Failure Is Not an Option: 6 Principles That Advance Student Achievement in Highly Effective Schools, 3rd Edition

This is a book for district and school leaders that describes how to reshape the school culture to become a high performing school and professional learning community that is able to sustain success for every student. Anchored in the moral purpose of sustaining success for all students, the book demonstrates how to reshape school cultures to support continuous student success by building trust as a foundation for the learning community and then implementing the 6 principles of the FNO Framework:

1. Establishing a common mission, vision, set of values and goals
2. Ensuring achievement for all students by setting up systems for prevention and intervention and building on student strengths
3. Engaging in collaborative teaming that is focused on teaching for learning
4. Using data based decision-making for continuous improvement
5. Actively engaging families and the community
6. Building sustainable leadership capacity

With contributions from Pedro A. Noguera, Andy Hargreaves, and Dean Fink, this book not only outlines the Who, What, and How of becoming a high-performing school and learning community, but also shows how to avoid ten common routes to failure, and provides numerous resources, many case stories and examples from Alan's work in schools and districts around the U.S.

About The Author:
Award-winning author and visionary educational leader Alan M. Blankstein is founder and president of the HOPE Foundation, a not-for-profit organization whose honorary chair is Nobel Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A former “high-risk” youth, Alan began his career in education as a music teacher, has worked in youth-serving organizations since 1983, and has created award-winning publications and video staff development programs. He is the author of the best-selling book Failure Is Not an Option®: Six Principles That Guide Student Achievement in High-Performing Schools, which received the 2005 Book of the Year award from Learning Forward (formerly NSDC), and has been nominated for three other national and international awards.

A former “high risk” youth, Alan began his career in education as a music teacher and has worked in youth-serving organizations since 1983, including the March of Dimes, Phi Delta Kappa, and the National Educational Service (now Solution Tree) which he founded in 1987 and directed for 12 years.

In addition to authorship of this award-winning book, Alan is Publisher of three Failure Is Not an Option® video series and Senior Editor along with Paul Houston of the thirteen-volume The Soul of Educational Leadership series. Alan also co-authored the Reaching Today’s Youth curriculum and has published articles in Educational Leadership, The School Administrator, Executive Educator, High School Magazine, Reaching Today’s Youth, and Inside the Workshop. Alan has also provided keynote presentations and workshops for virtually every major educational organization.

Alan is on the Harvard International Principals Centers advisory board, served as Board member for Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, is former Co-Chair of Indiana University’s Neal Marshall Black Culture Center’s Community Network and advisor to the Faculty and Staff for Student Excellence (FASE) mentoring program. He also served as advisory board member for the Forum on Race, Equity, and Human Understanding with the Monroe County Schools in Indiana, and on the Board of Trustees for the Jewish Child Care Agency (JCCA), in which he was once a youth in residence.