Failure Is Not an Option : Six Principles That Guide Student Achievement in High-Performing Schools

This resource gives you the tools you need to create effective professional learning communities.

Award-winning author and visionary educational leader Alan M. Blankstein is founder and president of the HOPE Foundation, a not-for-profit organization whose honorary chair is Nobel Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A former “high-risk” youth, Alan began his career in education as a music teacher, has worked in youth-serving organizations since 1983, and has created award-winning publications and video staff development programs. He is the author of the best-selling book Failure Is Not an Option®: Six Principles That Guide Student Achievement in High-Performing Schools, which received the 2005 Book of the Year award from Learning Forward (formerly NSDC), and has been nominated for three other national and international awards.

A former “high risk” youth, Alan began his career in education as a music teacher and has worked in youth-serving organizations since 1983, including the March of Dimes, Phi Delta Kappa, and the National Educational Service (now Solution Tree) which he founded in 1987 and directed for 12 years.

In addition to authorship of this award-winning book, Alan is Publisher of three Failure Is Not an Option® video series and Senior Editor along with Paul Houston of the thirteen-volume The Soul of Educational Leadership series. Alan also co-authored the Reaching Today’s Youth curriculum and has published articles in Educational Leadership, The School Administrator, Executive Educator, High School Magazine, Reaching Today’s Youth, and Inside the Workshop. Alan has also provided keynote presentations and workshops for virtually every major educational organization.

Alan is on the Harvard International Principals Centers advisory board, served as Board member for Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, is former Co-Chair of Indiana University’s Neal Marshall Black Culture Center’s Community Network and advisor to the Faculty and Staff for Student Excellence (FASE) mentoring program. He also served as advisory board member for the Forum on Race, Equity, and Human Understanding with the Monroe County Schools in Indiana, and on the Board of Trustees for the Jewish Child Care Agency (JCCA), in which he was once a youth in residence.

Presented by The Courageous Leaders Network, this online event featured Alan M. Blankstein and a panel of teachers and school leaders discussing how the principles from Failure Is Not an Option® helped them turn their schools around and raise student achievement. Covered are specific practices and strategies on how they overcame their challenges on using data to drive improvements in instruction on a daily basis, using RTI and comprehensive support to engage ALL learners, and building leadership capacity at all levels to sustain student success. Panelists include Assistant Superintendent Reed Lindley (Pottstown, PA), Principal Anthony Catalano (Thermalito, CA), Principal Shawn Smiley (Ft. Wayne, IN) and Teacher Lettishia Freund (Wichita, KS).
(Length: 79 min)