{"product_id":"journey-to-a-highachieving-school-9781475800449","title":"Journey to a HighAchieving School","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJourney to a High-Achieving School: Eliminate Destructive Excuses examines the range of devastating excuses often expressed for failure to attain significant improvement in our schools. Using the methods of systems thinking and leadership practices that are employed in high-performing organizations of all kinds, this book shows concretely and specifically that what is at the root of these excuses can be overcome. The core ideas at work in the volume are based on the authors' well-regarded Academy for Education Leaders, an intensive course of seminars conducted for school superintendents, principals, and other educational leaders for the past several years.   This is not a quick fix manual offering magic wands or silver bullets. It is a carefully-structured guidebook that can clearly and demonstrably help educational leaders at all levels of accountability begin to build a serious culture of excellence within their schools and school districts. Improvement will take time, but as the pro\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'How important is the education of our children?' ask the authors of Journey to a High-Achieving School. Although no one denies the importance of education, many offer excuses that become obstacles to achieving the highest quality education for our students. At the Academy for Educational Leaders, founded by the book’s three authors, strong, authentic leadership is considered the key to high achievement in education. The book examines seven common obstacles posed by educators and encourages the reader to examine the root cause of each obstacle. Only at their root can the journey to overcoming these barriers begin. * School Administrator *\u003cbr\u003eThis work provides refreshing, direct and bold responses to the common excuses for \"why this will not work,\" which every education reformer or leader has heard. Historically, these excuses have often gone unanswered or have been met with a sympathetic nod in the education community. This is perhaps due to a lack of commitment to engage in the difficult conversations to address such excuses, or perhaps simply due to the inability to refute these sometimes compelling justifications. Abbate, Biddle and Tomaselli don't shy away from the difficult conversations, and in this work they arm educational leaders with commonsense responses, approaches, systems and processes to confront the excuses.   Applying these principles has helped my organization better respond to change because we are clear about what we stand for our values, mission, vision, and goals. Because of our adherence to the principles of this work, when faced with outside forces, mandates, or requirements, our organization is poised to connect change forces to OUR Vision and OUR Plan, rather than simply reacting. The ideas presented in Defeat Destructive Excuses! prevent \"the tail from wagging the dog.\" They empower an organization to take control of its results and its future. -- Christopher M. Manno, Superintendent of Schools, Burlington Township School District; New Jersey State Superintendent of the Year, 2013\u003cbr\u003eIf you have ever reflected upon our schools as complex structures and questioned the reasons why many of our schools have evolved into stagnant, frustrating, and excuse-riddled organizations, Journey To A High-Achieving School: Eliminate Destructive Excuses will have immense meaning for you. Abbate, Biddle, and Tomaselli have written an approachable and inspirational book of ideas and reflections that captures the soul of a transformative journey designed to establish authentic leadership and build a culture of success and high achievement.  Along the way, they emphasize the need for the leader to visit, revisit, and understand his\/her core values and apply them to build teamwork and trust within the organization. The book is based upon the concepts applied by Performance Excellence Group in its Academy for Educational Leaders. The process for improvement merges leadership and systems thinking tools into a unified way of understanding and dealing with problems, challenges, opportunities, planning, decision making, and accountability. In my opinion, it is a “must” reading for anyone truly interested in building and maintaining a culture of excellence in our schools. -- George F. Sharp, Ed.D., Retired Superintendent of Schools; Assistant Professor of Education, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey\u003cbr\u003eThis hard-hitting book demands that we all take a hard look at how we approach school improvement. We are in an era where state assessments are used to label and often punish our schools in the name of accountability. Unfortunately, labeling and punishing a school does very little to actually improve it. The [authors] have developed a system that works. I have personally embraced and implemented [their] approach as a school superintendent. Simply stated, we are seeing amazing results! Although the journey to a high performing school can be uncomfortable – our kids deserve real school improvement. This book has the potential to be a real game-changer in education as it debunks several common excuses that are used to hinder real reform while also providing tools that can easily be applied to begin improving your school immediately. I give this book the highest recommendation possible. It is a must read for all educators. -- David Gentile, Ed.D., Chief Education Officer, Millville Public Schools, NJ\u003cbr\u003eManaging this rapidly changing education environment is a huge challenge. This book clearly communicates processes and practices that support educators in effectively navigating these challenges, and making a real difference for students staff and community stakeholders.  The authors of this book offer a rich array of practical and proven methods for establishing and sustaining a school culture of continuous improvement...It is a handbook for navigating the many challenges teachers and administrators face as they strive to ensure the highest student achievement. -- Sandra Chronic, Supervisor and District Facilitator, Hunterdon Central Regional High School\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface  Introduction  Chapter 1: Why Another Book About Education?  Chapter2: The Excuse-riddled Mindset Some Preliminaries Number One: \"You Just Don't Get Our Problem\" Number Two: \"Students Aren't Interested in Learning\" Number Three: \"Our Community Doesn't Support Us, is Probably Against Us\" Number Four: \"Change is Something That Teachers by Nature Resist\" Number Five: \"Tenure Makes Good Teaching About as Valuable as Acne\" Number Six: \"School Leaders are Really Terrible Models of Excellence\" Number Seven: \"School Board Politics Will Destroy Every One of Us Anyway\" A Few Reflections Ideas for Further Consideration \t \t Chapter 3: Defeating the Excuses, Part 1 The Dirty Little Secret in an Excuse-riddled Organization Where We Go Right: The Culture of Success The Critical Role of Leadership: Performing the Truth The Lessons of Authentic Leadership Challenging the Ghosts of the Past Ideas for Further Consideration \t Chapter 4: Defeating the Excuses, Part 2 The Excuses Examined A Few More Points about Eliminating Excuses Ideas for Further Consideration  Chapter 5: Can These Things Work in Any School? Even Mine? You're Kidding! Leadership Underscored (Again) The Model: Plan-Do-Check-Act Systems Thinking and Leadership The Excuses Re-examined: The Power of I.D.E.A.S. The Journey to High-achieving Schools IDEAS at Work: One District's Experience What the Case Shows Ideas for Further Consideration  Chapter 6: Every Journey Has a Few Potholes. Here’s Some Help in How to Handle Them. The Frustration Factor Magic Bullet Myths The \"Good Enough\" Syndrome Damn the Facts-Full Speed Ahead! The Blame Game Organizational Amnesia Conspiracy Theory Fire Fighting Blurred Vision One or Two Concluding Thoughts Ideas for Further Consideration  Appendix   The Eight Lessons of Authentic Leadership An Authentic Leader's Self-assessment A Glossary of Some Useful Terms Leaders and Leadership: Some Sources IDEAS Project Report Template","brand":"Rowman \u0026 Littlefield","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51040131481943,"sku":"9781475800449","price":57.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781475800449.jpg?v=1750945835","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/journey-to-a-highachieving-school-9781475800449","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}