Matthew Militello

Leadership, coupled with learning, is an ongoing process in which everyone has a participatory role in school or district change efforts. Providing a useful antidote to the plethora of packaged curriculum and external professional development providers, this book focuses on reclaiming agency, advocacy, and inquiry for leaders and teachers in the places they know best--their schools and districts. Doing so requires imagination, cooperation, and transparency. As such, the authors provide evidence from multiple school and district educators who are cultivating change from within by disrupting and dismantling systems and drawing on internal assets to address equity-driven challenges. As a result, educators can and should become researchers of their own practices. This resource offers a set of evidence-based principles, processes, and protocols that increase equitable access and support educators to breathe joy and justice into schools and communities. Book Features:Educational change reimagined as reinvesting in the collective power of the people closest to the issues. Guidance based on evidence from multiple school and district change efforts documented and described by the authors. Use of evidence to organize more productive informal and formal professional learning driven by practitioner agency and inquiry. Text boxes called "Voices From the Field" provide stories of practices from practitioner-researchers. Access to useful and equitable processes and protocols for the professional learning of educators. Evidence from school and district leaders underscores the complex work of leading and learning from within, and how to do it.

Leadership, coupled with learning, is an ongoing process in which everyone has a participatory role in school or district change efforts. Providing a useful antidote to the plethora of packaged curriculum and external professional development providers, this book focuses on reclaiming agency, advocacy, and inquiry for leaders and teachers in the places they know best--their schools and districts. Doing so requires imagination, cooperation, and transparency. As such, the authors provide evidence from multiple school and district educators who are cultivating change from within by disrupting and dismantling systems and drawing on internal assets to address equity-driven challenges. As a result, educators can and should become researchers of their own practices. This resource offers a set of evidence-based principles, processes, and protocols that increase equitable access and support educators to breathe joy and justice into schools and communities. Book Features:Educational change reimagined as reinvesting in the collective power of the people closest to the issues. Guidance based on evidence from multiple school and district change efforts documented and described by the authors. Use of evidence to organize more productive informal and formal professional learning driven by practitioner agency and inquiry. Text boxes called "Voices From the Field" provide stories of practices from practitioner-researchers. Access to useful and equitable processes and protocols for the professional learning of educators. Evidence from school and district leaders underscores the complex work of leading and learning from within, and how to do it.

This book gives principals the tools they need to avoid lawsuits by teaching their staff the information they need to practice preventive law. Lawsuits often begin when teachers unintentionally violate students’ rights such as searching a student’s cell phone without reasonable suspicion or failing to follow a student’s Individualized Education Program. These violations do not occur because teachers intend to break the law. They occurred because the vast majority of teachers are not required to learn about the rights and responsibilities of students and teachers in their teacher preparation programs. As a result, most teachers get their legal information from the “law school” of the teachers’ lounge—that is, from colleagues who are similarly uninformed and misinformed. Instead, what teachers want and need is an in-service program that will provide them with a basic understanding of school law. But most busy principals don’t have the time, knowledge and resources to provide such a program for their staff. This book will meet this critical, unmet need. It provides principals with the resources and lesson plans they need to incorporate school law into their professional development program. As a result, their teachers will get their information about school law from a reliable source – not from the rumors, fears and myths of the teachers’ lounge. By empowering their teachers with legal knowledge, principals and teachers will avoid lawsuits by becoming partners in the practice of preventive law.

This book gives principals the tools they need to avoid lawsuits by teaching their staff the information they need to practice preventive law. Lawsuits often begin when teachers unintentionally violate students’ rights such as searching a student’s cell phone without reasonable suspicion or failing to follow a student’s Individualized Education Program. These violations do not occur because teachers intend to break the law. They occurred because the vast majority of teachers are not required to learn about the rights and responsibilities of students and teachers in their teacher preparation programs. As a result, most teachers get their legal information from the “law school” of the teachers’ lounge—that is, from colleagues who are similarly uninformed and misinformed. Instead, what teachers want and need is an in-service program that will provide them with a basic understanding of school law. But most busy principals don’t have the time, knowledge and resources to provide such a program for their staff. This book will meet this critical, unmet need. It provides principals with the resources and lesson plans they need to incorporate school law into their professional development program. As a result, their teachers will get their information about school law from a reliable source – not from the rumors, fears and myths of the teachers’ lounge. By empowering their teachers with legal knowledge, principals and teachers will avoid lawsuits by becoming partners in the practice of preventive law.

Reframing Community Partnerships in Education provides both the theoretical framework as well as a practical guide to engage educators in interdisciplinary, inter-organizational, multicultural, and multi-generational work to improve the social fabric of communities. Using case examples of best practice, this book explores transformational practices for community development, community building, and civic engagement. Featuring "Community Learning Exchange" pedagogies adaptable to a wide range of contexts, this book encourages educators—through use of participatory practices and a collective leadership model—to build stronger communities and advance learning for all.

Reframing Community Partnerships in Education provides both the theoretical framework as well as a practical guide to engage educators in interdisciplinary, inter-organizational, multicultural, and multi-generational work to improve the social fabric of communities. Using case examples of best practice, this book explores transformational practices for community development, community building, and civic engagement. Featuring "Community Learning Exchange" pedagogies adaptable to a wide range of contexts, this book encourages educators—through use of participatory practices and a collective leadership model—to build stronger communities and advance learning for all.

It is essential that today’s educators and school leaders are more informed about the legal rights and entitlements of students with disabilities. This resource provides eight easy-to-implement lesson plans on special education law that require no legal knowledge and can be facilitated by school principals, special education directors, teachers, or university instructors. In short one-hour sessions, participants learn by engaging in practical activities instead of only passive reading about the law. All of the lessons utilize actual situations that have led to expensive litigation and each includes the following sections: Introduction for Facilitators; Materials Needed; Background, Purpose, and Objectives of the Lesson; Hook; Activity; Questions for Conversation; Test Your Knowledge; and Additional Resources. This one-of-a-kind book will help schools and districts reduce the time and energy devoted to dealing with violations of the law, resolving parental complaints, correcting errors by school employees, and more. Book Features:A focus on important special education legal issues occurring in schools today. Field-tested lesson plans that can be adopted by schools nationwide because they are based on federal law. Everything needed to teach the lessons, including materials, scripts, interactive activities, and discussion questions. Measurable objectives and assessments to ensure the participants have learned the intended content of the lesson.