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By working together, school administrators and guidance counselors can greatly accelerate their impact on school improvement, student behavior, and mental health. With this practical guide, readers will discover a systematic approach for establishing an effective school counselor-administrator team. The authors share strategies and activities to foster trust and transparency, develop an agreed-on decision-making process, ensure a commitment to continuous improvement, and more. Use this book to develop effective processes for your counselors and administrators to better support students: * Navigate the evolving roles of school counselors and administrators to build high-performance teams. * Examine the concepts of purposeful collaboration and consensus building: the implementation, uses, and benefits to including them in your group decision-making model. * Learn the six characteristics of high-performing teams: (1) trust and transparency, (2) results orientation, (3) building professional relationships, (4) respect for diversity and divergent thought, (5) an agreed-on decision-making process, and (6) a commitment to continuous improvement. * Consider ethical decisions for students, parents and guardians, and other stakeholders. * Participate in professional development activities on leadership, ethical decision-making, confidentiality, crisis management, and more.

“Frank Crowther and his associates show us how to build the foundation for sustainability. They weave together a powerful conceptual framework, snapshots of schools using the ideas, and activities for getting there yourself. Engagement, clarity, and impact are at the core of this terrific book.”—Michael Fullan, Professor and AuthorOntario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto“A very informative book that will assist beginning and seasoned administrators in organizing and restructuring their schools to meet the needs of the 21st century.”—Belinda J. Raines, PrincipalNorthwestern High School, Detroit, MIThe definitive approach to achieving long-term school improvementWill your school improvement plan stand the test of time? Bestselling author Frank Crowther makes a compelling case for capacity-building and parallel leadership as the keys to ensuring sustainable improvement. Based on a recent research study that examined how school leaders collaborated to enhance quality in their workplaces, this book:Outlines six research-based dynamics for accomplishing lasting results; Provides real-life examples of successful parallel leadership among administrators, teachers, and students; Demonstrates effective capacity building in a variety of settings with case studies and simulationsEverything you need to build a successful and sustainable plan that is rooted in enduring principles is right here, complete with practical examples and proven tools.

Through real-life single and multiple case studies, Learning to Lead Together addresses how principals and their staffs struggle with the challenge of shared leadership, how they encourage teacher growth and development, and how shared leadership can lead to higher levels of student learning. The cases show how shared leadership, a powerful adaptive change, is socially constructed across contexts and evolves as teachers and principals learn how to work together. The book also illustrates how principal preparation and professional development programs that utilize problem-based learning and provide opportunities for genuine collaboration with colleagues can provide school leaders with the skills they need to share leadership and accountability effectively.

Drawing from the research base that informed the ASCD best-selling series of \"What Works In Schools\" titles, this book identifies key principles at the heart of what it takes to help all students become successful learners. Education research expert Bryan Goodwin separates the school improvement ideas that really work from those that just appear to work and provides you with a \"What Matters Most Framework\" that focuses your school on how to change the odds for under-served children by: (1) Guaranteeing challenging, engaging, and intentional instruction; (2) Ensuring curricular pathways to success; (3) Providing whole-child student supports; (4) Creating high-performance school cultures; and (5) Developing high-reliability district systems. To guide your implementation of these principles, \"Simply Better\" describes lots of strategic touchstones to keep in mind, such as: (1) Why teachers must both challenge and nurture students in order to boost achievement; (2) How curriculum can be standardized across systems yet personalized to individual student needs and interests; (3) What to do to counter the negative effects of poor motivation, health issues, unsupportive home environments, and insufficient background knowledge; and (4) How principals can take immediate steps to reduce the variance in teacher quality in their schools.

Building a strong relationship with the CFO is essential for superintendents seeking to build sustainable educational programs for all students. Benzel and Hoover use their CFO and superintendent experience to identify what future leaders in both roles need to know and be able to do with respect to fiscal leadership and improved student learning.

′For the discerning leader wanting to develop their personal management skills this is a \"must have\" resource.′ - Coleen R Jackson, Director, Roehampton Education Leadership Centre University of Surrey Roehampton.

This book has been written at a time when the direct impact of leadership on the success of schools is increasingly widely accepted. Team leadership has always been important in schools, whether at the level of the department, the curriculum area, the key stage, the phase, or in relation to pastoral and leadership teams. This role has assumed even greater significance in the UK in recent years because of the introduction of the mandatory performance management arrangements. The skills required to be an effective team leader in schools are many and varied, but personal management skills lie at the heart of getting the best from those that make up the team. This book is about how team leaders can contribute to overall school improvement and is intended to be a resource for those who lead and manage teams--at all levels--within schools. It focuses on the key personal management skills that each of us needs to develop if we are to support colleagues in the most effective way. The first chapter looks at what it means to be a highly effective team leader in schools. Chapter 2 focuses on team leadership and development and acknowledges that although definitions of leadership abound, they have in common a basic belief that leadership is a creative and interpersonal activity that focuses on initiating, enabling and sustaining improvement. Chapter 3 considers how team leaders, through personal engagement with team members, can model the way forward and motivate team members to achieve beyond what they thought was possible. One of the critical factors in leadership and management success is to control one's use of time and priorities. Chapter 4 focuses on strategies and techniques for achieving greater control over these aspects. For those who have some scope for delegating, chapter 5 provides helpful guidance for team leaders on the factors that determine effective delegation, together with practical considerations for making delegation worthwhile from the viewpoint of all concerned. Meetings are likely to continue to be a significant feature of the role of team leaders. Chapter 6 looks at ways of managing meetings more effectively and provides guidance for planning, conducting and evaluating them. Chapter 7 leaders to view conflict as an inevitable part of working life. The focus of chapter 8 is on taking and implementing decisions. With the introduction of the statutory arrangements for performance management, chapter 9 provides guidance on preparing for and conducting effective performance reviews. Chapter 10 explores the potential of coaching as a skill for supporting team members in their acquisition of additional skills and knowledge. The theme of chapter 11 is action research. Action research represents a growing field of educational research, the chief identifying feature of which is that it can empower all those involved in the teaching and learning process with the means to improve their practices. This book is intended for those aspiring to, or currently occupying, team leader positions in schools. It acknowledges that team leaders operate at a series of different levels in schools and consequently has been written with the following target audience in mind: newly-appointed team leaders, aspiring team leaders, and existing team leaders. Each chapter includes: a brief introduction; a summary of key questions; helpful, practical guidance and information; points for reflection; and a self-review exercise. A bibliography and index conclude the book.

PurposeRelying on the principles of the social exchange theory, the current study is aimed at investigating the impact of team-member exchange relationships (TMX) among school management team (SMT) members on school outcomes (organizational citizenship behavior [OCB], job satisfaction and innovation) via the mediating role of leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships between principals and SMTs.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from multiple sources in 86 elementary and junior high schools to avoid one-source bias: 86 principals, 357 SMT members and 683 schoolteachers who were not members of the management teams.FindingsThe results revealed a positive relationship between TMX and teachers' job satisfaction and OCB, but no significant link between TMX and innovation. LMX partially mediated the relationship between TMX and OCB and between TMX and teachers' job satisfaction. Full mediation was found in TMX-innovation relationship.Practical implicationsThe findings carry a message for school principals and policymakers regarding the importance of developing and maintaining high-quality horizontal and vertical exchange relationships among the SMT members for their positive influence on school outcomes.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine the link between TMX and LMX as a team phenomenon, and specifically in the educational setting. The finding that there is a positive link between the two constructs may imply that SMTs contribute to school success not only directly by exhibiting high-quality TMX but also indirectly through the high-quality LMX.

Background/purpose. Rural schools in South Africa encounter numerous challenges as a result of the environment they are in. In this study, the researchers sought to identify the challenges teachers face in teaching practices in rural schools. This study can contribute to the existing body of knowledge to enhance the understanding of how to improve the standards of teaching and learning in rural schools. High-quality teaching has now become a primary objective for numerous education systems globally. Materials/methods. The study comprised a qualitative research method conducted using interpretivist paradigms. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with teachers and principals. Results. The study findings revealed that teachers in rural schools faced numerous challenges in their teaching practices. These included a lack of parental involvement in children’s education, limited resources to support effective teaching and learning, overcrowded classrooms due to inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of technological devices caused by insufficient funding from the Department of Basic Education. Conclusion. To address these challenges, the study recommends that the Department of Basic Education provide targeted support through comprehensive programs, such as infrastructure development, increased funding for teaching resources and technology, and initiatives to strengthen parental involvement. Including these support mechanisms will help improve teaching effectiveness and learner outcomes in rural schools.

PurposeReorganizing schools and managing through teams is seen as a way to achieve school goals, especially in educational contexts that are highly focused on measurable student achievements. This shift to shared leadership requires principals to play a key role in promoting school management team (SMT) outcomes. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate how principals' personality traits and behavior complement each other and combine in an integrative model of SMT effectiveness. Specifically, the research aims to examine the mediating role of principals' internal and external boundary activities between principals' traits from the Big Five typology, namely, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness to experience and neuroticism and SMT effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from two sources to minimize problems associated with same-source bias. In total, 92 SMTs and their principals from 92 public schools in Israel participated in the study. Overall, 295 SMT members and 92 principals were included in the sample. Data were aggregated at the school level of analysis. The theoretical model was tested with structural equation modeling. The bootstrapping procedure, to ascertain the presence of indirect effects, was employed.FindingsThe findings of structural equation modeling indicated that principal external activities partially mediated the relationship of conscientiousness and extraversion to SMT effectiveness, providing support for an integrated trait–behavioral model of leadership for SMT effectiveness.Originality/valueAs schools involve increasingly interconnected professional networks based on relationships, acknowledging that SMT effectiveness may be influenced by principals' personality traits that translate into leadership behavior may clarify the implications of principals' traits for educational teams. Importantly, the proposed integrative model points to possible mechanisms linking principal traits, behaviors and effectiveness by positioning principals' boundary activities as one possible mechanism through which principal traits facilitate SMT effectiveness. The findings can help deepen our understanding of which kinds of principals engage in boundary activities, contributing to the discussion of what factors influence principals' practices with implications for school managers' selection practices.