Set the foundation for a successful, sustainable school turnaround. Designed for school leadership, district administration, and teacher leaders, Flip This School presents a framework for planning school improvement to revitalize underperforming and turnaround schools. Throughout the resource, authors John F. Eller and Sheila A. Eller detail practical strategies for planning school improvement efforts and collaborating with the schools existing staff and faculty to initiate a complete school transformation.
This book will guide educational leadership in planning successful school turnaround:
- Identify the unique needs of your school, and learn how to develop a school improvement plan with the best methods to address present conditions.
- Understand the skill set needed for effectively leading school turnaround efforts.
- Gain strategies for developing a data-gathering plan, and recognize the ways in which data is helpful for successful turnaround schools.
- Examine the role of districts in school improvement planning and the school reform and turnaround process.
- Consider how your school improvement plan can include strategies to improve school culture and provide opportunities for professional growth for teachers.
- Learn how to effectively manage change as well as understand how teacher leadership teams contribute to school improvement planning and the turnaround process.
Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: Assessing and Developing Your Leadership Skills
Chapter 2: Understanding Essential Turnaround Actions
Chapter 3: Implementing Structures and Processes for Turnaround Success
Chapter 4: Assessing and Developing Your Leadership Skills
Chapter 5: Gathering Data About Your School
Chapter 6: Obtaining Commitment from Your District
Chapter 7: Maintaining a Positive and Productive Culture
Chapter 8: Building Capacity
Chapter 9: Successfully Managing Change
Epilogue
References and Resources
John F. Eller, PhD, has served as director of the educational leadership doctoral program at St. Cloud State University, worked with educational leaders at Virginia Tech University, and developed teacher leaders in a masters program. He is a former principal, director of a principals training center, and assistant superintendent for curriculum, learning, and staff development.
Dr. Eller specializes in dealing with difficult people; building professional learning communities; employee evaluations; conferencing skills; coaching skills; strategic planning strategies; school improvement planning and implementation; differentiated instruction; leadership for differentiation; employee recruitment, selection, and induction; supervisory skills; and effective teaching strategies. He has served as executive director of Minnesota ASCD. He has written articles for Superintendents Only and is the author of Effective Group Facilitation in Education: How to Energize Meetings and Manage Difficult Groups, and coauthor of Working With and Evaluating Difficult School Employees, So Now Youre the Superintendent, Energizing Staff Meetings, and Creative Strategies to Improve School Culture.
Dr. Eller earned a PhD in educational leadership and policy studies from Loyola University Chicago and an MS in educational leadership from the University of Nebraska Omaha.
Sheila A. Eller, EdD, is a middle school principal for Mounds View Public Schools in Minnesota. She has served as a principal in Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools and other schools in Minnesota. Dr. Eller is a former principal (Illinois), university professor, special education teacher, Title I math teacher, and self-contained classroom teacher for grades 1-4.
In Fairfax County, Dr. Eller helped transform a school that was not making adequate yearly progress, had low SES and a high minority population through the implementation of professional learning communities, the use of data, and the refinement of teaching and learning strategies.
Dr. Eller shares her expertise at national conferences and in school districts, working in the areas of school turnaround, effective instruction, teacher evaluation, building leadership teams, teacher leadership, and a variety of other topics. As a professor at National Louis University, she worked on the development team for a classroom mathematics series, and her teaching skills were featured on a video that accompanied the series. Dr. Eller coauthored Energizing Staff Meetings, Working With and Evaluating Difficult School Employees, and Creative Strategies to Improve School Climate.
She has been a member of the Minnesota ASCD Executive Board and a regional president of the Minnesota Association of Elementary School Principals.
Dr. Eller received a doctorate in educational leadership and administration from St. Cloud State University, a masters degree from Creighton University, and a bachelors degree from Iowa State University.
