Leaders of Learning: How District, School, and Classroom Leaders Improve Student Achievement (Bringing the Professional Learning Community Process to Life)

For many years, the authors have been fellow travelers on the journey to help educators improve their schools. Their first coauthored book focuses on district leadership, principal leadership, and team leadership, and addresses how individual teachers can be most effective in leading students-by learning with colleagues how to implement the most promising pedagogy in their classrooms. For many years, coauthors Rick DuFour and Bob Marzano have been co-travelers on the journey to help educators improve their schools. As Rick has focused on bringing the professional learning community process to life in schools, he has relied heavily on Bob's vast research on effective teaching and effective leadership. Bob has come to the conclusion that the best environment for great teaching and leading is a powerful PLC. In Leaders of Learning: How District, School, and Classroom Leaders Improve Student Achievement, the authors have combined their passions into one book to articulate how effective leaders foster continuous improvement at the district, school, and classroom levels. Rick and Bob argue that no single person has all the knowledge, skills, and talent to lead a district, improve a school, or meet all the needs of every child in his or her classroom. They assert that it will take a collaborative effort and widely dispersed leadership to meet the challenges confronting schools. Leaders of Learning focuses on district leadership, principal leadership, and team leadership, as well as addressing how individual teachers can be most effective in leading their students by learning with their colleagues how to implement the most promising pedagogy in their classrooms. The first part of the book focuses on how district and school leaders create the conditions to support the collaborative culture of a professional learning community. In the second part, the authors turn their attention to the specific work that teachers undertake as members of PLCs. They discuss: The district's role in supporting the PLC process and five characteristics of effective district leaders The principal's role in leading a PLC, including fostering shared leadership, training team leaders, and building capacity How to create collaborative culture and collective capacity, specifically by fostering reciprocol accountability through meaningful teaming, time for collaboration, supportive structures for teaming, clarifying work, monitoring and providing direction and support to teams, avoiding shortcuts, and celebrating success and confronting those who do not contribute How leaders in a PLC develop a guaranteed and viable curriculum, from identifying objectives to designing proficiency scales, and then montitor student learning in an ongoing way with specific guidance for designing and scoring assessments and reporting grades How teams of instructors design and deliver lessons that maximize the probability that all students will acquire the intended knowledge and skills How leaders and the system respond when students do not learn In their first coauthored book, Dr. DuFour and Dr. Marzano have combined their passions to articulate how effective leaders foster continuous improvement at the district, school, and classroom levels. The book focuses on district leadership, principal leadership, and team leadership and addresses how individual teachers can be most effective in leading students--by learning with colleagues how to implement the most promising pedagogy in their classrooms. The authors argue that no single person has all the knowledge, skills, and talent to lead a district, improve a school, or meet all the needs of every child in his or her classroom. Instead, it will take a collaborative effort and widely dispersed leadership to meet the challenges confronting schools. Benefits include: (1) Combines the authors' expertise and many years of experience into one comprehensive volume on leadership; (2) Provides proven strategies for school improvement based on the most up-to-date research; (3) Focuses on how district and school leaders create the conditions to support the collaborative culture of a plc; and (4) Examines the specific work that teachers undertake as members of PLCs This work emphasizes collaborative leadership at the district, principal, team, and individual levels, and advocates the professional learning community (PLC) as the best environment for great teaching and leading. The authors, veteran educators, describe the district's role in supporting the PLC process and the principal's role in leading a PLC. They outline the creation of the collaborative culture of a PLC and give ideas for developing a viable curriculum. There are also suggestions for ongoing monitoring of student learning, ensuring effective instruction, and responding when kids don't learn. Dufour received Illinois' Distinguished Educator award as a principal and the state's Award of Excellence as a superintendent. Marzano is an educational researcher. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) School Improvement Means People Improvement -- The District's Role In Supporting The Plc Process -- The Principal's Role In Leading A Professional Learning Community -- Creating The Collaborative Culture Of A Professional Learning Community -- Developing A Guaranteed And Viable Curriculum -- Ongoing Monitoring Of Student Learning -- Ensuring Effective Instruction -- Responding When Kids Don't Learn -- Leadership Is An Affair Of The Heart. Richard Dufour, Robert J. Marzano. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 209-225) And Index.