Education Disrupted: Strategies for Saving Our Failing Schools

(Paperback)

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Description

Failing schools have become the latest academic cottage industry, and they serve as lightning rods for the controversy that continues to surround the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Surprisingly, there are only a handful of books that address the topic of turning around failing schools and even fewer that provide a meaningful discussion on how individual schools should avoid failure from the outset.

This book will help public school educators understand that turnaround efforts are based on sound leadership principles nothing more, nothing less. It also provides school leaders with the critical skills to turn around failing schools and, more importantly, prevent their schools from failing in the first place.

Individual chapters address topics such as setting institutional priorities, establishing a positive school culture, improving communications, developing classroom leadership, putting the school on a sound financial footing, and using data to guide the school turnaround. In essence, this book serves as a practical guide for instructional and institutional leaders on how to make a "real difference in the success of our nation's schools.

Reviews

Education Disrupted: Strategies For Saving Our Failing Schools is a hands-on approach to turnaround leadership offering literature, vignettes and personal experiences to improve schools. Practitioners will find compelling ideas for leadership in any school setting. -- Dr. Rosemary Papa, Del and Jewell Lewis Endowed Chair and professor, Educational Leadership, Northern Arizona University
Skillfully combining the results of relevant, available research with the substantial professional experience of its authors, this book provides readers not only with practical advice on how to turn around failing schools but also with a deep understanding of the root causes of such failure. Leadership, it is argued, is the core issue in turning around failing schools, and the book offers an extended and detailed account of the leadership required for school turnaround. The book is a rich source of guidance for aspiring and incumbent school leaders and a valuable resource for leadership developers and trainers. -- Kenneth Leithwood, professor emeritus, Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, Canada
A powerful statement about possibilities for children too often left behind. An important guide for practitioners who must labor to make that hope palpable in schools. -- Joseph Murphy, Frank W. Mayborn chair & associate dean for special projects, Vanderbilt University's Peabody College
This book gives us courage that with energy, intelligence, and renewed faith in the mission of public education we can begin to turn around those schools which are not reaching their full public potential, even as the leaders in them cant control all of the variables which will ultimately account for their success or failure. If nothing else, the book gives us renewed purpose for believing that leaders make a difference, and upon that everything else is anchored. -- Fenwick W. English, Teachers College, Ball State University

Author Bio

Les Stein, Ed.D. is a former school principal. He currently works as an educational consultant and as adjunct professor of education for several colleges and universities. He served on active duty in the United States Marine Corps for more than 26 years, retiring as a Colonel.

Alex Stein, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at the Fox School of Business and Management of Temple University. Before his academic career, he served in various managerial and consulting capacities in a number of technology industries. He has written articles for leading journals in the fields of marketing strategy and customer relationship management.

Jessica Stein received her Master of Arts in Leadership, Policy, & Politics (Education Policy) from Teachers College, Columbia University. She currently serves as an adjunct professor of business communications at Temple University. She has worked in the area of data-driven decision-making with the School District of Philadelphia and taught tenth grade English at a Philadelphia charter school.