Shaping School Culture - 3rd Edition by Terrence E Deal & Kent D Peterson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

From the Back Cover

THE CLASSIC GUIDE TO SCHOOL CULTURE-- UPDATED TO MEET THE CHALLENGES OF TODAY'S SCHOOLS

Now in its third edition, Shaping School Culture has become the go-to guide to exceptional school leadership. This classic work can help any education leader foster passion, purpose, and meaning within their school. The authors--experts in the area of school culture--offer practical guidance for influencing the subtle symbolic features of schools that provide meaning, belief, and faith. Deal and Peterson also include a wealth of illustrative stories and meaningful advice for dealing with timely issues such as test scores determining school effectiveness, challenging federal reforms, loss of confidence in our schools, and unproductive state initiatives. The authors show how school leaders can recognize external pressures for reform while simultaneously tending to their vital leadership role of shaping culture.

Praise for Shaping School Culture

"Deal and Peterson understand the reality of school culture while also knowing it is the profound role of the leader to shape that culture. This book is a must-read for any school leader who yearns for something more than the day-to-day frustrations of the work."
--PAUL HOUSTON, executive director, emeritus, American Association of School Administrators and president, Center for Empowered Leadership

"The world of American schools has been spinning furiously since the first edition of Shaping School Culture. What has been missing--until now--was a road map to navigate the new and perplexing twists and turns as leaders attempt to understand, craft, and sustain their school cultures."
--ROLAND S. BARTH, author and educator

"Deal and Peterson use contemporary examples, cases, and policy trends to provide a fresh perspective on schools. Throughout the volume the reader is re-oriented to the elements of school culture that matter most. Folklore, heroes, revival of old ways, paradox, and even the avoidance of toxic cultures all have a role to play. An essential read."
--SHARON CONLEY, PHD, professor, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara

About the Author

TERRENCE E. DEAL has been a professor at Stanford, Harvard, Vanderbilt and (as Irving R. Melbo Professor) the University of Southern California. He is the coauthor of Corporate Cultures, Leading with Soul, Reframing Organizations, and How Great Leaders Think.

KENT D. PETERSON is an emeritus professor in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Deal and Peterson are also coauthors of The Leadership Paradox.