Matters of Testimony

In our current education system too many high school students wind up with too few choices. Students are locked into what is decided for them by a broken system. Too often, they are handed a diploma that holds an empty promise. This practical field book is filled with effective tools from The Education Trust–West. Diploma Matters helps school leaders and teachers examine the current high school experience and develop a detailed action plan that will transform curriculum and ensure that all students are ready for college and the workplace. «This is a book for practitioners who have seen it all. Linda Murray captures in a straight-forward way the nuts and bolts of how to do the work of reform. Linda, who was an extraordinary superintendent, proves to be a captivating storyteller.»—Peter J. Negroni, senior vice president, College Board «This is a story worth reading, including the specific implications for schools and districts nationwide.»—Michael W. Kirst, emeritus professor of Education and Business Administration, Stanford University; president, California State Board of Education; author, Political Dynamics Of American Education «This book is a definitive 'how to' for effective, meaningful, and lasting school reform.» —Kathy Burkhard, former president, San Jose Teachers' Association

AARP Digital Editions offer you practical tips, proven solutions, and expert guidance. In The Secret of Shelter Island, nationally renowned financial analyst and bestselling author Alexander Green explores the complicated relationship we all have with money and reveals the road map to a rich life. Drawing on some of today's best minds and many of history's greatest thinkers, The Secret of Shelter Island is both a much-needed source of inspiration and an insightful look at the role of both money and values in the pursuit of the good life. Addresses what really matters when it comes to money and how to make smarter decisions with what you have Describes the profound connection between money, character, personal philosophy, and outlook Other bestselling titles by Green: The Gone Fishin' Portfolio If you want to understand what ultimately provides meaning, contentment, and the satisfaction of a life well-lived, then read The Secret of Shelter Island.

Expert guidance and step-by-step instruction for building a successful diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative from scratch In Diversity and Inclusion Matters: Tactics and Tools to Inspire Equity and Game-Changing Performance, award-winning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) expert Jason R. Thompson delivers a practical and engaging handbook for implementing a DE&I program in your organization. The CAPE technique, developed by the author, gives you a clear blueprint and the tools you'll need to make your diversity program a success. In this book, you'll learn how to achieve early and significant wins to create the necessary and long term organizational change needed for successful DE&I programs. Find out what data you need to collect, how to analyze it, and choose the right goals for your organization. In addition, the CAPE technique will show your progress and ROI. You will learn to: Manage and lead a diversity council and implement diversity initiatives in the correct order Get early buy-in and long-term commitment from a Chief Executive Officer by knowing what to ask for and when Set appropriate and realistic expectations for a DE&I program with the executive leadership team Perfect for diversity and inclusion professionals, human resources leaders, founders, business owners, and executives, Diversity and Inclusion Matters will also earn a place in the libraries of students of human resources, leadership, management, and finance.

Make your school soar by escalating trust between teachers, students, and families Trust is an essential element in all healthy relationships, and the relationships that exist in your school are no different. How can your school leaders or teachers cultivate trust? How can your institution maintain trust once it is established? These are the questions addressed and answered in Trust Matters: Leadership for Successful Schools, 2nd Edition. The book delves into the helpful research that has been conducted on the topic of trust in school. Although rich with research data, Trust Matters also contains practical advice and strategies ready to be implemented. This second edition expands upon the role of trust between teachers and students, teachers and administrators, and schools and families. Trust Matters: Leadership for Successful Schools also covers a range of sub-topics relevant to trust in school. All chapters in the text have questions for reflection and discussion. Engaging chapters such as «Teachers Trust One Another» and «Fostering Trust with Students» have thought-provoking trust-building questions and activities you can use in the classroom or in faculty meetings. This valuable resource: Examines ways to cultivate trust Shares techniques and practices that help maintain trust Advises leaders of ways to include families in the school's circle of trust Addresses the by-products of betrayed trust and how to restore it With suspicion being the new norm within schools today, Trust Matters is the book your school needs to help it rise above. It shows just how much trust matters in all school relationships—administrator to teacher; teacher to student; school to family—and in all successful institutions.

In this groundbreaking book, business guru David Apgar helps leaders pinpoint which information matters most for successful goal setting, strategy, and bottom-line performance. Based on simple and easy-to-implement practices, Relevance outlines a new discipline focused on the relevance of performance measures for assessing key strategy issues and accelerating learning. David Apgar’s practices are grounded in solid business research and clearly illustrated with real-life examples from top-performing companies such as Toyota, Alcoa, Nestl?, Capital One, Cisco, Microsoft, and GE.

This is not a book about one thing. It's not a 250-page dissertation on leadership, teams or motivation. Instead, it's an agenda for building organizations that can flourish in a world of diminished hopes, relentless change and ferocious competition. This is not a book about doing better. It's not a manual for people who want to tinker at the margins. Instead, it's an impassioned plea to reinvent management as we know it—to rethink the fundamental assumptions we have about capitalism, organizational life, and the meaning of work. Leaders today confront a world where the unprecedented is the norm. Wherever one looks, one sees the exceptional and the extraordinary: Business newspapers decrying the state of capitalism. Once-innovative companies struggling to save off senescence. Next gen employees shunning blue chips for social start-ups. Corporate miscreants getting pilloried in the blogosphere. Entry barriers tumbling in what were once oligopolistic strongholds. Hundred year-old business models being rendered irrelevant overnight. Newbie organizations crowdsourcing their most creative work. National governments lurching towards bankruptcy. Investors angrily confronting greedy CEOs and complacent boards. Newly omnipotent customers eagerly wielding their power. Social media dramatically transforming the way human beings connect, learn and collaborate. Obviously, there are lots of things that matter now. But in a world of fractured certainties and battered trust, some things matter more than others. While the challenges facing organizations are limitless; leadership bandwidth isn't. That's why you have to be clear about what really matters now. What are the fundamental, make-or-break issues that will determine whether your organization thrives or dives in the years ahead? Hamel identifies five issues are that are paramount: values, innovation, adaptability, passion and ideology. In doing so he presents an essential agenda for leaders everywhere who are eager to… move from defense to offense reverse the tide of commoditization defeat bureaucracy astonish their customers foster extraordinary contribution capture the moral high ground outrun change build a company that's truly fit for the future Concise and to the point, the book will inspire you to rethink your business, your company and how you lead.

We live in a challenging, complex, inter-connected and unpredictable world beset by a range of seemingly insoluble problems. But, says Michael Fullan—an internationally acclaimed authority on organizational change—we have an increasing understanding of how to tackle complex change. This involves developing a new kind of leader: one who recognizes what is needed to bring about deep and lasting changes in living systems at all levels. These leaders need a deep understanding of what motivates us as human beings and how we tap into and influence other people's self-motivation. In his previous best-selling books The Six Secrets of Change, Leading in a Culture of Change, and Turnaround Leadership, Michael Fullan examined the concepts and processes of change. In Change Leader he turns his focus to the core practices of leadership that are so vital for leading in today's complex world. He reveals seven core practices for today's leaders, all of which appear to be deceptively simple but actually get to the essence of what differentiates a powerful leader from one who is merely competent: Practice Drives Theory Be Resolute Motivate the Masses Collaborate to Compete Learn Confidently Know Your Impact Sustain Simplexity Throughout the book Fullan argues that powerful leaders have built bedrocks of credibility, have learned how to identify the few things that matter most, and know how to leverage their skills in ways that benefit their entire organization. The author shows leaders how to avoid policies and strategies that focus on shallow and short-term goals and develop leadership skills for long-term success. With a wealth of illustrative examples from business, education, nonprofit, and government sectors Change Leader provides a much-needed leadership guide for today's turbulent climate.

Engage, challenge, and inspire students with work that matters Transformational Literacy, written by a team from EL Education, helps teachers leverage the Common Core instructional shifts—building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction, reading for and writing with evidence, and regular practice with complex text—to engage students in work that matters. Worthy texts and worthy tasks help students see the connection between their hard work as readers and writers and their capacity to contribute to stronger communities and a better world. The stories, examples, and resources that permeate Transformational Literacy come primarily from the more than 150 EL Education schools around the country that support teachers to select, supplement, customize, and create curriculum, and improve instruction. The book also draws on EL Education's open source Common Core English Language Arts curriculum—often cited as one of the finest in the country—and professional development offered to thousands of teachers to implement that curriculum effectively. Transformational Literacy combines the best of what EL Education knows works for kids—purposeful, inquiry-based learning—and the new imperative of the Common Core—higher and deeper expectations for all students. Teach standards through a compelling and purposeful curriculum that prioritizes worthy texts and worthy task Improve students' evidence-based reading, thinking, talking, and writing Support students to develop a new mindset toward the challenge of reading complex texts Transformational Literacy introduces an approach to literacy instruction that will engage, challenge, and inspire student with work that matters.

An authoritative guide for improving teaching, learning, and literacy in content area classrooms This book introduces teachers to the Disciplinary Literacy instructional framework developed by the Institute for Learning, University of Pittsburgh. Grounded in the Principles of Learning developed by acclaimed educator Lauren Resnick, the framework is designed to prepare students, grades 6 and up, to master the rigorous academic content learning required for college success. Unlike 'generic' teaching models, the framework is specifically tailored for each of the content disciplines. Highly practical, the book shows teachers how to integrate literacy development and thinking practices into their routine content instruction, with separate chapters devoted to math, science, history, and English/language arts. The book also shows how school instructional leaders can support teachers in learning and using this instructional approach. Offers an innovative approach for improving literacy, thinking, and content learning in secondary students Includes detailed instructional guidance plus numerous classroom examples of lessons, dialogs, and teaching routines Features chapters on each of the content areas-math, science, language arts, and social sciences Provides leadership guidance in implementing the method Foreword written by internationally acclaimed educator and cognitive scientist Lauren Resnick