Description: Performance Is Key
Performance Is Key
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Dr. Cotter and Dr. Hassler get it! Collectively, they have detailed a practical set of strategies that they have employed in building successful schools and school districts. This publication, if followed, will encourage practicing principals and superintendents to better focus on those troubling gray areas that we all face in administration. Further, it serves as a reasonable guide to be revisited when looking at leadership, operations and instruction in need of improvement.
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Dec, 2017
9781475840186
46,257
Education--ComparativeEducation--Educational Policy & Reform / GeneralEducation--Evaluation & AssessmentEducation--Administration / School Superintendents & Principals
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Chapters
Performance Is Key
Foreword
Performance Is Key
Few leaders in the United States can claim high and continuously improving student achievement, positive morale and supportive staff, and the trust and confidence of parents and the larger local community. Authors Vincent F. Cotter and Robert D. Hassler make such bold claims in Performance Is Key. For my part, I have concluded that, based on my experience over the last thirty years, the...
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
539

Performance Is Key
Preface
Performance Is Key
It was once said that for anything to happen, you would need to imagine it.
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
1,391

Performance Is Key
Introduction
Performance Is Key
Over the last twenty years, the country’s frustration with underperforming, mediocre, and failing schools has grown and most recently reached a crescendo of deafening proportion. Almost on a daily basis, the issue of student achievement and how to “fix” the problem of poor performance along with the methods of how to accomplish it comes under furious debate in some sectors of the...
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
1,301

Performance Is Key
Part I. The Essential Elements
Performance Is Key
I
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
76

Performance Is Key
1 - Alignment
Performance Is Key
Whether you are new to education or an experienced educator, close your eyes, and imagine the full potential of your school or district. What would it look like? How do you envision the students entering the school? What does instruction in the classroom look like?
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
2,526

Performance Is Key
2 - An Achievement-Focused Attitude
Performance Is Key
Whether in the classroom or the boardroom, it is essential to identify one’s beliefs prior to accepting a challenge. Those beliefs become the baseline for actions and decisions that will guide your teaching, your tenure as principal, and your leadership as superintendent. Beliefs affect attitudes and practices.
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
2,533

Performance Is Key
3 - Accountability
Performance Is Key
Standing in front of three hundred high school teachers can be intimidating. The teachers shuffled into a steeply tiered auditorium. Taking strategically located seats, by department, provided teachers with a certain level of comfort. Union representatives talked in a corner of the room. Some teachers immediately started grading papers, while others gazed some thirty feet above the...
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
2,499

Performance Is Key
4 - Aptitude for Adept Leadership
Performance Is Key
Leadership requires action. As basic as that sounds, more often than not educational leaders just do not lead. Some leaders lack the vision and skill to produce high-performing results. Other leaders lack the judgment, experience, and skills to know when something needs changing and when it doesn’t.
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
3,223

Performance Is Key
Part II. Assessing the Foundation of High-Performing Schools
Performance Is Key
II
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
70

Performance Is Key
5 - Organizational Reflection
Performance Is Key
Time and again, research has highlighted that there isn’t anything mysterious about improving performance and that we have the tools available now for leaders to improve performance. As previously cited, the 90/90/90 schools have been able to improve performance without the addition of extraordinary resources or programs.
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
2,649

Performance Is Key
Part III. Reaching for Higher Performance
Performance Is Key
III
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
90

Performance Is Key
6 - Making Schools and Districts High Performing
Performance Is Key
Throughout the United States, many districts and schools, along with the public, believe that they are providing a very good if not excellent education to their student bodies. Unfortunately too many of these districts have equated excellence and possibly higher performance with the quality of its facilities, the “cutting edge” of its technology, their funding base, or other factors...
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
4,496

Performance Is Key
7 - Planning for Success
Performance Is Key
We believe that school leaders have the internal capacity to improve student achievement but often get overwhelmed as to where to begin or have attempted approaches that are very formulaic in nature and have not produced the anticipated desired results.
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
2,518

Performance Is Key
8 - Strategies for Success
Performance Is Key
An administrator’s role in many ways is like that of a conductor of an orchestra or chorus. Rather than direct the performers involved, an administrator directs a school, a department, or an entire school district. For sure, it is full of voices and sounds and expectations; in the same way that a conductor coordinates the work of performers to result in a coherent music experience...
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
4,356

Performance Is Key
9 - Case Studies
Performance Is Key
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
5,420

Performance Is Key
Conclusion
Performance Is Key
In this book, we have presented the process to begin the journey to high performance by suggesting four critical areas that need to be addressed, provided reflective questions to guide the evaluation of your status, and detailed a menu of proven strategies that can be utilized to address each of these areas within the unique context of your school or district. These four critical elements show us...
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
2,944

Performance Is Key
Part IV. Appendixes
Performance Is Key
IV
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
90

Performance Is Key
Appendix A - Activity Worksheets
Performance Is Key
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
4,455

Performance Is Key
Appendix B - School Systems Cross-Check
Performance Is Key
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
2,034

Performance Is Key
Appendix C - My One-Page Plan
Performance Is Key
Our administrative team was adamant that our newly developed strategic plan would be utilized to guide the direction of the district. Unlike state requirements, which only focuses on the academic side of the organization, our team sought to utilize the plan to guide every operational facet and department of our school district because we recognized that an alignment of all employee groups would...
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
901

Performance Is Key
Appendix D - Master-Teacher Program
Performance Is Key
*Master-teacher program authored by Dr. Vincent F. Cotter as superintendent of the Colonial School District in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, 2001.
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
276

Performance Is Key
Bibliography
Performance Is Key
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
1,253

Performance Is Key
About the Authors
Performance Is Key
With over forty years in the field of education, Dr. Vincent F. Cotter, EdD, served as teacher, department chair, and administrator in both urban and urban-suburban public school environments. As superintendent of schools for eleven consecutive years, he was the primary innovator of a unique program, Reaching Above and Beyond, which dramatically improved student achievement. For his...
Vincent F. Cotter; Robert Hassler
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
301

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