Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1- Why Organizational Culture Matters
Chapter 2- A Look at PLOs
Chapter 3- A Look at PLC Teams
Chapter 4- The Power of Informed Oversight and Systemic
Governance
Chapter 5- Benefits of Becoming a PLO
Chapter 6- The Role of the Community Engagement Process in a
PLO
Chapter 7- Implementation Stages of Becoming a PLO: How to Sustain
the PLO Culture
Chapter 8- School Board and Superintendent Leadership is
Essential
Chapter 9- The Final Case on Why Districts Should Choose to Become
PLOs
Chapter 10- Concluding Thoughts
Glossary
References
About the Author
Patrick Rice, PhD, is a Field Services/Equity Director for the Illinois Association of School Boards and is a former teacher, administrator, and professor.
Dr. Patrick Rice has risen to become one of education’s most
transformative figures by challenging the traditional stakeholder's
role and addressing the systemic approach to students’ success
through Professional Learning Organizations ... this is a must-read
for school administrators and boards looking to go to the next
level.
*Jeff Campbell, BS, MPA, PMP, JRC Strategic Planning, Former Board
Member, Mt. Vernon SD 80*
Collaborative leadership is essential to student achievement.
School districts improve when its governance team understands and
supports shared decision-making. When districts realize the value
of becoming a PLO (Professional Learning Organization), any goals
that are set can be reached. Dr. Rice has done such wonderful work
at exhibiting the need for collaborative leadership. Boards that
create an environment of collaboration usually experience better
academic success for students.
*Elizabeth H. Reynolds, Superintendent, Calumet Public S.D.
132*
Dr. Rice has clearly identified the need for a system of
constituent engagement focused on the collaborative development of
a quality learning environment for all students. He has emphasized
the importance of structuring a systemic opportunity where the
representative constituencies can work together in forging a
commitment to lead substantive, systemic change within the district
to ensure the future viability of the educational system.
*Dr. Nick Osborne, Professor, Department of Educational Leadership,
Eastern Illinois University*
Equity, from the Boardroom to the Classroom is a timely work by an
innovative and passionate scholar who is making a path for a more
collaborative and dynamic approach to board
leadership. Equity, from the Boardroom to the Classroom
provides the intellectual and organizational framework to engage
the entire district and educational community in the process of
finding and employing the best approaches to educating children in
their district. The scope of Dr. Rice’s work in this book has great
potential to be a leading model that school boards follow to
improve their school system and better educate their students.
*D’Karla Assagai, Consultant, California Community Colleges
Chancellor’s Office , Former Governance Consultant, California
School Boards Association*
America’s school boards are the engine for democracy in public
education. Yet as education has become more and more complex in the
modern world of rapidly expanding knowledge and changing
technologies and expectations, the capacity of school boards to
make wise decisions on behalf of students has been challenged. Dr.
Patrick Rice vividly describes how school districts can solve this
dilemma – becoming professional learning organizations that can
represent a democratic voice and continually improve their capacity
to find innovative solutions to the needs of today’s students and
schools. Everyone who cares about democratically governed public
education should read this book!
*Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education,
Emeritus, Stanford University; President, the Learning Policy
Institute*
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