Becoming a Strong Instructional Leader

This book is for principals who are ready to roll up their sleeves and do what it takes to create lasting school improvement. Drawing on 35 years of experience as a teacher and principal, Alan Jones offers a powerful new vision for our troubled school systems, a prescription for the development of strong instructional leaders. Jones describes the challenges adminsistratosr face and then lays out a plan for moving beyond keeping up appearances and daily routines to having a meaningful impact on student learning and achievement. His plan shows adminsitrators how to respect the abilities of teachers and students while building staff investment in a shared instructional world view.

Alan C. Jones is associate professor of educational administration at Saint Xavier University Chicago, Illinois.

Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xv
Acknowledgments	p. xix
Introduction	p. 1
Structure of the Book	p. 3
A Conversation	p. 5
The Dance Around the Classroom	p. 9
Where Is Alicia?	p. 9
"Get My Daughter Out of That Class!"	p. 13
Mission Statements with No Mission	p. 15
Unschooled Administrators	p. 16
The Bargain Struck Between Administrators and Teachers	p. 17
Becoming a Strong Instructional Leader	p. 17
The Conflict Between Institutional Schooling and the Practice of Teaching	p. 19
Welcome Back to School	p. 19
The Futility of Discipline Codes	p. 21
"Doing School"	p. 23
Forms Versus the Substance of Schooling	p. 24
Failed Approaches to School Leadership	p. 28
Big-Picture Thinking	p. 29
The Failure of Bureaucratic Schooling	p. 31
The Classroom	p. 33
The Daily Grind of Schooling	p. 34
Standardizing Classrooms	p. 36
When Students Vanish Before the Eyes of Teachers	p. 38
Creating Schools with a Purpose	p. 42
The Diversions of School Administration	p. 44
Public Relations	p. 44
Systems Problems	p. 45
"Bents"	p. 46
Parents	p. 47
Personnel	p. 48
Mandates	p. 48
Violence	p. 50
Doing the Right Things Well	p. 51
Aims Talk: Schools with Purpose	p. 55
Why Am I Doing This?	p. 55
Philosopher-Educators	p. 59
Overcoming the Barriers to School Reform	p. 65
Problem-Based School Leadership	p. 66
The Functions of Strong Instructional Leadership	p. 73
The Private Journey: Discovering a Unique instructional Voice	p. 76
Authoring Instructional Worldviews	p. 79
Actively Interpreting School Reform Initiatives	p. 87
Implementing School Reform Initiatives	p. 96
The Public Journey: Engaging Skeptics	p. 98
Instructional Narrative: Disarming Skeptical Publics	p. 101
Productive Collaboration	p. 103
Connecting the Instructional Dots	p. 104
Organizational Capacity: It Costs Money to Do Something Well	p. 107
Changing Core Teaching Beliefs	p. 108
Public Enemies	p. 110
Truthfulness	p. 110
Reductionism	p. 111
Foreign Worldviews	p. 112
Control	p. 114
"Satisficing"	p. 115
The Myth of Failing Schools	p. 117
Schooled Ideas	p. 118
The Real World of Work	p. 123
Creating a Professional-Growth Culture	p. 127
Cycle of Reform Failure	p. 130
Sitting with Teachers at Even Tables	p. 133
Understanding the How and Why of School Reform Initiatives	p. 140
Interpreting an Instructional Problem: Winding the Watch	p. 145
Instructional Conversations	p. 147
Talking with Teachers-Not at Them	p. 151
What the Research Does Not Say	p. 156
Developing Master Teachers	p. 160
Changing Core Teaching Beliefs and Practices	p. 165
"Implementation Dip"	p. 169
Responding to the Common Complaints of Reform Initiatives	p. 170
Transforming the Daily Grind of Schooling	p. 174
Passion	p. 176
Curiosity	p. 176
Discipline	p. 176
Entrepreneurship	p. 176
Humility	p. 177
Conclusion	p. 177
References	p. 179
Index	p. 185
About the Author	p. 201
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Becoming a Strong Instructional Leader

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials