Differentiating School Leadership

After teaching high school social studies and serving as a secondary school administrator, Daniel L. Duke embarked on a career in higher education. For over three decades he has taught courses on educational leadership, organizational change, and school reform as well as conducted research on various aspects of public schools. After serving on the faculties of Lewis and Clark College and Stanford University, he came to the University of Virginia as chair of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Duke founded and directed the Thomas Jefferson Center for Educational Design and helped establish the Darden-Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education (PLE), a unique enterprise involving the Curry School of Education and the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. He serves as research director for the PLE. A prolific writer, Duke has authored or co-authored 27 books and several hundred scholarly articles, monographs, chapters, and reports. His most recent books include The Challenges of Educational Change (2004), Education Empire: The Evolution of an Excellent Suburban School System (2005), Teachers' Guide to School Turnarounds (2007), and The Little School System That Could: Transforming a City School District (2008). A highly regarded consultant, Duke has worked with over 150 school systems, state agencies, foundations, and governments across the United States and abroad. He has served as president of the University Council for Educational Administration and was chosen as Professor of the Year at the Curry School of Education.

Acknowledgments About the Author Introduction Part I. The Challenge of School Decline 1. Recognizing the Potential for School Decline A School on the Brink Detecting Vulnerabilities The Impact of Inadequate Funding The Impact of a Weak Principal The Impact of a Change in School Culture Meeting the Challenge of School Decline Key Lessons and Next Steps 2. Leadership to Prevent School Decline Leading Schools That Face Demographic Changes The Challenges of Changing Demographics School Leadership in the Face of Demographic Change Key Lessons and Next Steps Part II. The Challenge of School Turnaround 3. Identifying the Characteristics of Low-Performing Schools A School in Need of Turning Around Analyzing the Causes of Low Performance Diagnosing School-Based Causes Meeting the Challenge of School Turnaround Key Lessons and Next Steps 4. Leadership to Turn Around a Low-Performing School Targeting Key Conditions School Turnaround Leadership Key Lessons and Next Steps Part III. The Challenge of Sustaining School Improvement 5. Reversing School Failure Is Only the First Step A Promising Start at Stuart High School Determining the Unfinished Agenda Meeting the Challenge of Sustained Improvement Key Lessons and Next Steps 6. Leadership to Sustain School Improvement Building Capacity for Sustained Success The Challenges of Sustained School Improvement Leadership for the Long Haul Key Lessons and Next Steps Part IV. The Challenge of Creating a New School 7. Leadership for Students Who Need a Different Learning Environment Leading by Design Meeting the Challenge of Creating a New School Key Lessons and Next Steps Part V. Leadership Lessons 8. Why School Leaders Fail Self-Inflicted Problems The Greatest Mistake of All 9. The Implications of Differentiating Leadership Some Practical Consequences Last Word References Index

"Offers a set of extremely useful heuristics, mental models, and organizational checklists with which future and practicing school leaders can analyze leadership situations and take positive, focused action to improve school conditions. I really appreciated the numerous frameworks for thinking about school reform and the models that clearly differentiated across different school conditions. The author's gift for narration brings the reader into the case studies and allows you to almost be sitting alongside experienced educational leaders as they ponder about and make decisions concerning critical educational issues. This is highly insightful and helpful for the reader just learning about the complexity of educational leadership and a critical gift for their own future decision making." -- Dan W. Butin, Assistant Dean of Educational Leadership "Addresses real issues of every school leader. The vignettes, cases, and stories provide important insight into what an educational leader at the school level can be faced with each day. These examples lend themselves to great material for a professional book study with practicing principals as well as those who aspire to take on that role." -- Michelle Gayle, Principal "Superintendents, curriculum specialists, and teacher leaders will find the information useful and the suggestions easily implemented, to say nothing of the thoughts provoked and the comments generated by those who share the reading." -- Stephen Shepperd, Retired Elementary Principal "Duke's divergence from 'cookie-cutter' leadership theory in [this book] is a result of his extensive work as a researcher and consultant in school transformation and turnaround schools. The simplicity of the message and case studies to illustrate interventions needed in high-priority school settings identified in [this book] provide a practical and insightful look into improving schools." -- Glenn Stephen Baete * School Leadership & Management Vol 31-5 *