How to Create a Culture of Achievement in Your School and Classroom

Fisher et al. (educational leadership and literacy, San Diego State U.) explain how to create the mission of a school to focus on a culture to improve student achievement. They suggest practices and structures to help schools enter a cycle of continuous improvement driven by mission, inspired by vision, and operationalized by culture, organizing these practices into five pillars that communicate to stakeholders how the school's mission will be implemented in the daily life of the school. They explain each pillar, which focus on creating a culture that is welcoming, in which school rules teach students to be moral and ethical citizens, in which conditions for learning are always present and students are pushed beyond the minimum, in which the school is the best place to teach and learn, and in which the language creates personal pride, purpose, and power, and why the pillar is important, with examples from schools, and practices and structures to ensure it becomes part of daily practice, including organizational principles, specific actions, and action research tools. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)