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by: Roland Barth, Barbara Eason-Watkins, Michael Fullan, Lawrence Lezotte, Douglas Reeves, Jonathon Saphier, Mike Schmoker, Dennis Sparks, Rick Stiggins  List Price: $34.95 Amazon.com's Price: $23.07 You Save: $11.88 (34%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 371.2 EAN: 9781932127423 ISBN: 1932127429 Label: Solution Tree Manufacturer: Solution Tree Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 254 Publication Date: February 01, 2005 Publisher: Solution Tree Studio: Solution Tree Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: On Common Ground provides a valuable tool for educators who are doing the hard work of improving their schools. This resource offers teachers and administrators a coherent conceptual framework and specific, practical strategies for moving forward with their improvement efforts. Any listing of North America s leading authorities on school improvement would include the authors in this book. These authors agree on many of the best strategies for raising student achievement and support the premise that students would be better served if educators: · Embrace learning rather than teaching as their school s mission · Work collaboratively to help all students learn · Use formative assessments and a focus on results to foster continuous improvement · Assume individual responsibility to take steps to create such schools Although they stand on this common ground, clear differences emerge regarding their perspectives on the most effective strategy for making professional learning communities the norm in North America. The differences, however, focus on the means rather than the end. These educational leaders have found common ground in expressing their belief in both the desirability and the power of professional learning communities. Average Rating:
 Rating: - No Silver Bullet, but . . . If you want to read a book that combines brief overviews of the work of many well-regarded leaders in the field of education, this book is a good beginning. Those who work in public education and understand the need for re-structuring and re-culturing our schools will appreciate the authors' laser-like focus on student learning through the development of professional learning communities. The authors of the various chapters of this book focus on the essential elements that most impact ... Read More Rating: - Mixed MessageRarely do I find a collection of essays by multiple authors to be a great book. Too often the prose is uneven and the authors, despite the assertions of the editors, come off as talking at cross purposes. This book is no exception. It is not without value. The theme of this book is the importance of professional learning communities in education and I am a supporter of the concept. I didn't need the authors to convince me of this. Perhaps the most perceptive comment made in the book ... Read More Rating:  - On Common GroundAs the processes of school improvement shifts from regulatory compliance to authentic work in schools, it is essential to build a broad understanding of decades of thinking on school reform. This book offers a strong summary of the concepts most likely to bring real change in the only place that matters, the classroom. We have spent decades talking about change and the learning community concept has the potential to be the catalyst of change. On Common Ground can build a broad foundation ... Read More Rating: - How Many Ways...In how many ways are we going to have to hear that the unexamined methods in which our schools have been organized, structured, staffed, and departmentalized work against our best efforts to create real, sustainable learning communities? The following items were a collection of thoughts on behalf of educators working at the Butte County Office of Education that gathered to discuss this book as part of their professional reading series. This book offers one of the most comprehensive, candid, ... Read More Rating:  - It just isn't that goodI wanted to like this book. After agreeing to lead a book study for On Common Ground, I *needed* to like this book. I believe in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and think very highly of the work that the DuFours have done in that regard, but I just couldn't get into the book. The problems are many. Section 1, by Richard DuFour, is nice enough. It gives a good overview of the PLC structure and how it should work, thought chapter 2 was printed earlier in the ASCD's "Educational Leadership" ... Read More 
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