Handbook of School Improvement: How High-Performing Principals Create High-Performing Schools, March/2010

"A practical, useful, easy-to-read resource that I will keep on the edge of my desk as a reference. The book is filled with excellent and useful information and serves as both a concise summary of focal points for principals as well as a resource for additional information."
—Kari Dahlquist, Principal
Creek Valley Elementary School, Edina, MN

"All school administrators who want their school to become a high-performing school have to read this book. It is transformational!"
—Sean Beggin, Assistant Principal
Andover High School, MN

Learn how successful principals make a difference in their school's performance!

Outstanding principals are made, not born. With insights drawn from a ground-breaking study and numerous firsthand accounts, this illuminating book reveals how principals develop the leadership qualities that support schoolwide achievement.

Written by best-selling authors and respected experts in school improvement, this comprehensive guide captures unique perspectives from 20 successful principals, representing a wide range of urban and rural schools. Presenting real-life strategies and best practices, the authors show how principals use a systems-development approach to build empowered teams and excellent organizations. Designed for school and district administrators as well as staff developers, this resource:

1. Describes the key characteristics of extraordinary principals and high-performing schools, including nine crucial actions that drive positive change
2. Focuses on how principals balance both administrative responsibilities and instructional leadership
3. Shows how to actively involve teachers, staff, and families in school improvement, including individual and group activities
4. Addresses the role of research and data in stronger schoolwide performance
5. Offers tips and suggestions from highly regarded principals, along with recommended resources for further study and team trainings

Learn how the experiences of fellow principals can help you energize your team and realize your school's promise!

About The Authors:
Jo Blase is a professor of educational administration at the University of Georgia, and a former public school teacher, high school and middle school principal, and director of staff development. She received a Ph.D. in educational administration, curriculum, and supervision in 1983 from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and her research has focused on instructional and transformational leadership, school reform, staff development, and principal-teacher relationships. Through work with the Beginning Principal Study National Research Team, the Georgia League of Professional Schools, and public and private school educators with whom she consults throughout the United States and abroad, she has pursued her interest in preparation for and entry to educational and instructional leadership as it relates to supervisory discourse.

Winner of the W. G. Walker 2000 Award for Excellence for her coauthored article published in the Journal of Educational Administration, the University of Georgia College of Education Teacher Educator Award, the University of Colorado School of Education Researcher/Teacher of the Year, and the American Association of School Administrators Outstanding Research Award, Blase has published in international handbooks and journals such as The Journal of Staff Development, The Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, Educational Administration Quarterly, and The Alberta Journal of Educational Research; her eight book editions include Empowering Teachers (1994, 2000), Democratic Principals in Action (1995), The Fire Is Back (1997), Handbook of Instructional Leadership (1998, 2004), Breaking the Silence (2003), and Teachers Bringing Out the Best in Teachers (2006).

Blase has authored chapters on becoming a principal, school renewal, supervision, and organizational development; her recent research examines the problem of teacher mistreatment. She has published over 90 academic articles, chapters, and books, and she also conducts research on supervisory discourse among physicians as medical educators and consults with physicians in US hospitals and medical centers.

Joseph Blase is a professor of educational administration at the University of Georgia. Since receiving his Ph.D. in 1980 from Syracuse University, his research has focused on school reform, transformational leadership, the micropolitics of education, principal-teacher relationships, and the work lives of teachers. His work concentrating on school-level micropolitics received the 1988 Davis Memorial Award given by the University Council for Educational Administration, and his coauthored article published in the Journal of Educational Administration won the W. G. Walker 2000 Award for Excellence. In 1999 he was recognized as an elite scholar, one of the 50 Most Productive and Influential Scholars of Educational Administration in the world. Blase’s books include The Politics of Life in Schools: Power, Conflict, and Cooperation (winner of the 1994 Critic’s Choice Award sponsored by the American Education Studies Association), Bringing Out the Best in Teachers (1994, 2000, 2008); The Micropolitics of Educational Leadership (1995), Empowering Teachers (1994, 2000), Democratic Principals in Action (1995), The Fire Is Back (1997), Handbook of Instructional Leadership (1998, 2004), Breaking the Silence (2003), and Teachers Bringing Out the Best in Teachers (2006). His recent research (coauthored with Jo Blase and Du Fengning, 2008), a national study of principal mistreatment of teachers, appeared in The Journal of Educational Administration. Professor Blase has published over 120 academic articles, chapters, and books.

Dana Yon Phillips, Ed.D. is a middle school administrator and former elementary school administrator in Georgia, part-time Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia, and part-time Instructor for Piedmont College. She completed her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership at the University of Georgia in 2004, where she focused on shared governance, instructional leadership, and teacher leadership. She now teaches organizational leadership, change for school improvement, and ethics at the University of Georgia.

During 1999 and 2000, Phillips produced and was host of School Talk, a weekly cable television program exploring educational trends and issues with school leaders. In 2003 she delivered a paper on the topic of “parental involvement” at the National School Reform Conference. Prior to her return to the field of education in 2000, Dr. Phillips owned and operated a nursing home management company for 26 years. Recognized as a service-oriented organizational leader, Dr. Phillips also provided management consulting services and conducted numerous seminars and workshops on topics such as staff development and training, operational policies and procedures, and federal and state long-term health care requirements for trade associations and nursing home and assisted living facilities. She is author of Policies and Procedures for Long-term Health Care Facilities (1993) and Manual of Staff Orientation and Training for Long-Term Health Care Facilities (1994).