Administrator's Guide to Student Achievement & Higher Test Scores - by Marcia Kalb Knoll (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This "how-to" resource gives K-12 school principals and other supervisory personnel a comprehensive action plan for improving teaching, student achievement, and student test scores. Step-by-step, the author shows the reader all aspects of teaching standards that make students achieve and be successful, how to organize professional development that impacts school achievement, and how to match the curriculum to student achievement. Included are over 80 full-page forms, checklists and handouts that can be used as is or readily adapted to fit the user s needs.

From the Back Cover

For elementary and secondary principals and other key supervisory personnel, here is a comprehensive action plan for improving instruction, student achievement, and student test scores in virtually any school, including scores of timesaving forms, charts, and worksheets that can be used "as is" or easily adapted to fit your own situation.

Step-by-step, in six parts covering all of the elements required for student success, this practical resource shows the administrator:

(1) how to establish standards for teaching that make students successful by focusing teachers on six specific criteria that influence learning and target students' achievement, and building a collegial effort

(2) how to determine what teachers need to make students achieve through overview conferences, informal visits, observation of classroom environments, time-on-task reviews, reviewing artifacts, and formal observations

(3) how to match growth plans to what each teacher needs using three different plans: directed growth plan, collaborative growth plan, and teacher-directed growth plan

(4) how to communicate for student success by providing a secure climate for teacher growth, being an active listener, writing effective communications, and giving priority to activities that lead directly to learning and achievement

(5) how to initiate professional development workshops, use peer coaches and study teams to transfer new strategies to classroom practice, and ensure that professional development impacts student achievement

(6) how to enhance student success through teaching curriculum standards, effective use of praise and rewards, classroom organization, social-emotional learning, and use of technology

Each part gives you everything you need to take action, including reproducible tools and materials such as "Forming Questions That Raise the Level of Learning" (Fig. 2-7), "Time-On-Task Review" (Fig. 7-1), "Teacher-Directed Growth Plan" (Fig. 13-3), "Letter of Commendation" (Fig. 18-4), "Professional Development Planning Guide" (Fig. 20-1), and "Curriculum Framework" (Fig. 24-2).

Better still, all of these forms, charts, letters, and worksheets are printed in a big 8-1/4" x 11" format and can be photocopied as many times as required for your own use or use by other supervisory personnel and/or members of your teaching staff!

Written by an educator with over 25 years of experience in school administration, Administrator's Guide to Student Achievement and Higher Test Scores provides a ready-to-use blueprint for helping each teacher reach his or her highest level of effectiveness and assuring successful students who achieve high test scores.

About the Author

Marcia Kalb Knoll, Ed.D, currently an Assistant Professor of Education at Hunter College s School of Education in NY, Dr. Knoll is a former teacher, elementary principal and district director of instruction and curriculum in the New York City Public Schools and assistant superintendent of the Hewlitt-Woodmere Public Schools on Long Island. She is also a past president of the national ASCD (Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development) and the author of two previous Prentice Hall books for school administrators.