The first year as a principal is filled with self-doubt. As one already knows, there is no book or guide that can fully prepare someone for what the principal's position entails. All first-year principals have to learn by doing. In this article, the author discusses five keys to success that will guide and help first-year principals with the…

Develop the skills you need to communicate effectively and in ways that motivate your faculty towards success. Written especially for principals and other administrators, this book will empower you to communicate well as you work to promote a student-centered environment best suited to schoolwide achievement. Learn to approach one-on-one…

"Building Your Program" is intended to help mental health authorities, agency administrators, and program leaders think through and develop Supported Education. The first part of this booklet gives you background information about the Supported Education model. Specific information about your role in implementing and sustaining Supported Education…

For productive follow-up of meetings and seminars, an executive summary can be invaluable. Such a post-meeting synopsis enables leaders to reinforce important meeting content which can lead to greater productivity for the participants. Strategies for creating and using an executive summary include: (1) selecting a summarizer to write down and…

This document is a series of three workshops for principals and school leaders using a Pacific region cultural context. Its goal is to promote diverse thinking and opinions that will lead to discussions that, in turn, will have a positive impact on student achievement. Workshop settings are based on the bai, a traditional house where people gather…

Using teams is an effective way to meet the challenges of breaking down teacher isolation, halting curriculum fragmentation, and creating a learning organization. This guide is designed to help school leaders train groups to become teams, guide them to become high-performance teams, and empower them to become technology-based teams. It contains…

The story in this book paints a picture of how a troubled school transformed itself into a community of leaders and learners working together to achieve a shared vision: a school that nurtured students to be all that they could be. The author relates her experiences and thoughts as she entered the principalship of a troubled school and transformed…

This guide advocates making strategic decisions about instructional practices and focusing all school staff on aligning every aspect of school operations--from professional development to parent and community involvement--in order to support and sustain student achievement. The guide discusses how to set high standards for performance and presents…

The National Network of Principals' Centers is an organization established to foster the exchange of ideas and facilitate professional communication among the many principals' centers and leadership academies in the United States and internationally. This 1988/89 edition offers listings of colleagues in this field from over 39 states and 4 foreign…

This booklet was designed to help families, school professionals, and students understand the function and purpose of comprehensive school improvement. It is part of the SILC Road initiative, which was founded by several education groups in Colorado for the purpose of helping schools educate all students. The volume focuses on the elements of the…

The purpose of this guide is to help leaders move their schools ahead in the face of adversity. It is intended for principals, teacher leaders, district administrators, and others who have a stake in helping schools move forward. The contents are based on qualitative research and actual experiences of schools effective in dealing with adversity.…

This operations notebook is designed to assist elementary (and/or secondary) school principals in planning their school schedule, month by month, based on six major areas of administrative competency: (1) instructional leadership, (2) management, (3) human relations, (4) leadership, (5) political and cultural awareness, and (6) self-awareness. The…

This practical guidebook is designed for managers and leaders who have responsibility for the creation and success of teams. First, a team is described as a workgroup whose members are dependent upon one another for the completion of a given task, and whose members possess different but complementary skill sets. A team manages its own work within…

This guide aids Chapter 1 Technical Assistance Center staff in conducting a brief (70-minute) workshop on parent participation in compensatory education programs funded under Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidaton Improvement Act. The goal is to clarify the attitudes and perceptions that are needed to expand or improve an existing Chapter 1…

Maintaining that good communication and sharp awareness of interpersonal dynamics can help facilitators of quality circles develop greater group synergy and thus more creative and productive results, this guide presents techniques and exercises for developing facilitators' interpersonal communication skills. A pretest and brief introduction are…