Staying on Track: An Educational Leader's Guide to Preventing Derailment and Ensuring Personal and Organizational Success

by Dale L. Brubaker, Larry D. Coble

Overview

"This second edition is moving, realistic, and candid. New chapters on how to negotiate accountability pressures and the seasons of an educational leader′s life are excellent. Every would-be and present administrator would benefit from reading this book."
-Seymour B. Sarason, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Yale University

Identify and prevent potential career derailment!

School leaders deal with pressures, pitfalls, and opportunities every day. The authors maintain that creative leaders can keep schools moving in the right direction by reflecting on their natural talents and maximizing the strengths of their staff.

This completely updated guide helps you assess your role as an administrator, shows how you might sabotage your prospects for promotion or retention, and provides strategies to remedy the situation. Two new chapters address the political realities of the No Child Left Behind Act and answer these queries:

• What causes an educational leader to derail?
• What are potential accountability and high-stakes testing derailment factors?
• What skills are most important for improving data-driven decision making, student achievement, and test results?

This new edition will help you start, or keep, your forward momentum and get you closer to your ideal job.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781483362229
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	07/11/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	200
File size:	851 KB

About the Author

Dale L. Brubaker is Professor of Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has also served on the faculties of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He received his doctorate in foundations of education from Michigan State University. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books on education and educational leadership, including CREATIVE CURRICULUM LEADERSHIP (Corwin), STAYING ON TRACK, (Corwin), and CREATIVE SURVIVAL IN EDUCATIONAL BUREAUCRACIES.

Larry D. Coble is Managing Associate with School Leadership Services, A Division of The Coble Professional Group, a leadership and management consulting organization, and Director of the Collegium for the Advancement of Schools at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He provides speeches and seminars on leadership nationwide. He was a Senior Program Associate at the Center for Creative Leadership and served as assistant principal, principal, and superintendent in school systems in North Carolina. His most recent superintendency was in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He received his doctorate in educational administration from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is coauthor of STAYING ON TRACK (Corwin).

Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Prologue: A Cautionary Tale
1. Accountability and High-Stakes Testing
The National Level
The State Level
The School-System Level
The School Level
Conclusion
2. Self-Assessment Checklists
Checklist A
Checklist B
Conclusion
3. What Causes Educational Leaders to Derail?
Causes of Assistant Principal and Principal Derailment
Causes of Superintendent Derailment
Conclusion
4. Antiderailment Strategies
The Recommendations
Conclusion
5. Professional and Personal Plans for Development
What Works and Doesn’t Work in Professional Development
Professional Development Recommendations for a School or School System
A Personal Development Plan for Improvement
Conclusion
6. Preparing Teacher Leaders for Tomorrow’s Leadership Positions
A Grounding for Teacher Leader Development
The Realities of Context in Which Teachers Lead
The Teacher Leader and the Presentation of Self
The Teacher Leader and Meetings
The Teacher Leader as Networker
Conclusion
7. The Seasons of An Educational Leader’s Career
Preparing the Way to Become an Educational Administrator
Entering Educational Administration
Settling In—The Middle Years
The Later Years as an Educational Administrator
Conclusion
Afterword
Resources
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"If all aspiring and practicing school leaders heeded the suggestions in Staying on Track, a tremendous loss of administrative talent to attrition could be avoided. Administrators can discover how to grow their own capacities to sustain their careers rather than to attempt to escape the realities of their jobs by running from one position to the next or resigning in disillusionment. This new edition offers two additional chapters aimed at helping leaders understand the four stages of an administrative career and how to avoid derailment by the high-stakes testing movement. "

Sue F. Burgess

"Offers advice in plain terms, checklists of key points to remember and implement, and a season-by-season overview of what to expect in the career of an educational administrator. A helpful and practical-minded guide to being the best administrator one can be."

Library Bookwatch

"Filled with practical, useful ideas to help you get (and keep!) your career going in the right direction. All school administrators should make this book a part of their personal learning plan. We are using it as a part of our intensive leadership training program. "

Richard E. Maxwell

"This second edition is moving, realistic, and candid. New chapters on how to negotiate accountability pressures and the seasons of an educational leader’s life are excellent. Every would-be and present administrator would benefit from reading this book. "

Seymour B. Sarason

"An exciting guide to help aspiring educational leaders develop. "

Terrence E. Deal