Developing Successful K-8 Schools: A Principal's Guide

"The return to K–8 schools is an opportunity to step back, be purposeful and thoughtful, and plan for what we want for young persons in our schools. This book provides the vision and the tools we need to plan and build something better in Grades K–8."
―Heather MacTaggart, Executive Director
Classroom Connections, Ontario, Canada

A how-to guide for developing or transitioning to a K–8 school!

The K–8 model for school design has gained popularity with educators and parents for demonstrating higher student achievement, fewer behavioral problems, and increased cost effectiveness. This comprehensive guide provides school leaders with the tools to develop and implement a sound plan for creating an exemplary K-8 school or transitioning successfully to the K–8 approach.

Developing Successful K–8 Schools offers strategies for designing curriculum aligned to state standards, promoting 21st-century skills, planning instruction, and evaluating an effective K–8 program. Readers will also find:

• Ten proven instructional methods for meeting the learning needs of K–8 students, plus examples that illustrate how to apply the strategies and deal with problems that might arise
• Student assessment techniques and record-keeping procedures
• Implementation tools such as checklists, activity charts, and much more!

This resource is ideal for school leaders who want to articulate a clear vision for a K–8 school and stay on the cutting edge of educational excellence and student achievement.

Jon Wiles is a highly experienced educator who has provided curriculum leadership to schools and educational agencies for over thirty years. His specialty is the creation and implementation of curriculum plans. Wiles’s work as an educational consultant has taken him to hundreds of agencies in more than forty states and a dozen foreign nations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Wiles is the author or coauthor of twelve widely used books addressing curriculum and educational leadership. His text, Curriculum Development: A Guide to Practice (Seventh Edition), has been used for nearly thirty years in colleges and universities throughout the world to train curriculum leaders. Other areas of publication by Wiles include teacher training, administration, school supervision, theory of change, politics of education, middle grades education, and technology.