The most trusted guide to school culture, updated with current
challenges and new solutions
Shaping School Culture is the classic guide to exceptional school
leadership, featuring concrete guidance on influencing the subtle
symbolic features of schools that provide meaning, belief, and faith.
Written by renowned experts in the area of school culture, this book
tackles the increasing challenges facing public schools and provides
clear, candid suggestions for more effective symbolic leadership. This
new third edition has been revised to reflect the reality of schools
today, including the increased emphasis on high-stakes testing, federal
reforms such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Every Student Succeeds
Act (ESSA), state sponsored improvement programs, and other major issues
that impact organizational culture and the role of school leaders. Each
chapter features new examples and cases that illustrate persistent
problems, spelling out key cultural implications and offering concrete
examples of overcoming the challenges while maintaining a meaningful
learning environment. The chapter on toxic schools continues to provide
the field's most trusted advice on navigating this rocky terrain, and
the discussion's focus on how to manage negativity remains especially
integral to besieged school administrators across the U.S.
Recent years have jolted the nation's school system with a number of new
developments that spell problems for the cultural tapestry of schools.
This book provides expert perspective and sage, doable advice for
administrators tending to external pressures while sustaining�or
evolving�a more positive school culture.
- Navigate new challenges including Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
and waning confidence and faith
- Turn around a toxic school culture with confidence and success
- Foster a culture of passion, purpose, and meaning
- Adopt a more active form of symbolic leadership to support students,
faculty, staff, parents, and community
Test scores as the primary metric, relentless reforms, waning public
support, and timid initiatives wrapped in bureaucratic packaging: while
among the most prominent issues administrators face are only the tip of
the iceberg. Shaping School Culture charts a route through competing
pressures to help educational leaders hew a positive learning
environment for schools.
