Isobel Stevenson – författare

This how-to resource provides leaders with a concrete framework for a strategic improvement plan, helping educators link the "principles" to "processes" of planning. Packed with key takeaways and additional resources, this book provides the concrete tools to design a strong strategy for improvement and enables educational leaders to think constructively about why we plan, what an effective strategic plan should contain, and how to create meaningful dialogue to support plan development, implementation, and monitoring for continuous improvement. The Strategy Playbook for Educational Leaders provides superintendents, central office staff, principals, and teacher leaders with the opportunity to reframe the process of their strategic planning and breathe new life into the activity.

This how-to resource provides leaders with a concrete framework for a strategic improvement plan, helping educators link the "principles" to "processes" of planning. Packed with key takeaways and additional resources, this book provides the concrete tools to design a strong strategy for improvement and enables educational leaders to think constructively about why we plan, what an effective strategic plan should contain, and how to create meaningful dialogue to support plan development, implementation, and monitoring for continuous improvement. The Strategy Playbook for Educational Leaders provides superintendents, central office staff, principals, and teacher leaders with the opportunity to reframe the process of their strategic planning and breathe new life into the activity.

Districts and schools often count on coaching to promote student learning and organizational change. Across the United States, a wide variety of coaches engage in various types of work with teachers as well as school leaders. But coaching is often loosely defined, weakly supported, and ultimately underutilized and, as a consequence, its promise and potential have not been fully realized. In this book, the authors address misconceptions about the goals of coaching, what it involves, and how it aligns with reform efforts. They advance a new, coherent framing of coaching as a lever for strategic, equitable school improvement. Bridging research, theory, policy, and practice, this book provides insights to help educational reformers and district and school leaders strengthen the structures and activities of coaching. This timely book illustrates how to make coaching matter by assembling infrastructure and creating conditions so that coaching advances change in robust, sustaining, and equitable ways. Book Features:Provides useful information for educational leaders whose expertise may not extend to coaching, including tools and reflective questions.Offers a strong theoretical and research-based foundation, along with the authors' collective experience as researchers and practitioners and the voices of coaches and other educational leaders.Advocates for a coaching model that supports a district's overall strategy for centering equity and improving student learning. Describes how to build capacity and continuously improve coaching, and how to support coaching through leadership, logistics, and resources.

Districts and schools often count on coaching to promote student learning and organizational change. Across the United States, a wide variety of coaches engage in various types of work with teachers as well as school leaders. But coaching is often loosely defined, weakly supported, and ultimately underutilized and, as a consequence, its promise and potential have not been fully realized. In this book, the authors address misconceptions about the goals of coaching, what it involves, and how it aligns with reform efforts. They advance a new, coherent framing of coaching as a lever for strategic, equitable school improvement. Bridging research, theory, policy, and practice, this book provides insights to help educational reformers and district and school leaders strengthen the structures and activities of coaching. This timely book illustrates how to make coaching matter by assembling infrastructure and creating conditions so that coaching advances change in robust, sustaining, and equitable ways. Book Features:Provides useful information for educational leaders whose expertise may not extend to coaching, including tools and reflective questions.Offers a strong theoretical and research-based foundation, along with the authors' collective experience as researchers and practitioners and the voices of coaches and other educational leaders.Advocates for a coaching model that supports a district's overall strategy for centering equity and improving student learning. Describes how to build capacity and continuously improve coaching, and how to support coaching through leadership, logistics, and resources.

Promoting equity and improvement science has seen increased attention over the last several years as educators seek to expand the experiences, opportunities, and outcomes for marginalized students. This book shows school and district leaders how to create the conditions needed to use improvement science--with its robust collection of tools, resources, and processes--to achieve equity. Readers will find information about equity, continuous improvement, and the psychology of change that can be used to productively and respectfully engage all stakeholders. Chapters include the rationale for employing improvement science to pursue equity; advice for developing the dispositions of an equity-focused leader who thinks differently about power, possibility, and measurement; and guidance for facilitating conversations in the service of equitable improvement. Equitable School Improvement is important reading for teachers, coaches, principals, central office leaders, and any educator who wants to be part of creating a more socially just educational system for our children.Book Features:Elaborates on the habits and practices that need to be developed if educators are to overcome the significant barriers to talk about transformation in the service of equity.Focuses on the human side of change, including honoring people and their stories and dismantling power structures that interfere with change.Provides guidance to leaders at all levels for creating the conditions for equity-focused improvement work.Moves beyond deficit perspectives and outmoded tropes, such as goals have agency, teachers are resistant, and race causes low achievement.Makes the tools contained in improvement science more accessible to today's equity leaders.

Promoting equity and improvement science has seen increased attention over the last several years as educators seek to expand the experiences, opportunities, and outcomes for marginalized students. This book shows school and district leaders how to create the conditions needed to use improvement science--with its robust collection of tools, resources, and processes--to achieve equity. Readers will find information about equity, continuous improvement, and the psychology of change that can be used to productively and respectfully engage all stakeholders. Chapters include the rationale for employing improvement science to pursue equity; advice for developing the dispositions of an equity-focused leader who thinks differently about power, possibility, and measurement; and guidance for facilitating conversations in the service of equitable improvement. Equitable School Improvement is important reading for teachers, coaches, principals, central office leaders, and any educator who wants to be part of creating a more socially just educational system for our children.Book Features:Elaborates on the habits and practices that need to be developed if educators are to overcome the significant barriers to talk about transformation in the service of equity.Focuses on the human side of change, including honoring people and their stories and dismantling power structures that interfere with change.Provides guidance to leaders at all levels for creating the conditions for equity-focused improvement work.Moves beyond deficit perspectives and outmoded tropes, such as goals have agency, teachers are resistant, and race causes low achievement.Makes the tools contained in improvement science more accessible to today's equity leaders.

Ensure all students have the best opportunity to achieve academic success by using instructional approaches proven to have the most impact, while also avoiding common practices that ultimately hinder student learning (K–12).Maximizing Opportunity to Learn advocates for teaching that combines high expectations with high leverage practices so that all students, especially those who historically have been marginalized, consistently experience maximized opportunities to learn. The authors introduce classroom teachers and instructional leaders to the Heuristic for Equitable and Adaptive Teaching (HEAT), a model for equitable and ambitious instruction that is both grounded in research and concrete enough to be put into practice.Ambitious instruction demands that every student engage with tasks of high cognitive demand. “Equity” in this sense means more than inclusion; it requires creating the conditions so that every learner is positioned as capable, agentic, and able to achieve at high levels. In addition to providing proven-effective practices, the authors also challenge the efficacy of some common instructional practices, such as questioning and differentiation, illustrating how they often undermine equity rather than promote it.Book Features:Explains how reducing variation in instructional quality and variation in student experience are the keys to achieving effective, equity-centered instructional improvement.Explains what instruction that supports every student looks like, as opposed to an ineffectual equity-neutral instructional approach or culturally relevant pedagogy that can be framed as only relevant to students of Color.Demonstrates why several common instructional practices that are still heavily promoted in the field are counter to the goal of equity and do not lead to improved outcomes for all students.Provides specific guidance for leaders on how to develop a district-wide strategy for developing, supporting, and sustaining equitable and ambitious instruction.

Ensure all students have the best opportunity to achieve academic success by using instructional approaches proven to have the most impact, while also avoiding common practices that ultimately hinder student learning (K–12).Maximizing Opportunity to Learn advocates for teaching that combines high expectations with high leverage practices so that all students, especially those who historically have been marginalized, consistently experience maximized opportunities to learn. The authors introduce classroom teachers and instructional leaders to the Heuristic for Equitable and Adaptive Teaching (HEAT), a model for equitable and ambitious instruction that is both grounded in research and concrete enough to be put into practice.Ambitious instruction demands that every student engage with tasks of high cognitive demand. “Equity” in this sense means more than inclusion; it requires creating the conditions so that every learner is positioned as capable, agentic, and able to achieve at high levels. In addition to providing proven-effective practices, the authors also challenge the efficacy of some common instructional practices, such as questioning and differentiation, illustrating how they often undermine equity rather than promote it.Book Features:Explains how reducing variation in instructional quality and variation in student experience are the keys to achieving effective, equity-centered instructional improvement.Explains what instruction that supports every student looks like, as opposed to an ineffectual equity-neutral instructional approach or culturally relevant pedagogy that can be framed as only relevant to students of Color.Demonstrates why several common instructional practices that are still heavily promoted in the field are counter to the goal of equity and do not lead to improved outcomes for all students.Provides specific guidance for leaders on how to develop a district-wide strategy for developing, supporting, and sustaining equitable and ambitious instruction.