Improve principal evaluation and create highly effective leaders!

Even with great teachers, student achievement hinges on an effective principal. Behind every high-quality principal is an airtight system of leadership evaluation that consistently rewards excellence and remedies deficits.

While teacher evaluation methods have improved, instructional leadership evaluation has often stood still-and student learning and achievement have paid the price.

This book identifies the major problems in this process and articulates clear solutions. The result is a blueprint for ensuring the best person for the job is occupying the principal's chair. Content includes:

• Extensive data, presented in a user-friendly manner
• Clear connections to the ISLLC Standards for School Leaders
• A suite of interactive tools including sample self-assessments, mid-year and final evaluation forms, and professional growth plans

"This book not only highlights the key messages about the role of the leader, but it is does so in a way that is engaging, practical, and reflects the Smiths' long history of being school leaders, teaching school leaders, and seeing the effects of their teaching. I have seen the Smiths in action, separately and together, and they know how to lead and how to teach, they have a strength of purpose they do not waver from, and these attributes come through in this book."
-John Hattie, Director
Melbourne Education Research Institute, University of Melbourne

"After reading this book, you'll truly understand what it takes to grow as a lead learner. We can always get better. This book provides quality insight on strategies that will make good leaders great."
-Brad Currie, School Leader, Corwin Author and Co-Founder of #Satchat

About the Author
Dr. Julie R. Smith is a thirty-five year veteran educator, speaker, consultant, and author. Her passion, area of focus, and expertise is in building leadership capacity within people and systems; school improvement planning, and teacher, principal, and district evaluation models. Dr. Smith continues her learning by providing workshops in North America and Canada around Professor John Hattie's research in Visible Learning as a Visible LearningPlus Consultant with Corwin. She is also trained to provide workshops in Dr. James Popham's research around designing and implementing defensible teacher evaluation programs and Dr. Russ Quaglia's Student Voice and Aspiration Framework. She most recently co-authored Evaluating Instructional Leadership: Recognized Practices For Success (2015). Dr. Raymond Smith is an Author Consultant with Corwin Press. Prior to joining Corwin Dr. Smith served as adjunct professor at the University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center teaching within a principal preparation program and currently works with Florida Atlantic University in their aspiring leader program. Dr. Smith's diverse experience includes over 38 years of teaching and leadership at the building (high school principal), central office (Director of Secondary Education), and university levels. Subsequent to completing his doctorate in educational leadership and innovation in 2007, Dr. Smith pursued his area of specialty and passion in leadership development by authoring several articles for the Ohio Department of Education, coauthoring three books: the first entitled School Improvement for the Net Generation (2010), the second entitled The Reflective Leader: Implementing A Multidimensional Leadership Performance System (2012), and the third entitled The Responsive School (in print). In addition to writing about leadership and leadership development, Dr. Smith is an activator of learning, leading others in workshops around Professor John Hattie's research in Visible Learning as one of 21 Visible LearningPlus Consultants with Corwin. He also conducts workshops around Dr. James Popham's research regarding designing and implementing defensible teacher evaluation programs.

Reviews

"This is a practical and comprehensive look at how principal evaluation can be used as a continuous improvement tool for schools as well as the principal. The rationale and research behind the design of this evaluation and improvement tool are presented in a concise and easy to read manner."

-- Kathy J Grover, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction
"I truly enjoyed reading this book. The resources are exactly right for the challenges we are facing. It is a practical resource for present day leadership. The authors guide leaders in effectively using these strategies to bring about change in their environment. " -- Lyne N Ssebikindu, Assistant Principal

"The authors provide a great synthesis of current research and current issues in education to bring light to a problem that has not been addressed . . . It would be excellent for aspiring principals to read this book because it really breaks down for them the components of effective leadership."

-- Kelley King, Principal and Author-Consultant

"This book clearly articulates leadership qualities that impact schools. The authors do an excellent job of using effect size and research to support the qualities. The examples provide real world experiences and show how these qualities translate to classrooms and schools. This book is an essential guide for school leaders to reflect on their practice and how that translates to student achievement."

-- Katina Keener, Assistant Principal

"After reading this book, you'll truly understand what it takes to grow as a lead learner. We can always get better. Status quo is never an option. Strong leaders possess certain qualities that promote student success. This book provides quality insight on strategies that will make good leaders great."

-- Brad Currie, School Leader, Corwin Author and Co-Founder of #Satchat

"The authors present a current and coherent approach to growth and evaluation that is balanced and manageable in contexts where we are all asked to continually do more. It has applications for fine tuning existing evaluation systems as well as informing the creation of thoughtful new systems from scratch."

-- Peter Dillon, Superintendent of Schools
"Ray and Julie Smith have spent decades working at every level of K-12 education as teachers and leaders. In addition to their own vast experience with leadership evaluation, they have worked with, and learned from, some of the best minds in education. All of that experience has gone into writing an excellent resource which focuses on providing leaders with the effective feedback they need to grow. This is a must read for school leaders who want to be effective in their position." -- Peter DeWitt, Corwin Author/National Consultant
"This book not only highlights the key messages about the role of the leader, but it is does so in a way that is engaging, practical, and reflects the Smiths' long history of being school leaders, teaching school leaders, and seeing the effects of their teaching. I have seen the Smiths in action, separately and together, and they know how to lead and how to teach, they have a strength of purpose they do not waver from, and these attributes come through in this book." -- John Hattie, Director
"Passionate principals committed to maximizing their impact on the world will devour this book."

"This book puts it all together for a principal who want to leave a legacy of an ever increasing impact on student learning and is willing to engage in self-monitoring in order to measure his or her own impact."

"Superintendents committed to helping principals measure their own leadership impact on student learning will want to implement the practical advice in this book with every principal in their district."

-- James Neihof, Superintendent of Schools
Concord Community Schools is in the third year of a new administrator evaluation model. The research and additional background knowledge provided by these two authors in their new book will be very beneficial to the revision process we will undertake in the near future. A special thanks to Julie and Ray for sharing their expertise with our district. -- Wayne R. Stubbs, Superintendent



Book Information
ISBN 9781483366722
Author Julie Rae Smith
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint Corwin Press Inc
Publisher SAGE Publications Inc
Weight(grams) 420g