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Staying on Track
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Staying on Track
An Educational Leader's Guide to Preventing Derailment and Ensuring Personal and Organizational Success

Second Edition


July 2006 | 200 pages | Corwin

"This second edition is moving, realistic, and candid. New chapters on how to negotiate accountability pressures and the seasons of an educational leader's life are excellent. Every would-be and present administrator would benefit from reading this book."
-Seymour B. Sarason, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Yale University

Identify and prevent potential career derailment!

School leaders deal with pressures, pitfalls, and opportunities every day. The authors maintain that creative leaders can keep schools moving in the right direction by reflecting on their natural talents and maximizing the strengths of their staff.

This completely updated guide helps you assess your role as an administrator, shows how you might sabotage your prospects for promotion or retention, and provides strategies to remedy the situation. Two new chapters address the political realities of the No Child Left Behind Act and answer these queries:

  • What causes an educational leader to derail?
  • What are potential accountability and high-stakes testing derailment factors?
  • What skills are most important for improving data-driven decision making, student achievement, and test results?

This new edition will help you start, or keep, your forward momentum and get you closer to your ideal job.


 
Contents
 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
Prologue: A Cautionary Tale
 
1. Accountability and High-Stakes Testing
The National Level

 
The State Level

 
The School-System Level

 
The School Level

 
Conclusion

 
 
2. Self-Assessment Checklists
Checklist A

 
Checklist B

 
Conclusion

 
 
3. What Causes Educational Leaders to Derail?
Causes of Assistant Principal and Principal Derailment

 
Causes of Superintendent Derailment

 
Conclusion

 
 
4. Antiderailment Strategies
The Recommendations

 
Conclusion

 
 
5. Professional and Personal Plans for Development
What Works and Doesn’t Work in Professional Development

 
Professional Development Recommendations for a School or School System

 
A Personal Development Plan for Improvement

 
Conclusion

 
 
6. Preparing Teacher Leaders for Tomorrow’s Leadership Positions
A Grounding for Teacher Leader Development

 
The Realities of Context in Which Teachers Lead

 
The Teacher Leader and the Presentation of Self

 
The Teacher Leader and Meetings

 
The Teacher Leader as Networker

 
Conclusion

 
 
7. The Seasons of An Educational Leader’s Career
Preparing the Way to Become an Educational Administrator

 
Entering Educational Administration

 
Settling In—The Middle Years

 
The Later Years as an Educational Administrator

 
Conclusion

 
 
Afterword
 
Resources
 
References
 
Index

"An exciting guide to help aspiring educational leaders develop."

Terrence E. Deal, Professor of Education
University of Southern California

"Filled with practical, useful ideas to help you get (and keep!) your career going in the right direction. All school administrators should make this book a part of their personal learning plan. We are using it as a part of our intensive leadership training program."

Richard E. Maxwell, Executive Director (Retired)
Buckeye Association of School Administrators

"This second edition is moving, realistic, and candid. New chapters on how to negotiate accountability pressures and the seasons of an educational leader’s life are excellent. Every would-be and present administrator would benefit from reading this book."

Seymour B. Sarason, Professor Emeritus of Psychology
Yale University

"If all aspiring and practicing school leaders heeded the suggestions in Staying on Track, a tremendous loss of administrative talent to attrition could be avoided. Administrators can discover how to grow their own capacities to sustain their careers rather than to attempt to escape the realities of their jobs by running from one position to the next or resigning in disillusionment. This new edition offers two additional chapters aimed at helping leaders understand the four stages of an administrative career and how to avoid derailment by the high-stakes testing movement."

Sue F. Burgess, Superintendent of Schools
Dare County Public Schools, NC

"Offers advice in plain terms, checklists of key points to remember and implement, and a season-by-season overview of what to expect in the career of an educational administrator. A helpful and practical-minded guide to being the best administrator one can be."

Library Bookwatch, November 2006

Sample Materials & Chapters

Preface

Prologue

Chapter 1


Purchasing options

For large school/district orders, volume discounts, availability and shipping times contact customer service at 800-233-9936
or order@corwin.com.

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ISBN: 9781412939362
CAD$ 47.95

For large school/district orders, volume discounts, availability and shipping times contact customer service at 800-233-9936
or order@corwin.com.

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