School Improvement

Our Kentucky colleagues take us deeply into an area that is worth as much as academic focus. If we can pull back some from our routines and hold close some of powerful understandings in this book, understandings that help shape who our students are and what their futures can be, we will know a good deal more about students and leadership than we do now. And it will come by building trusting personal relationships that will embed care in our schools —and learning, pride, hope, and fun into the often-half empty baskets students carry around.

-- Joe Murphy, PhD, Vanderbilt University

This fabulous PSEL narrative provides principal certification students and their mentors the blueprint and guidance tool they need to improve teacher and student effectiveness, address equitable opportunities, and help establish the non-negotiables of an effective leader. The scenarios included in each chapter are excellent real-life examples and practical experiences that will provide authentic facilitation and a guidance for true leadership.

-- John Casper, Principal Licensure Program, Asbury University

We know from research and practice that having strong, highly effective principals is imperative to the success of our students. Being an effective leader is multi-faceted, and this book is a tremendous resource to those of us who support principals on a daily basis. I also found it to be a tool to be utilized by educational leaders for self-improvement. The scenarios, questions, and opportunities for reflection bring the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders to life.

-- Melissa Biggerstaff, Associate Executive Director, Green River Regional Educational Cooperative

This compilation of expert interpretation and advice on the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders is a must for education preparation programs and current or aspiring educational leaders. This text can be used by instructors to enhance instruction, or by practitioners to promote personal growth individually or in a professional learning community. The design of each chapter makes for easy reading and promotes reflection by the reader on the qualities and dispositions of each standard at the indicator level. The contributors share their practical interpretations, provide discussion prompts, and list leadership actions associated with individual standards. Taking each standard chapter-by-chapter allows the reader to fully embrace the intent and expectations of leadership in education through thorough analysis and practical perspective. As a current or aspiring education leader you will find this resource vital to your own professional growth as well as those you mentor.

-- Charles Hamilton, Associate Professor, Chair of Undergraduate Program, School of Education, Campbellsville Univer