For the last 15 years, the author's firm has been helping organizations become healthier and maximize their human potential by using the model outlined in his latest book, "The Advantage," which is the culmination of his previous books and models. Schools and school districts have embraced the model and enjoyed the competitive advantage…

School funding always will be a concern to school leaders, but it is an issue that districts have little control over. Teacher evaluation too often is a matter of compliance in school districts, and the author has always wanted to do something about it. Because of recent legislative changes to teacher evaluation in Michigan, where the author led a…

Today, when trying to find a way to an unfamiliar destination, many rely on global positioning systems, or GPS technology. "Recalibrating" and "Whenever possible make a legal U-turn" are now ubiquitous phrases in the audio backdrop to many car trips. One can think about modern-day inclusive education in similar terms. The…

A team of 4th-grade teachers in California's Sacramento City Unified School District collaboratively examines student writing products using a rubric that outlines elements in high-quality persuasive writing. The teachers analyze how they taught and assigned the written work in relationship to what the students produced. They focus on what a few…

In the book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game," author Michael Lewis describes how the Oakland Athletics, one of the poorest teams in Major League Baseball, became one of the most successful teams by using simple analytical methods that had existed for years but had been largely ignored by the baseball executives. "Moneyball"…

Several New England states have been rethinking the system whereby small towns make the key decisions about school budgets and staffing under the banner of local control. Maine already has mandated a reduction in the number of local school districts from 290 to 80, allowing localities to vote on the larger districts. This consolidation, unpopular…

After two decades of steady growth and financial stability in the Rio Rancho Public Schools, New Mexico's fastest-growing school district found itself face to face with a $3.8 million budget deficit going into the 2008-09 school year. Because people in the district hesitated to change anything that would cut into student programming, and nobody…

Eight years ago, Carleen Doucet was making her regular visits to schools in the Lafayette Parish district of Louisiana, where she works as the system's crisis intervention specialist, when she noticed a disturbing trend: More students with severe emotional disabilities were enrolled in the district than ever before. Few teachers and other school…

In December 2009, a rapid-growth school district on the Texas Gulf Coast shifted its paradigm of rezoning. Even though half of the Katy Independent School District (Katy ISD) was affected, it achieved a genuine ownership for boundary changes that would affect more than 11,500 students at five schools. Katy ISD accomplished this by seeking…

Considering the vital role the superintendent plays in the overall functioning and well-being of any school district, the filling of the top leadership post with a permanent appointment never should be done in haste. The process of advertising, reviewing applications, conducting background checks, interviewing candidates, negotiating contracts,…

Small, rural school districts face a special challenge when implementing the next generation of academic standards known as the Common Core State Standards. This is the task facing the instructional consultants with the Tulare County Office of Education. The county, located in central California with its dominant agricultural economy, has 45…

Natural disasters, as well as crises of the man-made variety, call on leaders of school districts to manage scenarios impossible to predict and for which no amount of training can adequately prepare. One thing all major crises hold in common is their far-reaching effects, which can run the gamut from personal safety and mental well-being to the…

Lots of talk is taking place in organizations today about turnaround and transformation. Turnaround is not transformation. Turnaround is public statements; transformation is personal commitments. Turnaround focuses on cutting costs; transformation builds an emotional bond. Turnaround changes structures and reporting relationships; transformation…

For decades, people questioned the sense of having two school districts, each with its own superintendent, central office and high school, operating in the same small town of The Dalles on the banks of the Columbia River in north-central Oregon. But election campaigns to consolidate repeatedly failed because each community had strong emotional…

In the late 1990s, Fulton County Schools in Atlanta were looking at average enrollment growth of more than 2,500 students a year and a new source of significant revenue to drive its capital improvement program. With funding from Georgia's new special purpose local option sales tax, or SPLOST, for school capital needs, total revenue from the…