School Improvement

This book is a descriptive treatment of the Professional Standards for Education Leaders (PSEL), developed by several professors in Kentucky who teach graduate ed leadership courses, and their colleagues at the Kentucky Department of Education. PSEL has been adopted by the Kentucky Educational Professional Standards Board as the leadership standards that drive instruction and practice. This resource is an excellent guide for any school leader, as it breaks down PSEL, and follows with bulleted examples and scenarios that illustrate ‘best practice’ in serving a school effectively and creating a culture of school improvement.

Our Kentucky colleagues take us deeply into an area that is worth as much as academic focus. If we can pull back some from our routines and hold close some of powerful understandings in this book, understandings that help shape who our students are and what their futures can be, we will know a good deal more about students and leadership than we do now. And it will come by building trusting personal relationships that will embed care in our schools —and learning, pride, hope, and fun into the often-half empty baskets students carry around. , This fabulous PSEL narrative provides principal certification students and their mentors the blueprint and guidance tool they need to improve teacher and student effectiveness, address equitable opportunities, and help establish the non-negotiables of an effective leader. The scenarios included in each chapter are excellent real-life examples and practical experiences that will provide authentic facilitation and a guidance for true leadership., We know from research and practice that having strong, highly effective principals is imperative to the success of our students. Being an effective leader is multi-faceted, and this book is a tremendous resource to those of us who support principals on a daily basis. I also found it to be a tool to be utilized by educational leaders for self-improvement. The scenarios, questions, and opportunities for reflection bring the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders to life., This compilation of expert interpretation and advice on the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders is a must for education preparation programs and current or aspiring educational leaders. This text can be used by instructors to enhance instruction, or by practitioners to promote personal growth individually or in a professional learning community. The design of each chapter makes for easy reading and promotes reflection by the reader on the qualities and dispositions of each standard at the indicator level. The contributors share their practical interpretations, provide discussion prompts, and list leadership actions associated with individual standards. Taking each standard chapter-by-chapter allows the reader to fully embrace the intent and expectations of leadership in education through thorough analysis and practical perspective. As a current or aspiring education leader you will find this resource vital to your own professional growth as well as those you mentor.

Joseph ‘Rocky’ Wallace is associate professor of education at Campbellsville University, helping develop CU’s graduate education leadership program. He has also served in a similar capacity in helping grow school leader models at Asbury University and Morehead State University, and he provides consulting to P-12 schools on integrating the principles of servant leadership into school culture and school improvement.