The Instructional Leadership Toolbox: A Handbook for Improving Practice

"To ′repair′ a plank in your educational leadership platform or to build a new platform, Gupton′s The Instructional Leadership Toolbox is indeed a useful tool."
Fred Carver, Professor (Retired)
The University of Georgia
Athens, GA

"This relevant book is presented as a true balance of theory and practicality. Gupton does an excellent job of giving the concept as theory and then telling us how to apply that concept on a day-to-day basis."
Tressie Shaw Harper, Superintendent
Moss Point School District
Moss Point, MS

"She′s nailed it! The Instructional Leadership Toolbox is a brilliant blueprint for successful, values-based school leadership. Practical, insightful, and accurate―this book is a ′must read′ for every school administrator at any level."
Lisa Hall, Assistant Principal
Northside Middle School, Greenwood, SC 

Today′s schools require leaders who focus school efforts and resources on what is happening in the classroom: teaching and learning. Dr. Gupton examines the instructional leadership role of the principal, providing school leaders with practical ways to reflect on, determine, and improve their own instructional goals. Using a unique toolbox metaphor, this resource book also offers a variety of helpful "tools"―skills, strategies, and information―drawn from today′s best research and theory in school administration. While noting the complicated and abstract nature of the qualities of good leadership, The Instructional Leadership Toolbox offers:

• Reader-friendly text, using "tools" as metaphors to represent key instructional leadership skills
• Chapter-opening lists that provide a quick reference to what follows
• "Pointers for the Principal" bulleted at the end of each chapter
• Question sets for reflective practice
• "Tool Extenders" or suggested resources listed at the end of each chapter for further reading

Sandra Lee Gupton, EdD, is Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida, where she has been serving for the past six years as Chairperson of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Before coming to UNF, she was Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Southern Mississippi for eleven years. Her experiences before coming to higher education include more than twenty years in various positions in PreK–12 public schools, including English and reading teacher, high school principal, director of instruction, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and superintendent in Georgia and North Carolina schools.

Sandra’s professional interests are centered on leadership issues related to PreK–12 and higher education leadership effectiveness, gender equity, program reform, and school improvement. Her early research on gender equity in educational leadership led to many presentations, the publication of several articles, and the 1996 Corwin publication Highly Successful Women Administrators: The Inside Stories of How They Got There, offering advice to prospective women administrators in education. Her research and writing in recent years have been focused on the role of academic chairpersons and leadership in higher education.