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Demystifying Professional Learning Communities: School Leadership at Its Best, Paperback by Kristine Hipp

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Paperback
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9781607090502
1607090503

Publication Date: 2010-03-16
Paperback : 166 pages
Author: Kristine Hipp
ISBN-10: 1607090503
ISBN-13: 9781607090502

Product Description The purpose of this book is to clearly define an approach to school improvement that uses professional learning community (PLC) practices to achieve school improvement and success for every student. This book offers information, examples and case studies to clarify the concept of a PLC, to respond to critical issues in schools, and to support educational leaders in addressing the important mandates of accountability and school improvement. As school leaders proactively lead efforts to create learning communities, their schools, districts, and staff will incorporate knowledge, skills, and practices that focus on teaching and learning for all. The authors' findings will assist leaders, change agents, policy makers, and university faculty in guiding schools toward creating and maintaining PLCs as they sustain school improvement for student learning. Review Education as a profession is and always has been in a constant state of change. The establishment of communities of learning within our schools is essential if we are to meet the demands and challenges of an ever changing educational landscape. Yet, to establish communities of learning is not enough. We must learn to maintain organizational learning in our schools. In Demystifying Professional Learning Communities, Huffman and Hipp provide educational leaders with the knowledge and tools to not only successfully implement Professional Learning Communities, but to sustain them. (Mike Waldrip, principal of Liberty High School, Frisco, TX) Demystifying Professional Learning Communities articulates a clear approach from start to sustainability for building a system that ensures high levels of learning for all. This book is a priceless resource for leaders who wish to transform the culture of their school to one where adults work together in order to ensure student engagement and academic success. (Carolyn Powers, director of elemtentary administration, Fort Wayne Community Schools, IN) In this book, Hipp and Huffman present not only the research but also the means to investigate professional learning communities at work. This book offers informal tools for assessing, analyzing, and diagnosing the effectiveness of professional learning communities as well as case studies that provide insight into what is working in public schools throughout the country. Both campus and central office administrators alike will find this to be a practical and useful resource in the pursuit of sustaining professional learning communities. This book provides the hope that educators need as they struggle to meet the current educational challenges and the tools required to develop cultures of collaborative inquiry. (John Doughney, executive director of curriculum and instruction, Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District,) If you can read only one book about professional learning communities, read this one! Hipp, Huffman, and colleagues cut through the rhetoric, misconceptions, buzzwords, and catch phrases that have become associated with professional learning communities, truly demystifying the concept and process of developing one. Hipp and Huffman articulate the meanings and relationships of the concept's three key words― professional, learning, and community―and walk readers through the process of developing a professional learning community, providing helpful instruments to assist with the process. The book includes three richly descriptive cases of schools involved in the ongoing journey of becoming and being a professional learning community. The writing is clear, practical, and highly readable. Kudos on a great volume! I intend to use this book the next time I teach my graduate-level course, Leadership for Teaching and Learning. (Ulrich C. Reitzug, professor, University of North Carolina at Greensboro) The expectations about what schools are suppose to do shifts and changes constantly. School leadership is no longer seen as the sole responsibility of one pers


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