Effective leaders must find ways to motivate their employees to provide maximum success for the organization. In today's world of high accountability, this ability is paramount to the success and survival of schools, and is an especially important skill for early career principals to master. Knowledge of the factors that might have contributed to…

Every school leader will benefit from this must-have book by award-winning educator Pete Hall. In it he shares his wisdom, insights, and lessons lived and learned with educators at all stages of their careers. His lively, readable style makes it easy to follow his practical tips and strategies for taking action, goal-setting, motivating others,…

Develop the skills you need to communicate effectively and in ways that motivate your faculty towards success. Written especially for principals and other administrators, this book will empower you to communicate well as you work to promote a student-centered environment best suited to schoolwide achievement. Learn to approach one-on-one…

Drawing on perceptions, behaviors, and experiences of students at an urban high school--both high and low achievers--this timely book demonstrates how urban youth can be meaningfully engaged in learning mathematics. The author presents a "potential" model rather than a "deficit" model, complete with teaching strategies and best practices for…

Use Friday Focus memos to motivate and engage your staff every week, and help create a school culture focused on the growth of students "and" teachers. Easy to understand and implement, Friday Focus memos offer an effective and efficient way to improve student learning, staff development, and school culture from within. Written by educational…

The authors describe eight conditions that principals can support to motivate faculty and staff to achieve their fullest potential. They include: fostering a sense of belonging; establishing the principal as a "hero"; celebrating personal growth and effort; making work fun and exciting; encouraging curiosity and creativity; creating a spirit of…

Adults with developmental disabilities are at significant risk for health problems. Effective health promotion can improve outcomes--and that's why adult day and residential agencies, schools, and other organizations need this invaluable program development guide. An urgent call to action and a start-to-finish framework for health promotion, this…

Students struggling with mathematics may benefit from early interventions aimed at improving their mathematics ability and ultimately preventing subsequent failure. This guide provides eight specific recommendations intended to help teachers, principals, and school administrators use Response to Intervention (RtI) to identify students who need…

To improve study habits, one high school refers failing or barely passing students to an afterschool study session called Success Group. Students attend these supervised sessions until classwork or grades have improved. (MLH)

Effective teacher incentive systems should reflect the principles that intrinsic rewards are more powerful than extrinsic ones and that encouraging collegiality is preferable to rewarding individual teachers. (Author/TE)

Written entirely from the teacher's perspective, this document is intended to help practicing and prospective school principals examine what they can do to influence teachers and their performance. It is based on an indepth study of everyday strategies that effective principals use to motivate, influence, and empower teachers. Chapter 1 presents a…

Principals' goals of a highly motivated faculty and and effective school are not mutually exclusive. Evidence from an organizational study indicates that adherence to agreed-upon values accompanied by encouragement of individual autonomy promotes high morale among employees. (14 references) (CJH)

This digest reviews a variety of strategies that might be employed by school districts, teacher education institutions, and state educational agencies to attract, train, and retrain Hispanic teachers in math and science. The need for long-term solutions is discussed. Five action-oriented steps to attract Hispanic high school graduates into the…

Current motivation theories aid in the development of a two-step organizational change procedure applicable to educational change. The process involves constructing a climate with a psychological atmosphere that is conducive to change and directly asking others to change. (DCS)

Offers principals some practical ideas to help youngsters become competent, motivated readers. Principals can spend spare moments reading favorite books to students and encourage others to do likewise, help form book clubs, provide cozy reading areas and high-interest materials, help nonfluent readers practice their skills, and ask good readers…