The Principal's Companion
Strategies for Making the Job Easier
- Pam Robbins - International Education Consultant
- Harvey B. Alvy - Eastern Washington University, USA
Foreword by Kent D. Peterson
Founding Director, Harvard Principals' Center
'The Principal's Companion is rightfully regarded as 'the bible' of resource books for current and aspiring principals. No other single source provides such a thorough treatment of the multiple roles and dimensions involved in effective school leadership' - Jay McTighe, Author and Educational Consultant
A guide on the side to help you excel in all areas of the principalship!
This third edition of a bestseller serves as a personal mentor for principals, providing the practical resources and tools to help inservice and aspiring administrators manage the challenges of leading a learning organization and facilitating school improvement.
Educational leadership consultant Pam Robbins and experienced principal Harvey B. Alvy guide school leaders on such critical areas as leadership skills, developing vision and a mission, teacher evaluation and supervision, curriculum, technology use, and conducting faculty meetings. This revised and updated guide reflects recent changes in a wide range of educational issues, including data-driven decision making and high-stakes accountability, instructional implications of brain research, federal legislation, cyberbullying, and social responsibility. This book provides:
- Research-based strategies for succeeding with issues deemed critical to the principalship by practicing principals
- An interactive format with reflective questions at the end of each chapter
- A matrix that aligns practices with ISLLC standards
The Principal's Companion is the principal's ideal accompaniment for creating an environment that supports teachers' efforts to bring about successful student performance.
"In the heroic effort to improve our nation's schools, this newly revised volume is a gift to the profession and to the professionals."
"This third edition proves that it’s possible to make a good thing even better. The Principal’s Companion skillfully combines the contemporary 'big ideas' of school leadership with generous amounts of practical guidance regarding leaders’ own learning and ways in which they can nurture teacher leadership, establish genuinely collaborative cultures, and successfully manage the complex organization of the contemporary school."
"The Principal’s Companion is rightfully regarded as 'the bible' of resource books for current and aspiring principals. No other single source provides such a thorough treatment of the multiple roles and dimensions involved in effective school leadership."
Perfect book for the course! Reasonably priced.
The enduring feature of the Principal's Companion, third edition, is that it contains, like the second edition, research based best practices that have withstood the test of time, illustrated with stories from practitioners around the world. It continues to be a valuable resource for veterans, new and aspiring leaders.
The physical appearance of the book has changed. It is now a "user-friendly" 8½ X 11 size (251 pages) handbook packed full of specific, practical examples, figures, strategies, and techniques that can be implemented immediately in one's own context. Inside the cover are the updated 2008 "Educational Leadership Policy Standards", aligned with chapters that address each of these.
References have been thoroughly updated and substantial amounts of new content have been added to support leaders in their quests to make a difference in the lives of teachers, students, parents and community members through their work in schools.
Examples of new content include:
- a new section on leadership from the global perspective
- references from the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress and guidelines for crisis response in our schools
- a transformation from "management by wandering around" (MBWA) to "leading and learning by wandering around" (LLBWA)
- the power of storytelling as a tool for transforming school culture
- the research on how a workplace "feels" and its corresponding productivity
- an examination of the impact of multitasking
- a case study of the Fort Osage School District, where Central Office-School Partnerships were forged that culminated in student success
- a new section on classical insights regarding change and continuous improvement
- research on the relationship between effective supervisory practices, powerful teaching strategies and student achievement
- a Student Learning Nexus Model that highlights components of the learning environment, often in the form of instructional initiatives and their collective impact on student learning
- a section on "Walk Throughs, Snapshots and Drive-Bys"
- new information regarding how to develop and sustain Learning Communities and their impact on student achievement
- updated faculty, team or department meeting resources
- a new section on important shifts related to curriculum, instruction, assessment, and learning
- important insights on "assessment for learning" (Stiggins) vs. "assessment of learning"
- a revised "beginning of the year" checklist
- new tips regarding using technology and technology related issues
- a new section on opening a new school
- new information on family involvement, and school-parent-community-business partnerships
- a new section on Social Justice and the challenge of "Excellence and Equality"
- a new section on cyberbullying and social responsibility
- a new section on the high school dropout crisis and the need for academic press and social support
- new insights regarding the moral and ethical responsibilities of leadership and the concept of authentic leadership
Finally, as Jay McTighe, well respected author and educational consultant said of the third edition, "The Principal's Companion is rightfully regarded as 'the bible' of resource books for current and aspiring principals. No other single source provides such a thorough treatment of the multiple roles and dimensions involved in effective school leadership".