Compassionate Leadership for School Improvement and Renewal aims to equip educational leaders with the knowledge, skills, and learning experiences necessary to approach their work from an intentional stance of compassion. Schools serve as both sites and sources of suffering; yet compassionate leadership can facilitate healing for students, educators, and community members. The moment is right to move the field toward a compassion-centered approach to leadership. In recent years, people around the world have experienced unfathomable loss and suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic, persistent inequities and subsequent social justice protests, war and violence, and catastrophic natural disasters. These events created perpetual anxiety, stress, fear, uncertainty, loss, and grief for millions of people—including educators. Now perhaps more than ever, people need to give and receive compassion. The purpose of the volume is to build educational leaders’ capacity to demonstrate compassion, foster collective compassion within their schools and districts, establish organizational environments in which compassion is routinely given and received, and, subsequently, transform schools into sites of healing. Ultimately, through the unique contributions of each chapter, this volume offers a path toward school improvement that is both renewing and sustaining. ENDORSEMENTS: "As a former school counselor and school administrator, my view about compassionate leadership is one grounded in relational practice. This may be obvious to some, but unfortunately lost on many. This thoughtful volume edited by Kara Lasater and Kristina LaVenia explores a desperately needed reformulation of school leadership for our times. Compassionate leadership takes enormous courage because it works against much of the institutional ethos that forms and frames the role, thinking, and behaviors of those ostensibly charged to both manage and lead schools." — William C. Frick, University of Oklahoma "The education system is in its most challenging period in decades, perhaps in the past century. The need now is to address student, staff and organizational suffering. Lasater and LaVenia et. al., offer antidotes in this volume by providing up to date research, theory and insight to cultivate, conceptualize and practice compassionate educational leadership. For those who teach and lead with their heart, this book is essential reading." — Joseph A. Polizzi, Sacred Heart University "In an increasingly challenging educational landscape, leaders find themselves facing teacher shortages, student trauma, and learning loss. Schools could easily become institutions rife with secondary trauma and burned out professionals operating in stark contrast to the unifying motivations that drew each of us into this profession. This volume reminds us that among the many skill sets leaders must employ, organizational and leader compassion fulfills a fundamental human need and unlocks a means by which schools can transform from professional survival to the joyful work of changing lives for the better." — Joshua Ray, Greenwood Public Schools

In chemistry, a catalyst accelerates change without being depleted. As we seek school improvement, we need sustainable, scalable changes, and therefore catalytic structures are ideal. From communities of practice to professional learning communities to Networked Improvement Communities (NICs) much has been made in the scholarly and consultancy literature about collaborative approaches to improvement. The benefit of improvement communities that operate in networks over professional learning communities or isolated communities of practice is that they allow for broader experimentation, more rapid iteration, and greater possibility for scaling improvement. Educators have many tools and protocols to support the various approaches to improvement, evidenced by the many tools the Carnegie Foundation has developed for NICs alone. However, we need to understand how these are being used in a wide range of contexts and iterations. This book answers three questions: 1) How can improvement communities act as catalysts? 2) How do improvement communities serve as discipline, creative inquiry? 3) Most importantly, how do improvement communities support flourishing individuals? These three questions serve as the drivers of three sections with practical recommendations and insights for teachers, administrators, and policymakers that will lead to more sustainable leadership practices and thriving educators, students, and communities.

Research has proven that childhood trauma affects school engagement and success while at the same time recognizing that the majority of students have experienced it. This book offers simple strategies, based on evidence-based studies, that elementary educators can use to effectively recognize trauma, teach resilience, and support their students in being ready to learn. The book covers all the tenets of trauma-informed teaching, including understanding the effects of trauma, creating safety and predictability, fostering healthy attachments, and modeling resilience as part of social emotional learning, all of which are framed within cultural humility and competence. Designed for all teachers, professionals, and school administrators working with elementary students, this practical guide is key reading for creating a safe classroom and school environment that is inclusive of all learners and conducive for learning.

School leadership instability is particularly problematic for scholars and practitioners concerned with PK-12 school improvement, as second only to teachers, campus leadership has been identified as a primary factor in students' academic success (Young et al., 2007). Yet, while principals play an indispensable role in students' academic success, the job has become considerably more stressful as the role of a school leader continues to evolve. Specifically, added responsibilities, increased work intensity, and the ever-present menace of high stakes accountability have intensified the stress levels encountered by today's school leaders (Carpenter & Brewer, 2012; Chaplain, 2001; Darmody & Smyth, 2016; Wang, et al., 2018). This intensification negatively impacts a school’s teaching staff and its students, as the overall quality of the school experience can deteriorate if principals are unable to meet their potential due to the burnout and fatigue associated with chronic stress (Darmody & Smyth, 2016; Devos, et al., 2007). For principals to fully realize their ability to serve as catalysts for school improvement, they should be allowed to prioritize physical, mental, cognitive, and emotional health. Desired levels of wellbeing occur in the absence of chronic physical, social, psychological, emotional, economic, and cognitive distress (La Placa, et al., 2013). As authors in this volume demonstrate, many school leaders have commenced specific practices targeting cognitive, emotional, and behavioral wellbeing to cope with occupational stress and flourishing- or, at the very least, surviving in such a challenging environment. Among coping strategies leaders have adopted include mindfulness and other wellbeing interventions/strategies intended to facilitate healthier lifestyles, relieve stress, and improve personal resilience (Aviles & Dent, 2015; Mahfouz, 2018; Wells, 2015). Recently, there has been a call to consider educational leadership through a positive human flourishing lens. Research in this area focuses on integrating wellbeing practices in professional development programs for teachers and school administrators to highlight the positive effects of personal and collective wellbeing in schools (Cherkowski & Walker, 2014). For example, empirical studies have examined how incorporating mindfulness practice promotes positive adaptive skills, stress resilience, and social and emotional skills needed in a school environment (Abenavoli, et al., 2013; Benn, et al., 2012; Dvor a kova et al., 2017; Jennings, 2015; Meiklejohn et al., 2012; Mahfouz et al., 2018). New understandings about the relationship between school administrators' wellbeing and school improvement efforts should ignite interest within the field. As such, this book’s chapters are organized into four distinct sections that provide: (a) an overview of the field (Section I), (b) an empirical argument for why such research is essential (Section II), (c) wellbeing models to be considered for use in the PK-12 setting (Section III), and, (d) specific wellbeing practices and frameworks currently being in PK-12 (Section IV).

Big results come from small steps. Written with school leaders in mind, this inspirational yet practical handbook teaches you how to add mindfulness into your day, bit by bit, whether you are sitting in your office or walking down the hall. With mindfulness, you will get better at managing meetings, responding creatively to complex situations, and achieving resilience—you will become a more effective leader and a more positive force for your staff and students. Features include: Real-life profiles of mindful school leaders Practice exercises to try right away Guidance so you know if you are “doing it right” Hard-to-find resources, including mindfulness apps

Leading Improvement in School Community Wellbeing provides a framework for a set of high-impact strategies that individually and together can be the focus of improving wellbeing across the school.

Join today′s most insightful thinkers as they explore the heart, mind, and soul of educational leadership! This concise volume offers educational leaders key concepts and strategies for framing discussions about closing the equity gap and ensuring high achievement for all learners. As the first volume in The Soul of Educational Leadership series, this unique collection presents: Pedro A. Noguera and Alan M. Blankstein on essential questions and themes Delores B. Lindsey and Randall B. Lindsey on culturally proficient equity audits Antoinette Mitchell on the knowledge base for teaching diverse learners in big-city schools Stephen G. Peters on how to capture, inspire, and teach every learner Thomas R. Guskey on rethinking the work of Benjamin S. Bloom Karen J. Pittman and Merita Irby on readiness for college, work, and life Alan Boyle on helping failing schools to turn around Richard Farson on the paradoxes of risk, challenge, failure, and innovation Pioneering educators and series editors Alan M. Blankstein, Robert W. Cole, and Paul D. Houston offer thought-provoking ideas applicable to all schools, districts, and learning communities and include a complete index for browsing and easy reference.

Since the passing of Brown versus Board of Education to the election of the first Black president of the United States, there has been much discussion on how far we have come as a nation on issues of race. Some continue to assert that Barack Obama’s election ushered in a new era—making the US a post-racial society. But this argument is either a political contrivance, borne of ignorance or a bold-faced lie. There is no recent data on school inequities, or inequity in society for that matter, that suggests we have arrived at Dr. King’s dream that his “four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Children today are instead still judged by the color of their skin, and this inequitable practice is manifest in today’s schools for students of color in the form of: disproportionate student discipline referrals, achievement and opportunity gaps, pushout rates, overrepresentation in special education and underrepresentation in advanced coursework, among other indicators (Brooks, 2012). Though issues of race in the public education system may take an overt or covert form; racial injustice in public schools is still pervasive, complex and cumulative. For example, many students of color, year after year, do not have access to “good” teachers, experience low staff expectations, and are subject to “new and improved” forms of tracking (Brooks, Arnold & Brooks, in press). The authors in this book explore various ways that racism are manifest in the American school system. Through a plurality of perspectives, they deconstruct, challenge and reconstruct an educational leadership committed to equity and excellence for marginalized students and educators.

This edited volume explores different models, conceptualizations, and measures of leader interpersonal and influence "soft skills" that are so necessary for effective leadership. These include the communication skills, persuasion skills, political savvy, and emotional abilities used by leaders to inspire, motivate, and move followers toward the accomplishment of goals. The book emanates from the two-day-long 21st Kravis-de Roulet leadership conference, which brought together top scholars working in this area. The intent of the conference and this edited volume is to increase understanding of the interpersonal and influence skills, or "soft skills," of the leader, to highlight state-of-the-art research on the topic, and to provide clear, research-based guidelines for the development of leader skills.Chapter authors are recognized experts in their respective areas, and each section of the book will be introduced by an editor-authored chapter reviewing the specific topic area in brief.

There is a world-wide thirst for authentic leaders who are somehow able to create school learning communities characterized by the purveyance of flourishing faith, hope, and love. Servant-leadership for Catholic school principals is considered one of the most meaningful and effectual callings imaginable. Informed by conversations with six exemplary servant leaders, this book explores the servant-leadership vocation of Catholic school principals.The culminating conceptual framework emphasizes the importance of personal identity and Faith formation as foundational to the exercise of authentic servant-leadership. As each Catholic school community lives out its unique features, signature history, a particular call to meet community needs, and its leader-shaped personality, this book serves to remind educators to clarify and sharpen their service toward the common mission of Catholic schooling.The relevance of servant leadership in the Catholic school principalship is demonstrated through the experiences, insights, narratives and expertise of the principals and then synthesized with conceptual reflections. An underlying theme in this book is that the exercise of servant-leadership provides hope for followers because of its exceptional interest in helping all constituents develop their own capacities, capabilities and potentials such that each person becomes a servant leader.