Creating an Award-Winning School

Creating an Award-Winning School: Outside the Box Thinking for Inside-the- School Success, is the result of collaboration between the authors and practicing and retired administrators. The book is written for new and experienced school administrators, college level instructors, and leaders in the private sector. The authors designed the Principals’ Professional Pyramid to serve as the foundation for the book. Creating the Pyramid and adapting the steps from the study of Steven Covey’s Principle-Centered Leadership, the authors arranged the tasks of administration into five major steps. The steps are ONESELF, OTHERS, ORGANIZATION, and OPERATIONS and OUTREACH. The authors developed these steps because they felt that a principal should begin with ONESELF before dealing successfully with OTHERS. Once organization is implemented, then the principal can deal with the continued OPERATIONS of all the school. OUTREACH into a professional network is a necessity for the success of a building leader.Embedded in the book are suggestions of Outside the Box Thinking or practical ideas to enhance the day-to-day operations of the building leader. Field techniques, forms, charts, diagrams, and reflections offered by the authors. These have been used to support the topics and enhance the content for the reader.

Wow! A book that gives you confidence and guides you through your early years as a building administrator and beyond. This book is easy to read and is organized in a way that the reader can quickly reference any topic. A must have for every administrator’s library. As a past recipient of the Ohio Assistant Principal of the Year, I am asked for a recommendation of a great book for beginning administrators, well, wait no longer! This book has it all! It will guide you through your mission and purpose. Topics from summer planning to communications to taking care of yourself. I commend Dr. Walker and Dr. Litzel on this effort and thank them for sharing their wisdom. This must have book will serve you well now and for years to come. , The role of a school principal is challenging and can be overwhelming. This is a book that can help with those day-to-day challenges and is for all school administrators. Dr. Walker and Dr. Litzel provides “out of the box” ideas to aid in the daily duties of being a school administrator. This book is an easy read that focuses on oneself, others, organization, operations, and outreach. These components are essential for the success of any building leader., As an elementary school principal, I found this book to be practical and user-friendly, giving school administrators checklists and other resources to make their multi-dimensional job a little bit easier! If you put this book's outside-the-box ideas into action, you can undoubtedly expect a positive school culture and in-school success!

Janet M. (Spoonster) Litzel is currently a graduate instructor with Cleveland State University College of Education and Human Services. In her educational career spanning over 50 years, Dr Litzel has also served on the teaching and administrative faculty at the University of Akron and Ashland University following her years as an elementary and middle school teacher and principal.Joanie Walker is currently a professor of practice in educational administration at Cleveland State University. She has over 35 years of experience as an educator including 21 years as a school administrator. Dr. Walker is the only two-time Ohio High School Principal of the Year.