Culture Re-Boot
Reinvigorating School Culture to Improve Student Outcomes
- Leslie S. Kaplan - Newport News Public Schools (Retired)
- William A. Owings - Old Dominion University, USA
Your start-up menu for super-charged culture change
There's an invisible thread woven through your school that defines everything from dress codes to student success. It's your school culture, and reshaping it will yield highly visible improvements for teachers and students. Leslie Kaplan and William Owings guide you in improving leadership, teaching, learning, confidence, and trust throughout your school.
Culture Re-Boot reframes school culture to include organizational learning, relational trust, accountability, program improvement, and teacher effectiveness while showing you how to:
• Be the transformational leader your school needs to reinvigorate your school culture
• Establish a student-centered learning culture focused on student outcomes
• Engage teachers in culture-focused leadership teams that support teacher and student learning
• Get parents and community on-board to collaborate for student achievement
• Connect professional development and school culture for maximum results
Packed with hands-on culture re-boot activities to help school leaders and faculty revitalize their school's values and practices, this practical handbook for school improvement will energize your school's culture and build the capacity to help all students succeed.
"Ever since Seymour Sarason wrote his seminal book on The Culture of Schools and the Problem of Change, we have known that 'culture' is at the heart of all organizational performance. But reformers keep forgetting this key fact. Kaplan and Owings' book changes all that. Now in one place you can find everything you need to know to 're-boot' you own school's culture."
—Michael Fullan, Author of Motion Leadership
"As a principal focused on student achievement and school climate, I am excited to begin using these strategies and discussions to drive our conversations to a deeper and more meaningful level. The combination of school culture, professional learning community, and teacher/community leadership provides a compelling and unique exploration of real methods to sustain student achievement and school improvement."
—William Richard Hall, Jr., Principal
R. C. Longan Elementary School, Henrico, VA
"Ever since Seymour Sarason wrote his seminal book on The Culture of Schools and the Problem of Change we have known that 'culture' is at the heart of all organizational performance. But reformers keep forgetting this key fact. Kaplan and Owings' book changes all that. Here is a book the brings school culture back into the driver's seat—from the emphatic title of Re-Boot through all of the chapters the authors show clearly what culture is and how to understand and change it for the better. Now in one place you can find everything you need to know to 're-boot' you own school's culture."
"Efforts to reorganize, restructure, or reform a school is a difficult task at best. Change can only occur in a culture that brings together the salient factors that alter the teaching and learning processes. The authors bring numerous years of experience in educational leadership as they effectively show how principals and teachers can address the single most important component in raising student achievement—school culture."
"As a principal focused on student achievement and school climate, I am excited to take this book and begin to use the strategies and discussions to drive our conversations to a deeper and more meaningful level. The combination of the constructs of school culture, professional learning community, and teacher/community leadership provides a compelling and unique exploration of real methods to sustain student achievement and school improvement."
"Leaders looking for a fresh and practical approach to change will welcome Kaplan and Owings compelling case about the omnipresent culture of a school and the unexplainable disregard it receives in the literature and in actual school improvement endeavors."
I am recommending it to specific students; those in education or on an ed track.
