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Leverage Leadership: A Practical Guide To Building Exceptional Schools (2012)

by Doug Lemov(Favorite Author)

4.25 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1118138600 (ISBN13: 9781118138601)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Jossey Bass

review 1: 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 real... morely 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.
review 2: 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. less

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