Quality Middle School Leadership

by Weller, L. David, Jr.

• ISBN13: 9781578860722
• ISBN10: 1578860725
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-01-01
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Education

Summary

Quality Middle School Leadership: Eleven Central Skills Areas - Second Edition, is designed to assist middle school principals in their efforts to reform middle school education through practical application of the effective schools research and the quality management principles of W. Edwards Deming. The author has worked with middle school principals as a consultant in assisting them to reform and restructure their schools. His interest focused on three questions: (1) What are the essential skills needed for effective middle school leadership? (2) What are the essential components of quality-producing middle schools? (3) What should a book contain to provide maximum assistance to new middle school principals in becoming effective leaders while implementing the most essential components of the middle school concept? Arranged to provide the reader with theory and research first, this book also provides specific examples for how this research can be applied in actual practice. All too often, theory and research findings are merely presented in a "this is what works in this situation, now you go try it and good luck" format. The research in that kind of setting is often sterile, is sometimes complicated, and is sometimes viewed with suspicion by the practitioner. Research presented in such a manner often makes practical applications difficult to visualize and, therefore, become a reality in practice. This sometimes causes one to question the reason for the inclusion of such information. The attempt to fuse theory, research, and practice is to go beyond the customary standard. Quality Middle School Leadership will provide real meaning to the knowledge and skills presented within this text. New to this second edition: Updated references, Trends that reflect research and practice in leadership in the modern middle school movement. The previous edition of Quality Middle School Leadership [0-8108-4292-0] was published in 1999.

Author Biography

L. David Weller Jr. is professor of educational leadership at the University of Georgia.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xi
1 The Middle School: A Conceptual Framework	1	(30)
2 Leadership for Effective Middle Schools	31	(64)
3 Leadership for the Exploratory Curriculum	95	(26)
4 Teams, Team Building, Team Planning, and Team Teaching: The Role of the Middle School Principal	121	(40)
5 The Principal and the Interdisciplinary Curriculum	161	(36)
6 Intramural Athletics: Promoting Quality Middle School Goals	197	(22)
7 A Quality Advisor-Advisee Program	219	(32)
8 Leadership for At-Risk Students and Remedial Education in Middle Schools	251	(42)
9 Schedules and Scheduling for Quality Education	293	(46)
10 Leadership for Community and Home Involvement with the Middle School	339	(44)
11 The Role of the Principal in Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Grouping Practices	383	(36)
12 Continuous Improvement and Action Research: The Quality Methods, Tools, and Techniques for School Improvement	419	(54)
Appendix: State of the School Report	473	(38)
Index	511	(4)
About the Author	515