More to Read … and See

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More … from my bookshelf With a brief note about what I found compelling in each. Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries by Safi Bahcall 2019 Great stories about getting better.  How we won World War II.  And how Polaroid and Kodak started and then missed the…

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Equity in Action

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Equity in Action Engage more to learn more: The map is not the territory.  No plan survives first implementation steps.  Good implementation – like good teaching – requires constant relearning. We learn more when we engage at the implementation level.  When we see and hear first-hand what implementation looks like, we are better able to…

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Briefing Papers: Best decision making tool ever

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Best Tool Ever … The Briefing Paper $100M Wonder: I first learned about briefing papers at an AASA conference 40 years ago.  The presenter, Bill Banach, claimed they were worth a million dollars.  Since then I have proven them effective with $8M, $35M and $100M projects. No, they don’t manufacture money, but they come close.…

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Review: Nine Lies About Work

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Review:  Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World  by Marcus Buckingham  and Ashley Goodall https://store.hbr.org/product/nine-lies-about-work-a-freethinking-leader-s-guide-to-the-real-world/10214 Marcus Buckingham Many of Buckingham’s earlier books have been best sellers:  First Break All the Rules, The Truth About You, and GO Put Your Strengths to Work.  He turns number crunching – from 1000s of participants…

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Growing Instructional Leaders

7 Ways to Grow Quality School Leaders: Coherence and Capacity People are our most important resource. Dedicated staff engage students daily – 180 days a year – helping them be successful. Teachers are the most important in-school factor that improves student learning. Principals are a close second.  High quality schools don’t appear by magic. They…

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Making Change Stick

How to make change initiatives stick Making Change Stick: 90% of change initiatives fail … because they rely so heavily on one tool, motivation.  According to Patterson and Grenny, successful initiatives include will and skill, not just motivation.  The difference between a problem and an opportunity is the amount of skill available.  No matter how…

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Growing Your Own … Diversity

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Growing Our Own Teachers of Color: Diversity: Teachers of color have a life-changing impact on the success of students of color.  Black Female students who have at least one Black Teacher are 29% less likely to drop out Black Male students who have at least one Black Teacher are 39% less likely to drop out.…

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How We Can Support Paraeducators in Improving Student Learning

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10 ways we can help Paraeducators improve student learning Professional Training for Paras Paraeducators provide much of the service to high needs students.  Washington State now supports and requires professional training for paras. Washington State has 27,000 paraeducators Much of the remediation support students receive comes from paraeducators Two days of paraeducator training are provided…

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Moment of Lift Review

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The Moment of Lift: how empowering women changes the world – Melinda Gates In Moment of Lift, Melinda Gates tells how she, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, morphed from health issues to empowering women. Three Take Aways:  I had three great take aways from reading this book: Improvement science. She describes initiative after…

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