Turning Average Instruction into Great Instruction: School Leadership's Role in Student Achievement

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Turning Average Instruction into Great Instruction details a clear and concise approach to school improvement, focusing school leaders on the critical factor that has the greatest impact on student achievement_classroom instruction. Decades of research demonstrate that what happens between teachers and students in our nation's classrooms has the greatest impact on how well those students learn. The current trend in school reform is to tackle all aspects of a school in order to improve student achievement, forcing school leaders to attempt to focus on the school culture, use of materials, community relations, teachers' pre-service training, the school's physical design, classroom decorations, and instruction. Unfortunately, such a wide scope leads to a lack of focus among school staff. With his singular focus on classroom instruction, what O'Connor suggests is an antithesis to that approach. School leaders will develop a common understanding of the high-impact instructional components that should be seen in every classroom. O'Connor maps out how school leaders can align all personnel to systematically build training, support, and monitoring mechanisms that ensure that effective instruction becomes part of every classroom routine.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of Figures and Tables (p. vii)
• Acknowledgments (p. ix)
• Introduction: Focus (p. xi)
• 1 Overcoming Chaos (p. 1)
• 2 Great Instruction (p. 9)
• 3 Changing Adult Practices (p. 27)
• 4 Aligning and Preparing the Leadership Team (p. 35)
• 5 Equipping Teachers to Provide Great Instruction (p. 63)
• 6 Build Tiers of Support for Struggling Students (p. 73)
• 7 Stop Doing Stuff That Doesn't Help (p. 87)
• Conclusion: Unrelenting Persistence (p. 105)
• Appendix 1 Great Instruction (p. 109)
• Appendix 2 Effective Professional Development Systems (p. 111)
• Appendix 3 Aligning the Leadership Team (p. 113)
• Appendix 4 Equipping Teachers to Implement Great Instruction (p. 115)
• Appendix 5 Stop Doing Stuff That Doesn't Help (p. 117)
• References (p. 119)
• About the Author (p. 121)