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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


September 2006 | 200 pages | Corwin
'An exciting guide to help aspiring educational leaders develop' - Terrence E. Deal, Professor of Education, University of Southern California

'Moving, realistic, and candid. Every would-be and present administrator would benefit from reading this book' - Seymour B. Sarason, Author and Professor of Psychology Emeritus, Yale University

'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, Deputy Executive Director, Buckeye Association of School Administrators

Is your administrative career moving along as you intended? Are you getting closer to your ideal job? This book will help you deal with the pressures, pitfalls, and opportunities that face educational administration leaders. If you are on track, and especially if you're not, Brubaker and Coble will teach you how to identify and prevent "derailment." This second edition is completely updated and two new chapters - "Accountability and High-Stakes Testing" and "The Seasons of an Educational Leader's Career" - address the new political realities of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.

Use this guide to assess your chances for derailing. The authors provide precise information for avoiding potential career derailment and direction for continuing your self-development in order to become a more valuable asset to your school district and your board. You'll gain strategies to help start or keep your forward momentum, learn what you may be doing to sabotage prospects for promotion (or retention), and discover how to take steps to remedy the situation.

Become - or remain - an effective, creative school administrator. Help colleagues and staff use their talents to benefit themselves and the organization. This practical, step-by-step guide is designed to help you create an atmosphere in which derailment can be prevented or minimized.

Professors of educational administration and curriculum will find this book a valuable asset for courses that focus on teacher and administrator leadership.

This text serves as an insightful and practical addition to existing supervision and instructional leadership literature by emphasizing the link between leadership and student-centred learning

 
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


For instructors

Please contact your Academic Consultant to check inspection copy availability for your course.

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ISBN: 9781412939362
£26.99