In an era in which standardized test scores and legislation are benchmarks for school success, other characteristics of effective schooling and learning can take a back seat. As John Daresh argues in this timely text, however, that headteachers can achieve these imperatives while simultaneously centralizing student learning. Each chapter opens with a real-world scenario designed to coach headteachers on how to become leaders who reach school goals while placing student needs in the foreground. Daresh also provides "next steps" to help headteachers understand what effective supervision and learning look like in action, while recognizing different and equally effective styles of instruction among a diverse teaching staff. By demonstrating how school leaders can enhance their instructional, supervisory, evaluation, and coaching skills, this text reveals how headteachers can: o Attain student-centred practice while supporting those staff members responsible for achieving a school's goal and vision o Bring out the best in teachers by coaching them to achieve their teaching goals o Rethink personal definitions of teaching, learning, and supervision o Develop an openness and greater understanding of different instructional styles 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.
John C. Daresh is professor of educational leadership at the University of Texas at El Paso. Over the years, he has held faculty or administrative appointments at the University of Cincinnati, The Ohio State University, the University of Northern Colorado, and Illinois State University. He has also worked as a consultant on high school reform and administrator professional development for universities, state departments of education, national and state professional associations, and individual schools and districts across the United States, and also in Barbados, Canada, France, Holland, Israel, Turkey, South Africa, and Taiwan. By far, the bulk of Daresh's international service has been in the United Kingdom where he served an advisor and trainer for the School Management Task Force that developed and promoted support programs for beginning headteachers, the National College for School Leadership, the Welsh Office of Education, the North West Network for Diploma Development in Cheshire, Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Lincoln, the University of Hull, CREATE Consultancies, and literally dozens of Local Education Authorities and individual schools across England and Wales. Daresh recently completed three years of service as the lead consultant on principal mentoring programs for the Chicago Public Schools as that megadistrict was faced with the challenge of bringing in mostly inexperienced principals to serve in nearly of the school system's elementary and high schools.
Preface About the Author Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Introducing a New View of Supervision Part I: Views About the Job 2. Understanding Approaches to Supervision 3. Defining Leadership 4. Deciphering What it Means to "Be in Charge" 5. Dealing With Conflict Effectively Part II: Views About the People Who Make Up a School 6. Re-visiting Who Teachers Are and What They Do 7. Exploring the How and Why of Teacher Evaluation 8. Defining "Effective" Leadership Practice 9. The Purpose of Schooling Index
"Demonstrates how school leaders can achieve strong instructional leadership while placing student learning in the foreground." -- District Administration, September 2006
