Four Imperatives of a Successful School

Beck and Murphy focus on four specific conditions that are crucial to any successful school: * Strong, yet approachable leadership * Capacity-building resources for teaching * Commitment to school and community * Powerful, consistent focus on learning This new book builds on research reported by the authors in their earlier book, School-Based Management as School Reform. And it goes further--to provide an in-depth investigation into the workings of a school that is making a success of SBM. Using "Jackson" Elementary school (not its real name) as an example, the authors help you understand how people and policies are reshaping education; and they show how you can begin to transform your school. They offer you an inside look at how Jackson Elementary is remaking itself by changing the behaviors and attitudes of its students, teachers, and parents--and creating genuine school reform. The educators and students at Jackson will give you insights about genuine school reform that you won′t get from reading research findings. You′ll learn how to create and enhance successful reform at your school.

Lynn G. Beck is Dean of the School of Education at Pacific Lutheran University. Her research and teaching focuses on administrative ethics, principalship, and leadership preparation.   Joseph F. Murphy is the Frank W. Mayborn Chair and associate dean at Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University. He has also been a faculty member at the University of Illinois and The Ohio State University, where he was the William Ray Flesher Professor of Education. In the public schools, he has served as an administrator at the school, district, and state levels, including an appointment as the executive assistant to the chief deputy superintendent of public instruction in California. His most recent appointment was as the founding president of the Ohio Principals Leadership Academy. At the university level, he has served as department chair and associate dean. He is past vice president of the American Educational Research Association and was the founding chair of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC). He is co-editor of the AERA Handbook on Educational Administration (1999) and editor of the National Society for the Study of Education (NSSE) yearbook, The Educational Leadership Challenge (2002). His work is in the area of school improvement, with special emphasis on leadership and policy. He has authored or co-authored 18 books in this area and edited another 12. His most recent authored volumes include Understanding and Assessing the Charter School Movement (2002), Leadership for Literacy: Research-Based Practice, PreK-3 (2003), Connecting Teacher Leadership and School Improvement (2005), Preparing School Leaders: Defining a Research and Action Agenda (2006), and Turning Around Failing Schools: Lessons From the Organizational Sciences.