District Leadership That Works: Striking the Right Balance

Bridge the great divide between distanced administrative duties and daily classroom impact. This book introduces a top-down power mechanism called defined autonomy, a concept that focuses on district-defined, nonnegotiable, common goals and a system of accountability supported by assessment tools. Defined autonomy creates an effective balance of centralized direction and individualized empowerment that allows building-level staff the stylistic freedom to respond quickly and effectively to student failure.

Benefits:

• Initiate second-order change to promote student achievement.
• Set nonnegotiable district-defined goals for achievement and instruction through a collaborative process with stakeholders.
• Create defined autonomy that allows teachers creative freedom while ensuring student achievement.
• Monitor progress through formative assessment tools.
• Counteract any resistance to second-order change.

Contents:
Chapter 1: Does District Leadership Matter?
Chapter 2: Putting Our Findings in Perspective
Chapter 3: Setting and Monitoring Nonnegotiable Goals for Achievement
Chapter 4: Setting and Monitoring Nonnegotiable Goals for Instruction
Chapter 5: Collaborative Goal Setting, Board Alignment, and Allocation of Resources
Chapter 6: Defined Autonomy in a High-Reliability District
Chapter 7: The Perils and Promises of Second-Order Change