Leading School Turnaround: How Successful Leaders Transform Low-Performing Schools

"Going beyond their previous considerable work on the study of leadership, Kenneth Leithwood, Alma Harris, and Tiiu Strauss now get up-close and detailed. They use their powerful framework for how school leaders influence student learning, but this time they get inside the `how.' Practical, powerful, interesting, and insightful---an indispensible resource for turnaround leaders."---Michael Fullan, professor emeritus, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto

"The problem of bringing about change in those schools where it is needed most remains one of the most intractable challenges in school leadership. This book is written by international scholars who understand the complexities of this challenge. Unlike other volumes based on a single person's experience or a reading of the literature, these authors offer useful specific insights based on data about what leaders in schools that accomplish fundamental change actually do."---Philip Hallinger, Chair Professor of Leadership and Change, Hong Kong Institute of Education

Leading School Turnaround offers new perspectives and concrete, evidence-based guidelines for the educational leaders and administrators faced with the challenge of turning our low-performing schools around. Using the tools outlined in this groundbreaking book, school leaders can guide their schools to higher levels of achievement and sustained academic success.

Based on research conducted in the United States, Canada, and England, Leading School Turnaround addresses in three parts the dynamic context of the turnaround environment, what turnaround leaders do, and the incredible challenges of moving from turnaround to "stay around."

Filled with illustrative examples, the book outlines the best practices and behaviors successful turnaround leaders exercise. The authors include detailed information for applying the four main categories of turnaround leadership: direction setting, developing people, redesigning the school, and managing the instructional program.

This important resource can help any school leader get their school back on the track to academic success.

Kenneth Leithwood is professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He is chair of the American Education Research Association's Leadership and Administration division: co-editor of the journal Leadership and Policy in Schools; president of the Canadian Educational Leadership Network: and president of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies
Alma Harris first trained as a secondary school teacher and taught in a number of challenging schools. She is the director of the London Centre for Leadership in Learning at the Institute of Education, London. Her research work focuses on organizational change and development. She is internationally known for her work on school improvement, particularly on improving schools in challenging circumstances.
Tiiu Strauss is a project director working with Kenneth Leithwood in the Department of Theory and Policy Studies at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. She has published in the areas of leadership problem solving, distributed leadership, and leadership in turnaround schools