This playbook addresses the "how" in the continuous improvement process, focusing on schools and communities. It is a step-by-step guide for superintendents, principals, staff, and communities on how to engage in the school continuous improvement cycle while recognizing the unique assets and challenges of communities and their schools.…

Though part of the larger public school system, charter schools typically do not operate in school buildings and are not always mandated to follow the same rules and regulations for school districts, which can make planning efforts for funding, facilities, and emergency management difficult to navigate. Charter schools typically receive per pupil…

Adapting to the challenges of COVID-19 gives America's schools the opportunity to provide what is uniquely possible in the schoolhouse while seeking new ways to fully use technology and community partnerships. Families and communities need schools to be ready to reopen as soon as public health officials signal that it is safe. After all, the…

There has been considerable discussion among policymakers and school leaders in recent years about the need to prepare students as early as junior high and high school for the demands of the 21st Century knowledge economy. Efforts to provide this combination of knowledge and skills often fall under the label of "Career and Technical…

"Improving Education Together" offers a step-by-step guide to Labor-Management-Community (LMC) collaboration, an intervention that has successfully improved student outcomes in a wide variety of school districts across the country. The authors illustrate how a culture of collaboration between labor, management, and community stakeholders…

This comprehensive new book is designed to assist schools, districts, administrators, policy makers, community members and professionals interested in education, as well as parents and youth, to assess, develop, and implement inclusive services for students with disabilities. It identifies 15 evidence-based best practices, and presents a checklist…

Schools connect students with peers and mentors, channel youthful energy into productive pursuits, teach essential academic skills and knowledge, and give overwhelmed parents room to breathe and work. Adapting to the challenges of COVID-19 gives America's schools the opportunity to provide what is uniquely possible in the schoolhouse while seeking…

Gang affiliation is not something that students leave behind when they come to school. Gang members do not leave their behaviors, attitudes, and conflicts outside the school environment. Gangs, unchecked and unidentified in a school setting, often engage in threat and intimidation; physical and cyber bullying; fighting; recruiting; and criminal…

"School Budget Hold'em" is a game designed to help school districts rethink their budgeting process. It evolved out of Education Resource Strategies' (ERS) experience working with large urban districts around the country. "School Budget Hold'em" offers a completely new approach--one that can turn the budgeting process into a long-term visioning…

The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) invited the 2007 state winners to gather in Denver, Colorado, for three days of intensive dialogue about the challenges facing today's superintendents. As a result of the panels and small group discussions that followed, superintendents identified and detailed in this paper five avenues for…

The purpose of The Arizona Long-Range Strategic Educational Technology Plan is to map the future of the "education support systems" necessary for Arizona's children to succeed in today's world. The plan details goals and strategies for policy makers, the State Board of Education, the State Department of Education, Institutions of Higher…

Schools have always been recognized as an integral part of the community and the challenge is to ensure this vital component of social infrastructure is delivered in such a manner that long term benefits for local children, families and the broader community are realized. The Western Metropolitan Region in Victoria has experienced rapid…

This report and update on the five-year plan for the Minneapolis, Minnesota public schools show what is proceeding as originally planned, what has been modified and why, what has been added, and who is responsible for what. A model for planning is followed by a progress report through June 1983, a chart listing each of the 121 action items in the…

After a failed tax levy in 2004, the Ladue School District in Missouri realized that it had to significantly change its communication methods. A new superintendent was hired in July 2004 to work with the Board of Education to reestablish relationships and increase effective communications with parents and community members. As such, we are the…

As superintendent, and with the support of this detailed book, board meetings can now be turned into productive, results-getting events that help one focus on teaching, learning, and achieving district goals. The authors, having chaired over 1,000 board meetings among them, discuss: (1) Creating role clarity and building the superintendent-based…