Leverage Leadership: A Practical Guide to Building Exceptional Schools

by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo, Doug Lemov (Foreword), Brett Peiser (Contributor)

Paul Bambrick-Santoyo (Managing Director of Uncommon Schools)shows leaders how they can raise their schools to greatness byfollowing a core set of principles. These seven principles, or"levers," allow for consistent, transformational, and replicablegrowth. With intentional focus on these areas, leaders willleverage much more learning from the same amount of timeinvestment. Fundamentally, each of these seven levers answers thecore questions of school leadership: What should an effectiveleader do, and how and when should they do it.  Aimed at all levels of school leadership, the book is for anyprincipal, superintendent, or educator who wants to be atransformational leader. The book includes 30 video clips oftop-tier leaders in action. These videos bring great schools toyou, and support a deeper understanding of both the components ofsuccess and how it looks as a whole. There are also many helpfulrubrics, extensive professional development tools, calendars, andtemplates.  Print version includes an instructive DVD with 30 video clips toshow how it looks in real life. E-book customers: please note thatdetails on how to access the content from the DVD may be found inthe e-book Table of Contents. Please see the section: "How toAccess DVD Contents"  Bambrick-Santoyo has trained more than 1,800 school leadersnationwide in his work at Uncommon Schools and is a recognizedexpert on transforming schools to achieve extraordinaryresults.

Genres: Education, Leadership, Nonfiction, Teaching, Professional Development, School

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Paul Bambrick-Santoyo is the Managing Director of Uncommon Schools Newark, which is composed of seven North Star Academy schools. During Bambrick-Santoyo’s eight years at North Star, the schools have seen dramatic gains in student achievement, reaching 90+% proficient on state assessments in almost every category and grade level. As a result, they were recently recognized with the National Blue Ribbon award. Author of Driven by Data: A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction, Bambrick-Santoyo has trained over 2,500 school leaders nationwide in as his work at Uncommon Schools and as the Data-Driven Instruction faculty member for New Leaders for New Schools, a national urban school leadership training program. Prior to joining North Star, he worked for six years in a bilingual school in Mexico City, where he founded the International Baccalaureate program at the middle school level. He earned a B.A. in Social Justice from Duke University (1994) and his M.Ed. in School Administration via New Leaders for New Schools from the City University of New York—Baruch College (2003).

http://uncommonschools.org/bio/1017/p...

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book for principals to help them improve their schools. It comes from Uncommon Schools, an excellent charter network in the New York area.

Things I Liked:
1. Clear and easy-to-follow steps, especially on how to improve classroom practice,
2. Focused on what matters most: student learning,
3. Made me inspired to improve my coaching.

Things I Didn't Like:
1. Emphasis on testing. The author makes two solid counterarguments: (1) You don't have to assess by test, but you must begin with the assessment in mind, (2) Students must learn how to take assessments, (3) There aren't necessarily other good measures that currently exist.

I agree with #1 and see the author's point on #3. For example, there may be other ways (besides tests) to assess reading, but so far, they don't really exist. (Some schools are trying out annotated texts.) Even if #2 is true, I'm not sure it's a good argument.

2. Staff culture chapter. It was much less developed (and written by a different author) than the other chapters. This, of course, made me think that despite all the coaching, perhaps teachers (and teaching as a profession) isn't championed.

3. The tone. I really like successful people, and I like confident people. But I also like calm and humility. This author seems very similar to the folks over at KIPP. In fact, there may be a philosophical divide between East Coast and West Coast charter networks.

[Kate Schwarz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in preparation for Board position--there were some helpful insights, such as the importance of principals guarding their time and using their time incredibly efficiently and wisely. Gained an appreciation of how difficult it is to pack in teacher observations, but also have integral observations are to a great school.

[Rachel Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any school leader

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a school leader and you haven't read this, do it now! Your students can't wait for you to figure all this out on your own (or maybe not figure it out). Let's get ALL kids achieving the success they are capable of.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots applicable for general workplace use. Lots of tips on building successful habits, delivering feedback / information in concrete, actionable ways, and how to build a calendar (as a leader/manager) that gives you the most leverage. Will probably come back to this.

[Anthony Hibbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for time management and focusing on the most important elements for change and student achievement

[Brandi Chin, PhD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential leadership development resource. I've implemented these practices with fidelity across my leadership team and they were instrumental in ensuring our success. The seven levers provide a clear, systematic approach to school transformation. Highly practical and immediately actionable for any education leader serious about driving results.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives such insight into my work in recruiting leaders (especially since it's written by an Uncommon leader!), particularly around the superlevers for driving exceptional student results and the competencies that strong instructional leaders must possess.

[Tenille Shade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book all educators should read, especially leaders. If we want to expedite the rate in which teachers improve, this book provides a clear path.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical advice for improving schools. Really good tips about calendars and time management. I got the feeling it'd be better to read the DDI book first.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good grounding of educational practices that most school leaders would already have been aware of, but a good explanation as to the 'why and how' that makes these strategies effective.

[James Centenera · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books about how to lead schools

[Yari · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all in school leadership or aspiring to be.

[LaMarcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for new school leaders.

[Laina Shoemake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative. This book offers helpful advice on leadership in an easy to read format.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific stuff if you're interested in the nuts and bolts of what can make a school great. I didn't agree with the author on every last detail, but I agreed with a ton of it and there's a wealth of great advice and great materials. I was talking about this book with some friends and we agreed -- it's not so much that the book has a ton of revolutionary ideas (though the great insights about how you coach teachers are certainly not commonplace), but it does codify/organize a lot of what makes a school great. I'm certain I will return to this book again and again over the years.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

My big takeaway from this book is the calendar. I now put in teacher observations and debriefing meetings first, and then everything else. The interim assessment. system is not realistic in my district and state, nor is the 15 to 1 supervisor to teacher ratio for high schools. I am at 23 to 1, though other AP's at my school have as many as 40. Add student discipline to the list, and his calendar suggestions are impossible.

Still, I agree with the levers in theory, and the extra focus on my calendar is paying off for me and my teachers.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great! Now I have the language and focus and support of what to do. I have always espoused that there are many, many, good things to do in order to help students learn more and transform challenged, troubled, under performing schools. This text has given me a framework in which to operate to start the conversation and work at my school with the key levers for informational turnaround.

[Andrea Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The How To for school leaders to bring high quality instruction and a positive school climate to life. There is a DVD with video clips, presentations and other resources ready to use. A reader may know what is shared yet the book will inspire you to implement or rethink current practices as each chapter ends with reflective questions. Definitely worth your time!

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful for school leaders, and possibly for managers or organizational leaders in general. Anecdotes are helpful in clarifying some concepts, and each chapter is broken down into a series of "big ideas" to establish the key takeaways. Not exactly brilliant or game-changing, but a lot of genuinely good ideas and strategies.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of practical, easy to use and implement advice in this one. A bit far fetched in terms of what a principal's schedule would look like, but the focus on improving teachers as a way to boost student achievement is excellent. This has not been addressed in other leadership books I've read and is absolutely needed to improve our schools.

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I related to this book because it relates directly to my job. I also like that it takes traditional business books and applies the applicable parts to education. If you are in a leadership role at a school, you should read this book.

[Cynthia Keedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book that makes me want to explore being an educational leader!

I had to read this text for a grad class, but normally that means I skim the text. This was so good I read in depth a want to read the author's other works.

[Michael DeCaprio · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent

[David Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

great companion piece to Driven by Data.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book "names" everything that the best educational leaders do INTENTIONALLY.

[Coach Noreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for educators!

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best thing about this is for planning. Doesn't get into type of assessments formative vs summarize. I go back to the research of Fisher and Frey!

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

From a principals perspective Chapters 1, 2, and 5 were very helpful.

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read for educators / principals / instructional leaders