Redfern, Principal
Highland Park Elementary School, Lewistown, MT

Use these powerful leadership tools to build teamwork and improve instruction!

Every school leader needs a toolbox of strategies for improving teaching and learning schoolwide. In this second edition of The Instructional Leadership Toolbox, Sandra Lee Gupton examines the role of principals in leading instruction and provides practical ways for leaders to reflect on and improve their practice.

Emphasizing a democratic approach that involves stakeholders in instructional leadership, this resource offers a compendium of helpful skills and strategies drawn from current research and theory in school administration. The book provides:

Updated standards from NAESP and ISLLC
New research that shows how a principal's actions can affect student achievement
Questions for reflective practice
Quotes and examples of instructional leadership strategies by practicing principals and veteran educators
Additional resources such as Web sites, workbooks, books, and articles

This valuable guide provides a blueprint that demonstrates how school leaders can focus on student learning, while using specific tools to empower others and build teams for a common goal: increased student achievement.

Key features

Reader-friendly text, using "tools" as metaphors to represent key instructional leadership skills
Chapter-opening lists that provide a quick reference to what follows
"Pointers for the Principal" bulleted at the end of each chapter
Question sets for reflective practice
"Tool Extenders" or suggested resources for further reading listed at the end of each chapter
Quotes and examples of instructional leadership strategies given by practicing principals and veteran educators, especially in the "Walking the Talk" sections added at the end of chapters
Additional resources that include selected websites, workbooks, books, and articles relevant to the chapters

Author(s)

Sandra Lee Gupton

Sandra Lee Gupton, EdD, is Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida, where she has been serving for the past six years as Chairperson of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Before coming to UNF, she was Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Southern Mississippi for eleven years. Her experiences before coming to higher education include more than twenty years in various positions in PreK–12 public schools, including English and reading teacher, high school principal, director of instruction, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and superintendent in Georgia and North Carolina schools.

Sandra’s professional interests are centered on leadership issues related to PreK–12 and higher education leadership effectiveness, gender equity, program reform, and school improvement. Her early research on gender equity in educational leadership led to many presentations, the publication of several articles, and the 1996 Corwin publication Highly Successful Women Administrators: The Inside Stories of How They Got There, offering advice to prospective women administrators in education. Her research and writing in recent years have been focused on the role of academic chairpersons and leadership in higher education.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Author

1. A School Leader’s Compass: In Who’s Interest?

Introspection: Clarifying Core Beliefs and Values

Personal Skills Assessment

Professional Skills Assessment

Sampling of Published Assessment Instruments

Pointers for the Principal

2. The Nuts and Bolts of School Leadership

Leadership for Today’s Schools: What the Literature Says

Accountability and the Principalship: Making the Grade

Standards for Today’s School Leaders: Measuring Up!

Defining Instructional Leadership

Pointers for the Principal

3. Blueprints for Success

Mission

Vision

Goals and Objectives

Strategies

Pointers for the Principal

4. A School’s Organizational Superglue

Assessing School Climate and Culture

Leadership Essential to Positive School Cultures

From Classrooms and Cubby Holes to School Community

Pointers for the Principal

5. Organizational Conduits: Communication Strategies for Effective Instructional Leadership

Seeking First to Understand

Facilitating Collaboration Within the School

Connecting With Parents and the Community as Partners

Pointers for the Principal

6. A Learning Organization’s Whetstones: Best Leadership Practices for Facilitating Professional Growth and Development

Reflective Practice

Supportive Supervision

Cooperative Evaluation

Collaborative Professional Development

Pointers for the Principal

7. The Lens of Instructional Leadership

Focusing on Learners and Learning

Creating a Climate for Learning

Communicating High Expectations for Learning

Looking for Indicators of Effective Teaching and Learning

Pointers for the Principal

8. Tape Measures, Plumb Lines, and Common Sense: What Counts in Accountability

Assuming the Accountability Reins

Making Good Sense and Best Use of Standards

Focusing on Classrooms for Accountability and Students’ Achievement

Pointers for the Principal

9. The Instructional Leader’s Power Tools: Cutting-Edge Leadership Strategies

The Leader as Architect of Change

Putting Data to Work

Tapping Into the Power of Technology

Pointers for the Principal

10. The Ultimate Leadership Tool: Personal Fitness

Investing in Personal Fitness

Common Pitfalls of the Principalship

In Conclusion

Recommended Toolbox Resources

References

Index

Reviews

"Provides a solid base to understand the many hats that must be worn to provide for all facets of a school setting. I applaud Gupton’s focus on the learner. This is the most important tenet for a school administrator’s decision making. Each chapter describes a portion of school leadership that the successful principal needs to master."

Sharon Madsen Redfern, Principal
Highland Park Elementary School, Lewistown, MT

"This is a text for curriculum leaders who prize learning in themselves and others. Sandra Gupton's love of learning and ability to frame issues are evident in each chapter with the instructional toolbox metaphor graphically holding the reader's attention each step of the way."

Dale Brubaker, Professor of Education
University of North Carolina at Greensboro

"I really really liked the book. In fact, I am going to suggest this book to be read as a bookshare for the 52 principals in our district."

Barbara Gerard, Secretary
Alaska Charter School Association, Academy Charter School, Palmer, AK

"Highly Recommended. This is a book that administrators should read and keep on their bookshelf."

Kathy Zachel
OAESA Principal Navigator magazine, Winter 2011

Other Titles in: Instructional Leadership | Leadership | Staff Supervision / Evaluation / Retention

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