Culture Re-Boot: Reinvigorating School Culture to Improve Student Outcomes

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

William A. Owings was Emeritus Professor of Educational Leadership at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.  Owings had worked as a public school teacher, an elementary school and high school principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent of schools. His scholarly publications, co-authored with Leslie S. Kaplan, included books on educational leadership and school finance as well as articles in National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) Bulletin, Journal of School Leadership, Journal of Effective Schools, Phi Delta Kappan, Teachers College Record, the Journal of Education Finance, and the Eurasian Journal of Business and Economics. Owings had served on the state and international boards of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and was a member of the Journal of Education Finance Editorial Advisory Board. He also reviewed articles for the NASSP Bulletin Educational Administration Quarterly, Eurasian Journal of Business and Economics, Asia Pacific Journal of Education, and International Journal of Education Research. He was a frequent presenter at state and national conferences and a consultant on educational leadership, school finance, and instructional improvement. The National Education Finance Association honored Owings with its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2014, recognized him as a “Distinguished Fellow of Research and Practice.”  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.