July 24, 2014
Back to school preparations have begun around the country, SRI summer institutes are in full gear, schools are beginning their staff retreats and training, and the final summer get-a-ways are underway. As you begin thinking about the upcoming school year, we have some great reading options to help you stimulate your thinking.
Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School Reading List
Looking for a book on education? Prior to the summer break, the staff at ANCS were invited to choose and read at least one book from this list and be prepared to discuss with their colleagues at the start of the new school year. This week, the ANCS staff is at their summer retreat and they are sharing what they learned from these books. What are you reading this summer? Be sure to share on the SRI Facebook group!
New Books from SRI Affiliates
Two new titles that have been added to the SRI online bookstore!
SRI Board Member Donna Reid (Texas) recently published Dilemmas in Educational Leadership: The Facilitator’s Book of Cases. In this book, Donna provides narrative cases that examine the experiences of teacher leaders, principals, consultants, and parents as they negotiate the difficulties of reluctant team members, hostile colleagues, maintaining group interest, sharing responsibility, using technology, and cultural competency. Each case includes questions for reflection that can be used individually or in small groups to improve facilitation skills.
A new book from SRI Affiliate Joseph McDonald (New York) American School Reform: What Works, What Fails, and Why. In this book, Joe, along with the Cities and Schools Research Group, provides an assessment of school reform as it has played out in recent history. They evaluate the half-billon-dollar Annenberg Challenge, alongside other large-scale reform efforts that have taken place in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay Area, looking deeply at what school reform is, how it works, how it fails, and what differences it can make nonetheless.
New Article on Mission and Vision Revision
SRI Board Member Thomas Van Soelen (Georgia) recently published an article titled Livening up the Blasé Work of Mission and Vision Revision. As you think about heading into a new school year, check out this article for some ideas on how to sustain ongoing conversations about mission and vision. You will read two stories of how school leaders have worked to deepen their practice and explicitly involve stakeholders in the process, as well as see some highlighted SRI tools and resources.
Back to School with SRI Affiliation
As part of your back-to-school preparation, please take five minutes and affiliate with SRI. Affiliates are individuals who have taken the extra step of demonstrating their commitment to SRI and the SRI community. There are no costs for affiliation, and it allows you some extended opportunities including the ability to run for election to the Board of Directors, serve on work groups, vote in the elections and apply for scholarships. Affiliation is a yearly process, so even if you were an affiliate a long time ago, we need you to re-affiliate each year! The board elections will be coming up and your involvement is important – please take a few minutes to affiliate and encourage your friends and colleagues to affiliate as well!
On behalf of the School Reform Initiative,
Kari Thierer, Heidi Vosekas, Chris Jones
