It's Not Rocket Science - A Guide to the School Improvement Cycle

With Examples from New Zealand and Australian Schools

Linda Bendikson, Frauke Meyer

• Publisher: Myers Education Press
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781975505448
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

It's Not Rocket Science - A Guide to the School Improvement Cycle: With Examples From New Zealand and Australian Schools presents an easy-to-read, practical guide to effectively leading school improvement. It walks leaders through each step of 'The School Improvement Cycle' developed by Bendikson and Meyer, providing case studies, examples, and helpful tools from primary and secondary schools for the implementation of each step. The book will support school leaders in implementing improvement cycles without making the classic mistakes of failing to develop measures of improvement and test change actions before scaling up. Schools and system leaders will benefit greatly from this practical guide, in which Bendikson and Meyer demonstrate that implementing improvement cycles is not a difficult process. While the book uses examples from Australian and New Zealand schools, the lessons that the book teaches can be applied to school leaders everywhere.The authors show how to make the complex work of improving student learning and outcomes at least somewhat simpler. They do this by describing and illustrating improvement steps that they have found to work in practice, providing examples from their work in schools to show the application of these ideas. If implemented properly, the cycles become "self-propelling, " thus reducing the cognitive load involved in planning how to improve. A range of evidence from international research and the authors' own research and development work in schools explains the cycle and illustrate it.The book is entitled It's Not Rocket Science because this is the common reaction from leaders once they understand the improvement cycle process. The book is perfect for a variety of courses in Education Leadership, Professional Development, and any other curriculum devoted to improving schools and student performance. Perfect for courses such as: Educational Leadership, Professional Development

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword by Helen Timperley, PhD
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Introducing the School Improvement Cycle
• Chapter 2. A Case Study of Gauguin Primary
• Chapter 3. A Case Study of O’Keeffe College
• Chapter 4. Defining the Problem and the Goal
• Chapter 5. Developing the Theory for Improvement
• Chapter 6. Narrowing the Focus to Quick Wins
• Chapter 7. Developing the Measures and Establishing the Baseline
• Chapter 8. Analysing Causes and Designing Strategies
• Chapter 9. Implementing Strategies
• Chapter 10. Checking and Refining
• Chapter 11. Leading Improvement—The Human Side of Change
• About the Authors
• Index