Evidence-Based School Development in Changing Demographic Contexts

This Open Access book features a school development model (Arizona Initiative for Leadership Development and Research – AZiLDR) that offers a roadmap for schools to navigate the complexities of continuous school development. Filled with processes that balance evidence-based values with democratic, culturally responsive values, this book offers strategies to mediate the tensions and to address school culture, context and values, leadership capacity, using data as a source of reflection, curricular and pedagogical activity, and strengths-based approaches to meeting the needs of culturally diverse students. You will find:

·       -  Active, reflective activities

·        -  Case studies illustrating each concept

·        - The research base supporting each concept

·        -  Descriptions of processes from other contexts (South Carolina, Germany, Australia, Sweden)

·        -  Thoughts about next steps for contextually sensitive and multi-level school development

·       -   Suggestions for cross-national dialogue and research within the Zone of Uncertainty

Use this ideal source to guide school leadership teams in creating productive schools that continually grow!

 

Rose M. Ylimaki is the Del and Jewell Lewis Endowed Chair in the Department of Educational Leadership in the College of Education at Northern Arizona University. She studies successful principals in schools with high percentages of underserved populations and changing demographics and as part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) and the International School Leadership Development Network (ISLDN). Additionally, Ylimaki is engaged in cross-national studies of education theory from John Dewey and continental philosophers. Drawing on findings from the international projects, Rose Ylimaki, along with Lynnette Brunderman and the late Jeffrey Bennett, developed the Arizona Initiative for Leadership Development and Research (AZiLDR), a school development project for leadership teams in high-needs schools, with results including improved student outcomes and leadership capacity for sustainable school improvement. Her journal articles about these projects appear in School Effectiveness and School Improvement, Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of School Leadership, Journal of Educational Administration, and the American Educational Research Journal among others. Ylimaki’s previous volumes on leadership and school development include US and cross-national policies, practices and preparation:  Implications for successful instructional leadership, organizational learning, and culturally responsive practices (Springer), The new instructional leadership (Routledge), and Critical curriculum leadership: A framework for progressive education (Routledge), and Bridging educational leadership, curriculum theory and Didaktik: Non-affirmative theory of education (Springer). Ylimaki is from rural Upper Michigan and enjoys life in the woods and great lakes as well as international travel.

Lynnette A. Brunderman has worked in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Practice at the University of Arizona since 2008, where she coordinated the certification and Master’s programs in Educational Leadership. She went to the University after serving over thirty years in the public school system, both as a teacher, school principal and district administrator. She led her school to A+ recognition in the state of Arizona. With Rose Ylimaki and Jeffrey Bennett, she began the Arizona Initiative for Leadership Development and Research (AZiLDR), creating and delivering a school development project designed to increase the school’s leadership capacity, leading to improved student learning outcomes. Documented in journal articles co-authored with Ylimaki and Bennett, the project has been featured in Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of School Leadership and Journal for Educational Change, among others. Currently, Brunderman stays active in the field through her leadership and participation in accreditation engagement reviews with Cognia™ and her work with the Arizona School Administrators organization. As the oldest of six children, Brunderman learned early to not take herself too seriously, and is able to laugh at herself. She enjoys reading, sewing, and travel.