Leadership: Key Competencies for Whole-system Change (How Education Leaders Can Develop Creative, Productive School Cultures) - Softcover

Lyle Kirtman; Michael Fullan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1936763524 ISBN 13: 9781936763528

Publisher: Solution Tree, 2015

Synopsis

Develop a creative, productive school culture. Based on their decades-long work in leadership, the authors offer seven core leadership competencies for systemic change in schools, districts, and state education systems. Discover targeted strategies to move past failed initiatives and overcome initiative overload, explore how to cultivate effective work practices, and gain the know-how to create enjoyable, innovative learning environments.

Benefits:

• Discover why it's a good time to be an educational leader.
• Examine how leaders outside of education share common practices that have brought them success and how this can inform educators' leadership practices.
• Study stories of district and school leaders who have broken out of confusing patterns of incessant initiatives.
• Consider the four wrong policy drivers and the four right policy drivers.
• Learn how to develop two-way partnerships with colleagues in order to cultivate a support network.

Contents:
About the Authors
Preface
Chapter 1: Knowing You Are Not Alone
Chapter 2: Understanding the Seven Leadership Competencies
Chapter 3: Seeing the Competencies in Action
Chapter 4: Moving Compliance to the Side of Your Plate
Chapter 5: Staying Focused
Chapter 6: Having a Come Work With Us Quality
Chapter 7: Changing the Game Anytime, Anywhere
Chapter 8: Creating System Breakthroughs You Are Needed
References and Resources
Index

About this title

About the Author

Lyle Kirtman is a management consultant with more than 25 years of experience. He specializes in leadership and organizational development, strategic planning, conflict resolution, and executive coaching. He has consulted with educational, nonprofit, corporate, and government organizations, including school districts, the Massachusetts Municipal Association, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the US Department of Homeland Security.

Lyle has served as chair of the Massachusetts governor's strategic task force on innovation in education and as a senior manager for Boston Public Schools. He is a frequent keynote speaker, webinar and conference presenter, and radio and television guest.

Lyle earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the State University of New York (SUNY) and a master's degree in counseling with a concentration in career development from SUNY and Fairfield University.

Michael Fullan, PhD, is former dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Recognized as an international authority on educational reform, Dr. Fullan is engaged in training, consulting, and evaluating change projects around the world. His ideas for managing change are used in many countries, and his books have been published in many languages.

Dr. Fullan led the evaluation team that conducted the assessment of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy in England from 1998 to 2003. Later, he was appointed special adviser to the Premier and Minister of Education in Ontario.

In December 2012, Dr. Fullan received the Order of Canada, one of Canada's highest civilian honors. The Order of Canada was established in 1967 to recognize a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to community, and service to the nation.

Dr. Fullan bases his work on the moral purpose of education as it is applied in schools and school systems to bring about major improvements. He has written several best sellers that have been translated into many languages. His latest books include The New Meaning of Educational Change and The Six Secrets of Change: What the Best Leaders Do to Help Their Organizations Survive and Thrive.

Review

If you want to leave a legacy of successful transformation in your school or system, this is the must-read book of the year for you!

--Dennis Shirley, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Educational Change, Professor, Lynch School of Education, Boston College

Kirtman and Fullan construct a compelling argument for repurposing leadership commitment from mundane compliance with mandates and rules toward a passionate focus on what is elemental to continuous improvement.

--Michael Dickmann, Emeritus Professor, College of Education and Leadership, Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Michael Fullan and Lyle Kirtman provide the perfect antidote to compliance-based and external accountability-driven school and district leadership policies and practices. The authors' masterfully integrate key leadership competencies and whole-system change strategies. Kirtman's core leadership competencies and Fullan's right drivers for whole system change speak directly to what school and district leaders must do to both build and sustain continuous improvement and create the conditions for high-quality teaching and learning in all of our schools.

A must-read for school and district leaders who know how important it is to connect powerful ideas and concepts from research to the actual leadership strategies that make a difference in schools and districts. The authors provide a powerful conceptual framework for individual and organizational capacity building. The dozens of detailed descriptions of the work of actual school and district leaders are a bonus. These vignettes allow leadership practitioners to see main ideas in action. The book is chock full of system players and leaders who lead.

Finally a book devoted to school and district leadership that integrates core leadership competencies for educational leaders with the organizational concepts that effective leaders use as the right drivers for capacity building in schools and districts. The authors do so much more than just describe the theoretical constructs that underscore the ideas and concepts they present. They describe transformational concepts and present dozens of practical and authentic leadership examples to provide every educational leader interested in building school and district capacity and coherence with a positive and proven pathway forward. I will be encouraging all of my school and district leadership colleagues and leadership students to read Leadership as soon as possible and to consider integrating the powerful leadership strategies presented into their own work.

--Robert Villanova, Director, Executive Leadership Program, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut

Edition details

• Publisher: Solution Tree
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1936763524
• ISBN 13: 9781936763528
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 152