Professional Learning

In this groundbreaking book, journalist and innovation expert Warren Berger shows that one of the most powerful forces for igniting change in business and in our daily lives is a simple, under-appreciated tool--one that has been available to us since childhood. Questioning--deeply, imaginatively, "beautifully"--can help us identify and solve problems, come up with game-changing ideas, and pursue fresh opportunities. So why are we often reluctant to ask "Why?"

Community colleges enroll almost half of all undergraduates in the United States. These two-year colleges manifest the American commitment to accessible and affordable higher education. With about 1,200 institutions nationwide, community colleges have made significant progress over the past decade in opening access and have become the critical entry point to higher education for many Americans who traditionally have been left out of educational and economic opportunity. Yet economic, political, and social developments have increased the challenges community colleges face in pursuing an "equity agenda." Some of these include falling state budgets combined with growing enrollments, a greater emphasis on outcome-based accountability, competition from for-profit institutions, and growing immigrant student populations.

In Scaling Up Excellence, bestselling author Robert Sutton and Stanford colleague Huggy Rao tackle a challenge that determines every organization’s success: scaling up farther, faster, and more effectively as a program or an organization creates a larger footprint. Sutton and Rao have devoted much of the last decade to uncovering what it takes to build and uncover pockets of exemplary performance, to help spread them, and to keep recharging organizations with ever better work practices

What is the First and Most Important Work of a Leader? (The answer may surprise you)
In Leadership in the Crucible of Work, noted speaker, poet, and college president Dr. Sandy Shugart takes readers on an unforgettable journey to the heart of what it means to become an authentic leader. A leader who understands that work forms each of us more powerfully than we form it. A leader willing to be purified and shaped, like bronze, in the crucible of work. A leader who stands ready to do the first and most important work of a leader the interior work.

In these pages Dr. Shugart has crafted a different kind of leadership guide. Not a how-to book packed with the latest management theories, formulas, or processes, but a thoughtful collection of essays with questions, reflections, and stories on developing the indispensable inner life of a leader.

As changing demographics bring underprepared students to college, higher education institutions are growing concerned about basic skills education. Student Success in Community Colleges: A Practical Guide to Developmental Education provides a self-assessment instrument, investment modeling tools, and practices to succeed in community college. Compiled with over two-hundred-and-fifty published sources and thirty years of research, this guidebook explores administrative obstacles to learning and shows practical ways for faculty to modify teaching and supportive services for immediate improvement

This book develops an approach to professional learning that has motivated teachers and resulted in impressive improvements in student learning, particularly for students who traditionally underachieve in school. As the underpinning research shows, the approach has proven successful in several countries with consistently positive outcomes.

Explains how to use the Process Learning Circle method to ensure your PLC advances the type of teacher learning that is essential to improving student achievement.