Leading for Results: Transforming Teaching, Learning, and Relationships in Schools

Praise for the First Edition:

Sparks rejects simplistic solutions to school improvement, and honors the practical knowledge and expertise of educators."
―Richard DuFour, Educational Author and Consultant

"Dennis Sparks has given us a practical, original, and tough-minded book about what schools need now. An excellent book―but even more, a book to act on."
―Mike Schmoker, Consultant and Author

"In this inventive ′self-help′′handbook for educators, Dennis Sparks challenges and helps us―not to do something but to be something different."
―Roland S. Barth, Author, Lessons Learned

Improve teaching and learning in your school by fostering personal and organizational change!

Authentic or transformational leadership flows from self-awareness regarding intentions, values, and feelings and its influence is reflected in a leader′s actions. Leading for Results, Second Edition, focuses on the educational leader′s role in actualizing human potential and unleashing individual and organizational energy, while promoting extraordinary performance in "ordinary" people by first changing within oneself.

In this updated edition featuring 18 new thought-provoking essays, Dennis Sparks shows how school leaders can promote extraordinary changes, be accountable, and achieve meaningful results for schools, districts, and their personal lives. Using bold theories about education, leadership, teaching, and student learning, you′ll learn how to make change happen, create usable strategies, commit to action, and achieve goals by

• Examining your assumptions and producing results-oriented thoughts, words, and actions
• Deepening your understanding of important issues related to the interpersonal challenges of change
• Engaging in next-action thinking and applying what you′ve learned

This powerful resource helps leaders to recognize their capacity for making a tremendous difference in their organizations, ensuring ultimate success!

Dennis Sparks has been executive director of the 10,000-member National Staff Development Council since 1984. He previously was an independent educational consultant and director of the Northwest Staff Development Center. Sparks has been a teacher, counselor, and co-director of an alternative high school. He completed his doctorate in counseling at the University of Michigan in 1976, and has taught at several universities. He speaks frequently throughout North America on topics such as powerful staff development and effective teaching.

Sparks has authored Designing Powerful Professional Development for Teachers and Principals (NSDC, 2002) and Conversations that Matter (NSDC, 2001), a collection of his JSD interviews since 1991. He is co-author with Stephanie Hirsh of Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn (NSDC, 2000) and A New Vision for Staff Development (ASCD/NSDC, 1997). He also co-authored, with Joan Richardson, What is Staff Development Anyway? (NSDC, 1998).

Sparks’ column appears each month NSDC′s newsletter, Results. His interviews with leading educational thinkers also appear in NSDC′sJournal of Staff Development. In addition, his articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, The American School Board Journal, The Principal, and The School Administrator. Sparks’ interviews and articles are accessible on the NSDC web site at www.nsdc.org/library/authors/sparks.cfm.