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.

The indispensable leadership companion—updated and more relevant than ever!

Part leadership manual, part short novel, this unique best-seller uses dialogues between a novice and a master teacher and between a new and a seasoned principal to illuminate how the simple act of viewing a problem through different lenses—political, human resources, structural, or symbolic—can reveal better options and solutions.

Featuring reflective questions and solid strategies for meeting real-life challenges, the third edition also includes

• New views on building morale in challenging times


• A revamped discussion of mandates, standards, and rubrics


• A celebration of educators as skilled professionals


• Expanded conversations about hope, faith, and parental involvement

Sometimes all it takes to solve a problem is to reframe it by listening to wise advice from a trusted mentor.

Leading with Soul has inspired thousands of readers since its publication more than a decade ago. Far ahead of its time, the book illuminated the deeply personal journey to leadership. Now, in this new and revised edition, the authors update a timeless spiritual message in the light of the turmoil of recent years? including recession, the spread of global terrorism, and ethics scandals? as well as new insights from the literature of spirituality and work.

• Bolman and Deal are the co-authors of the bestselling book Reframing Organizations, now in its 4th edition
• Explores in greater depth the concepts of love, power, and significance as relates to leadership

This completely revised story of an executive and his quest for deeper meaning continues to point the way to a more fulfilling work experience.

When the bestselling books Shaping School Culture and The Shaping School Culture Fieldbook were first published, Kent D. Peterson and Terrence E. Deal described the critical elements of school culture—the purposes, traditions, norms, and values that guide and glue the community together. The authors showed how a positive culture makes school reform work and the companion Fieldbook included the tools needed to bring out the best in students, teachers, and the surrounding community

In today's complex educational environment, new challenges have surfaced for school leaders who must grapple with issues of standards-based testing, school accountability, and student achievement. The second edition of The Shaping School Culture Fieldbook offers a companion to the newly revised edition of Shaping School Culture and includes an expanded version of Peterson and Deal's time-tested model to address the latest thinking on school culture and change. The Fieldbook offers a wealth of new ideas and approaches and includes new material on "toxic" environments with specific action plans. In addition, the book contains powerful new case examples for revitalizing school culture.

The Shaping School Culture Fieldbook draws on the authors' extensive research and nationwide school contacts and includes hands-on strategies and exercises for helping school leaders:

• Uncover a school's hidden values, beliefs, and assumptions

• Think through and develop a school's mission and purpose

• Work out appropriate stories, metaphors, and symbols to represent a school

• Devise rituals and ceremonies for enriching the school experience

• Rethink leadership practices in light of educational and cultural needs

• Identify, transform, and heal a "toxic" educational culture

This important resource will help school leaders understand, assess, and transform school culture for organizational success.

"It is refreshing to see a volume dedicated first and foremost to understanding and building human relationships in schools. By developing strong networks, schools can foster open systems committed to distributive leadership and exemplary academic outcomes."
—Sharon Conley, Professor
University of California, Santa Barbara

Discover how to navigate your school′s social networks to maximize communication and collaboration!

Social networks reflect the usually invisible relationships that control the flow of information and power within a school. This compelling guide provides school leaders with an understanding of the real relationships within their schools and how to use their social savvy to promote school goals.

This resource examines the types of social networks typically found in schools and provides samples of social network maps, steps for developing your own maps, and practical advice for managing social networks effectively. Learn how to leverage the power of:

• Task networks determined by work roles and organizational structure
• Friendship networks based on relationships between staff members
• Power networks that can influence opinions and resources
• Culture networks that can help unite staff

By understanding the many relationships that contribute to a school′s culture, leaders can cultivate innovative ideas, enhance teacher capacity, manage conflict, and get things done.

"This book is wonderful. My colleagues often state that the joy has been taken out of teaching. This book is a wake-up call that should be read by lawmakers at every level. Today I am celebrating the childhood of my students—something that we forget to do."
—Christine Zajac, Principal
Lt. Clayre Sullivan School, Holyoke, MA

There is more to education than teacher-proof curricula and scores on high-stakes tests!

Educators know that genuine teaching involves caring, compassion, and building character—principles that can sometimes take a back seat to short-term goals of standardized performance. This inspirational volume for practicing teachers, student teachers, and school leaders champions the heart and soul of teaching and emphasizes how teachers can influence, inspire, and touch the lives of learners. The book explores the central themes of teaching practice and offers perspectives on:

• Teaching as an art that promotes creativity, character, and imagination in students
• Balancing testing and accountability with the art and passion of teaching
• Authentic being and authentic teaching
• Reform from the ground level, where educators are making a difference in the lives of their students
• New directions for accountability mandates

A motivating and empowering guide, this book reminds educators why they went into teaching in the first place!