Effective Inclusive Schools. Designing Successful Schoolwide Programs

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.

Offers best practices for implementing RTI at the school-wide level-to ensure success for all learners Response-to-Intervention is now mandated at schools across the country. While there are a handful of books offering tips on implementation, schools are still struggling to find the best approaches. This book, from a prominent RTI researcher, explains how the most successful schools using RTI manage the process. Sailor offers best practices for implementing RTI not only at the classroom level, but also at the school-wide and district-wide levels, to ensure no student falls through the cracks and schools fulfill the promise of RTI. Offers clear guidance on implementing Response-to-Intervention effectively Reveals the framework used by the most successful schools using RTI Includes information on applying RTI for behavioral problems as well as academic challenges Contains illustrative examples of how the approach is applied at all levels, from individual student to school-wide and district-wide Written by a top researcher in the field of Response-to Intervention

Praise for Overloaded and Underprepared “Parents, teachers, and administrators are all concerned that America’s kids are stressed out, checked out, or both—but many have no idea where to begin when it comes to solving the problem. That’s why the work of Challenge Success is so urgent. It has created a model for creating change in our schools that is based on research and solid foundational principles like communication, creativity, and compassion. If your community wants to build better schools and a brighter future, this book is the place to start.” —Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind “Challenge Success synthesizes the research on effective school practices and offers concrete tools and strategies that educators and parents can use immediately to make a difference in their communities. By focusing on the day-to-day necessities of a healthy schedule; an engaging, personalized, and rigorous curriculum; and a caring climate, this book is an invaluable resource for school leaders, teachers, parents, and students to help them design learning communities where every student feels a sense of belonging, purpose, and motivation to learn the skills necessary to succeed now and in the future.” —Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University “Finally, a book about education and student well-being that is both research-based and eminently readable. With all the worry about student stress and academic engagement, Pope, Brown and Miles gently remind us that there is much we already know about how to create better schools and healthier kids. Citing evidence-based ‘best practices’ gleaned from years of work with schools across the country, they show us what is not working, but more importantly, what we need to do to fix things. Filled with practical suggestions and exercises that can be implemented easily, as well as advice on how to approach long-term change, Overloaded and Underprepared is a clear and compelling roadmap for teachers, school administrators and parents who believe that we owe our children a better education.” —Madeline Levine, co-founder Challenge Success; author of The Price of Privilege and Teach Your Children Well “This new book from the leaders behind Challenge Success provides a thorough and balanced exploration of the structural challenges facing students, parents, educators, and administrators in our primary and secondary schools today. The authors’ unique approach of sharing proven strategies that enable students to thrive, while recognizing that the most effective solutions are tailored on a school-by-school basis, makes for a valuable handbook for anyone seeking to better understand the many complex dimensions at work in a successful learning environment.” —John J. DeGioia, President of Georgetown University

Create a sustainable revenue model that can propel your mission-driven organization into the future  Effective Fund Raising: The Trustee's Role and Beyond  is the result of author F. Warren McFarlan’s two decades of research at Harvard Business School, along with over forty years of active social enterprise board service. This book offers a depth of knowledge and insight that will prove invaluable for trustees, donors, and others related to and responsible for the success of social enterprise. Social enterprise organizations have played a vibrant and important role in the USA for the past century. And yet, the business of fundraising has not become any easier or more elegant. In this book, you will discover how to help raise the financial resources that your organization needs to perform its good deeds.  This book focuses on the steps and strategies you need to know to secure funding to fulfill your mission. Development is the lifeblood of most social enterprises, be they large or small. You’ll also discover how to harness the energies of the right people to ensure the long-term success of your development efforts.  Learn why an effective, sustainable revenue model is critical to the success of even the most exciting mission-driven organization  Understand the core elements of the revenue model, including governance, fees, the annual fund, capital fundraising campaigns, planned gifts, and more Develop a strong plan for sustaining your organization’s revenue, regardless of organization size Build the skill of asking for money and lead your organization to a revenue and philanthropy orientation Many social enterprise CEOs spend over half of their time on fundraising. Why? Simply put: without a sustainable revenue model, even the most exciting mission-driven organization will collapse. The dirty truth is that, with no fund raising, there is no social enterprise or enduring mission. This book will help you shoulder the burden of fundraising and ensure the long-term success of your venture.

The how-to guide for exceptional management from the bottom up The Effective Manager is a hands-on practical guide to great management at every level. Written by the man behind Manager Tools, the world's number-one business podcast, this book distills the author's 25 years of management training expertise into clear, actionable steps to start taking today. First, you'll identify what «effective management» actually looks like: can you get the job done at a high level? Do you attract and retain top talent without burning them out? Then you'll dig into the four critical behaviors that make a manager great, and learn how to adjust your own behavior to be the leader your team needs. You'll learn the four major tools that should be a part of every manager's repertoire, how to use them, and even how to introduce them to the team in a productive, non-disruptive way. Most management books are written for CEOs and geared toward improving corporate management, but this book is expressly aimed at managers of any level—with a behavioral framework designed to be tailored to your team's specific needs. Understand your team's strengths, weaknesses, and goals in a meaningful way Stop limiting feedback to when something goes wrong Motivate your people to continuous improvement Spread the work around and let people stretch their skills Effective managers are good at the job and «good at people.» The key is combining those skills to foster your team's development, get better and better results, and maintain a culture of positive productivity. The Effective Manager shows you how to turn good into great with clear, actionable, expert guidance.

Master the art and science of data storytelling—with frameworks and techniques to help you craft compelling stories with data. The ability to effectively communicate with data is no longer a luxury in today’s economy; it is a necessity. Transforming data into visual communication is only one part of the picture. It is equally important to engage your audience with a narrative—to tell a story with the numbers. Effective Data Storytelling will teach you the essential skills necessary to communicate your insights through persuasive and memorable data stories. Narratives are more powerful than raw statistics, more enduring than pretty charts. When done correctly, data stories can influence decisions and drive change. Most other books focus only on data visualization while neglecting the powerful narrative and psychological aspects of telling stories with data. Author Brent Dykes shows you how to take the three central elements of data storytelling—data, narrative, and visuals—and combine them for maximum effectiveness. Taking a comprehensive look at all the elements of data storytelling, this unique book will enable you to: Transform your insights and data visualizations into appealing, impactful data stories Learn the fundamental elements of a data story and key audience drivers Understand the differences between how the brain processes facts and narrative Structure your findings as a data narrative, using a four-step storyboarding process Incorporate the seven essential principles of better visual storytelling into your work Avoid common data storytelling mistakes by learning from historical and modern examples Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative and Visuals is a must-have resource for anyone who communicates regularly with data, including business professionals, analysts, marketers, salespeople, financial managers, and educators.

Take your idea from concept to production with this unique guide Whether it's called physical computing, ubiquitous computing, or the Internet of Things, it's a hot topic in technology: how to channel your inner Steve Jobs and successfully combine hardware, embedded software, web services, electronics, and cool design to create cutting-edge devices that are fun, interactive, and practical. If you'd like to create the next must-have product, this unique book is the perfect place to start. Both a creative and practical primer, it explores the platforms you can use to develop hardware or software, discusses design concepts that will make your products eye-catching and appealing, and shows you ways to scale up from a single prototype to mass production. Helps software engineers, web designers, product designers, and electronics engineers start designing products using the Internet-of-Things approach Explains how to combine sensors, servos, robotics, Arduino chips, and more with various networks or the Internet, to create interactive, cutting-edge devices Provides an overview of the necessary steps to take your idea from concept through production If you'd like to design for the future, Designing the Internet of Things is a great place to start.