The SEL Innovations series aims to help the field imagine new, more expansive and equitable approaches to social and emotional learning (SEL) and wellness to ensure that all children, adolescents, and adults feel safe, supported, and seen so that they can thrive. This is the second report in a series exploring innovations in SEL. The purpose of…

Why another book on decision making? In this increasingly complex world, there are many tensions inherent in the daily practice of educational leaders. This book illuminates these tensions, and acknowledges the reality that there are already multiple approaches to decision making in any educational context. The authors offer a guide to integrate…

A harried leader is not a helpful leader. Schools need calm, well-balanced, helpful leaders as much as they need visionary ones. In fact, in this era of frenetic change in schools, principals should devote at least as much time to helping teachers be more focused and less frantic as they do to formulating new visions for the school or embarking on…

Handling problems in schools is inevitable. Administrators often must make decisions on critical issues and incidents, such as determining disciplinary actions and consequences for student misbehavior, and confrontations with irate parents. In all such cases, they must be able to provide necessary assistance in solving problems while avoiding the…

The dramatic ups and downs so often witnessed in adolescents are the result of changes in their brain activity. It is vital that the emotional and psychological needs that arise from such intense brain development are acknowledged and addressed so that middle school becomes a safe environment for the budding adults.

Every two hours and 15 minutes in the United States, a person who is under the age of 25 years old completes a suicide. As such, everyone must be on the watch for the signs of adolescent suicide, and everyone must know how to respond when they come face to face with it. All must confront this epidemic and provide space within schools for students…

In this book, the author offers the best ideas and most workable discipline practices from more than 1,000 school leaders. The book is loaded with updates and gives administrators all the tools they need to create a safe environment, from dealing effectively with the 5% of students who take up 90% of their time, to creating a positive public image…