Leaders of Learning

by Dufour, Richard; Marzano, Robert J.

• ISBN13: 9781935542667
• ISBN10: 1935542664
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-15
• Publisher: Solution Tree

Summary

For many years, coauthors Rick DuFour and Bob Marzano have been co-travelers on the journey to help educators improve their schools. As Rick has focused on bringing the professional learning community process to life in schools, he has relied heavily on Bob¿s vast research on effective teaching and effective leadership. Bob has come to the conclusion that the best environment for great teaching and leading is a powerful PLC. In Leaders of Learning: How District, School, and Classroom Leaders Improve Student Achievement, the authors have combined their passions into one book to articulate how effective leaders foster continuous improvement at the district, school, and classroom levels. Rick and Bob argue that no single person has all the knowledge, skills, and talent to lead a district, improve a school, or meet all the needs of every child in his or her classroom. They assert that it will take a collaborative effort and widely dispersed leadership to meet the challenges confronting schools. Leaders of Learning focuses on district leadership, principal leadership, and team leadership, as well as addressing how individual teachers can be most effective in leading their students by learning with their colleagues how to implement the most promising pedagogy in their classrooms. The first part of the book focuses on how district and school leaders create the conditions to support the collaborative culture of a professional learning community. In the second part, the authors turn their attention to the specific work that teachers undertake as members of PLCs.

Table of Contents

About the Authors	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
School Improvement Means People Improvement	p. 5
Denial	p. 7
Failed Strategies	p. 11
Flawed Strategies Flow From Flawed Assumptions	p. 14
School Improvement Means People Improvement	p. 15
Creating the Conditions for Continuous School Improvement	p. 20
Three Big Ideas That Drive the PLC Process	p. 22
Conclusion	p. 25
The District's Role in Supporting the PLC Process	p. 27
Effective District Leaders Both Direct and Empower	p. 28
Effective District Leaders Create a Common Language	p. 34
Effective District Leaders Monitor the PLC Process in Each School as They Develop the Capacity of Principals to Lead the Process	p. 37
Effective Superintendents Limit Initiatives	p. 40
Effective Superintendents Communicate Priorities Effectively	p. 42
Conclusion	p. 45
The Principal's Role in Leading a Professional Learning Community	p. 47
The Research on School Leadership	p. 47
A Tradition of Teacher Isolation	p. 50
The Collaborative Team as a Catalyst for Shared Leadership	p. 56
Training Team Leaders	p. 58
Principals as Capacity Builders	p. 60
Conclusion	p. 62
Creating the Collaborative Culture of a Professional Learning Community	p. 65
Acknowledging the Challenge	p. 67
Difficult, but Doable	p. 69
Reciprocal Accountability: The Key to Building Collective Capacity	p. 70
Conclusion	p. 86
Developing a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum	p. 89
PLCs and a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum	p. 93
Identifying the Nature of Objectives	p. 94
Identifying the Appropriate Grain Size of Objectives	p. 96
Identifying the Appropriate Number of Objectives	p. 105
Articulating Levels of Knowledge	p. 111
Designing Proficiency Scales	p. 114
Conclusion	p. 117
Ongoing Monitoring of Student Learning	p. 119
Assessment in the Current System	p. 120
A New Way to Design and Score Assessments	p. 123
New Types of Assessments	p. 129
SMART Goals Reconsidered	p. 132
Common Assessments Reconsidered	p. 132
Translating Scale Scores to Traditional Grades	p. 134
A New Report Card	p. 135
Conclusion	p. 139
Ensuring Effective Instruction	p. 141
Lesson Study	p. 142
Lesson Study Within a PLC	p. 143
Observing Lessons in Action	p. 166
Conclusion	p. 170
Responding When Kids Don't Learn	p. 171
A Schoolwide Response to Students Who Do Not Learn	p. 172
Response to Intervention: Is It the Solution?	p. 175
Mistaken Approaches to Response to Intervention	p. 176
Effective Systems of Intervention	p. 180
Enrichment in a Professional Learning Community	p. 186
But the Schedule Won't Let Us	p. 189
Conclusion	p. 191
Leadership Is an Affair of the Heart	p. 193
Leadership as a Love Affair	p. 194
Leading by Example	p. 198
Effective Leaders Articulate a Clear, Compelling, and Focused Vision and Connect It to Others' Hopes and Dreams	p. 201
Effective Leaders Help Those They Lead Feel More Capable by Helping Them Become More Capable	p. 204
Conclusion	p. 208
References and Resources	p. 209
Index	p. 227
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