Five Essentials of Organizational Excellence

"Marazza offers a prescription for how essential skills can empower school organizations that can ultimately lead to higher student achievement and stakeholder satisfaction."
John Pieno, Chairman
Florida Sterling Council

"Marazza′s book displays both practicality and relevancy in school leadership, and examines leadership theories that triangulate his own methods of transforming today′s schools."
Frank Rudnesky, Principal
Bellhaven Middle School, Linwood, NJ

"The Five Essentials of Organizational Excellence offers and explains what every administrator should know about collaborative leadership and the benefits for student achievement."
Nancy Noeske, President and CEO
PROACT Search, Inc.

Redefine leadership and engineer improved student achievement!

Educational reform. Organizational development. Increased diversity. Accountability. The climate in education today demands an understanding of key concepts. More important, educators beg for answers to important underlying questions. How can we reform education in order to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population? How can we develop an alliance that holds itself accountable to the success and failure of every school, every student? This guide leads you on a path of surprising answers and unorthodox solutions to the problems facing schools today.

The Five Essentials of Organizational Excellence explores the necessity for building strong relationships among administrators, teachers, parents, and the community by:

• Planning strategically
• Benchmarking for excellence
• Leading collaboratively
• Engaging the community
• Governing by standards

Leading a school to excellence involves more than just the principal--every member of the community must be involved in order to make a difference in a school′s success.

Lawrence Marazza is the President and founder of The Lighthouse Management Group, a training and management consulting firm located in Russell, Ohio and focusing on the development of high performing school districts and quality assurance programs for public sector organizations. His career in education spans more than thirty years, twenty-six years as a Superintendent of Schools for three school districts located in two different states. He has also served as an elementary and secondary teacher, college instructor, and public administrator. Throughout his career, he has been able to apply private sector leadership initiatives and practices to public schools. During his tenure as a superintendent he established partnerships with businesses and institutions of higher learning. Through these partnerships, he developed leadership training programs for parents, teachers, school administrators and other stakeholders in public education. Under his leadership, school district alliances with businesses and universities have produced innovative programs and practices that have resulted in significantly improved learning opportunities for students as well as the formation of collaborative teams of public school stakeholders meaningfully involved in school decision-making. Dr. Marazza was named a "Distinguished Graduate in Teacher Education" by Mount Union College. He is also a Professional Fellow with the Weatherhead School of Business at Case Western Reserve University. In addition, he is a contributing author to The Power of Public Engagement: A Beacon of Hope for America’s Schools.