A group of students aspiring to become school leaders asked me to suggest a few books for their summer reading. I began jotting down the names of the authors who shaped my life in leadership. The titles on my bookshelves ranged from The Leadership Habits of Attila the Hun to Servant Leadership. I fretted. Which titles to include?
The authors that I chose underpin my deep beliefs about schools and constitute the context for much of my learning. Their words ring true to me on the basis of my long experience as a school principal and give voice to my own beliefs that I am not able to articulate.
I share this list with humility, for I am neither a scholar nor an expert. These are just my favorite books. Please, challenge the list! The conversation about “good books” is worthy unto itself.
Roland S. Barth
Run School Run. (1980). Harvard University Press.
Improving Schools from Within: Teachers, Parents, and Principals Can Make the Difference. (1990). Jossey-Bass.
Learning by Heart. (2001). Jossey-Bass.
Run School Run is Barth's first and best book. Held together with rubber bands and highlighted with yellow marker, my copy holds a place of honor on my bookshelf. It is old in its publication date but never dated in its wisdom. For fans of Barth's profound simplicity, start reading here.
Improving Schools from Within is the second book of Barth's “trilogy.” It is the most popular (although not his latest) expedition into the territory of school improvement. His thesis is that schools improve one at a time; his style is readable and understandable. This book is a must-read for those needing encouragement to improve their own schools.
The stories in Learning by Heart will stick like Velcro to the reader's own experiences. New in this work is the attention to principal centers, the role of teachers as leaders, and what leadership preparation programs should look like. Treatment of the last point is not exhaustive but might start some much-needed conversation.
Warren G. Bennis
Beyond Leadership: Balancing Economics, Ethics, and Ecology (coauthored with Jagdish Parikh & Ronnie Lessem). (1994). Blackwell Publishers.
Learning to Lead: A Workbook on Becoming a Leader (coauthored with Joan Goldsmith). (1997). Addison-Wesley.
Bennis is the master on leadership. Beyond Leadership is not specific to schools, but it is directly applicable. If your time is limited, at least read the chapter on the visioning process.
Learning to Lead, written in a personal, workbook style, contains much of the Beyond Leadership information. You can easily use it as a tool for group learning and conversation.
Lee Bolman & Terrence Deal
Leading with Soul: An Uncommon Journey of Spirit, Rev. ed. (2001). Jossey-Bass.
Bolman and Deal tell a simple but profound story about a leader. First published in 1995, this work opened many doors for using the word soul as it applies to leadership. Bolman and Deal's work acts as a good introduction into the spiritual dimension of leadership that now floods the market in both education and business literature.
Ernest Boyer
The Basic School: A Community for Learning. (1995). The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
This book is a must for all elementary leaders and their staffs. It outlines, clearly and simply, what a “good school” looks like and suggests a kind of template on which to frame the elementary school. Boyer does not suggest, however, a cookie-cutter approach to school reform. Most elementary school leaders will see a reflection of their own schools in Boyer's ideas. This recognition is affirming and allows the discussion to focus on other aspects of a good school yet to be developed.
Council of Chief State School Officers
Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium: Standards for School Leaders. (1996).
Educators have created many learning and teaching standards. Leadership standards were bound to follow. The Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium standards, however, introduce a third component to “what should leaders know and be able to do.” They suggest, in the introduction and in lists, what leaders should be disposed toward. This inclusion of “attitudes of heart and mind” adds a crucial dimension to any discussion of standards. The proliferation of lists is familiar, but the emphasis on the nonmeasurable essentials in our work with children is a refreshing addition.
Harvey Daniels, Marilyn Bizar, & Steven Zemelman
Rethinking High School: Best Practice in Teaching, Learning, and Leadership. (2000). Heinemann.
Three college professors describe their creation of an urban public high school in the heart of Chicago. This book examines best practices in the real, everyday life of a high school. High schools administrators and teachers will do well to digest the practical wisdom in these pages.
Charlotte Danielson & Thomas L. McGreal
Teacher Evaluation to Enhance Professional Practice. (2000). ASCD.
Danielson and McGreal help us bring traditional supervisory strategies into modern practice. As principals struggle to strengthen their role as instructional leaders, this sensible book examines the flaws in current teacher evaluation practices and offers concrete suggestions to improve them.
Max De Pree
Leadership Is an Art. (1989). Jossey-Bass.
Leadership Jazz. (1992). Jossey-Bass.
Leading Without Power: Finding Hope in Serving Community. (1997). Jossey-Bass.
De Pree is chairman emeritus of Herman Miller, Inc., a furniture company in Michigan. Read all three of these “plain-speak” books on servant leadership. Good leaders will recognize the best of themselves in the pages of De Pree's works. These are not “education” books, but they are eminently applicable.
Robert Evans
The Human Side of School Change: Reform, Resistance, and the Real-Life Problems of Innovation. (1996). Jossey-Bass.
For the experienced school leader, Evans synthesizes and gives shape to many ideas that float in our heads. The beginner might have to read more slowly because Evans covers so much of contemporary thinking. In the chapter on “Authentic Leadership,” Evans affirms that personal integrity is the only foundation on which the tower of leadership can stand. The book is worth purchasing just for that chapter.
Michael Fullan
What's Worth Fighting for in the Principalship? 2nd ed. (1997). Teachers College Press.
Leading in a Culture of Change. (2001). Jossey-Bass.
Put aside Change Forces for Fullan's newest book. In Leading in a Culture of Change, Fullan explains how change is messy, often unpredictable, resistant to timetables, and ultimately about relationships. Again, the reader finds in Fullan an articulation and confirmation of ideas present in much of our practical experience.
What's Worth Fighting for in the Principalship? can be read and absorbed on a relatively short plane ride to the next leadership conference or for the next leadership book group meeting. Fullan helps answer the question that all principals ask: “Which battles do I pick?”
Howard Gardner
Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership. (1995). BasicBooks.
Gardner is known for his extensive research on multiple intelligences. His work on leadership is less well known but adds a special perspective to the literature. More than theory, this book examines the lives of 20th century leaders. Gardner looks for the consistent qualities that form the basis of their leadership, and there are some surprises. If time prevents reading the entire book, start with the first chapter and read selected biographies. My favorites were Martin Luther King, Jr.; Eleanor Roosevelt; and Pope John XXIII.
Robert K. Greenleaf
Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness. (1977). Paulist Press.
The wheel turns! Greenleaf wrote this book 25 years ago, yet his work on servant leadership is just now receiving acclaim. Although this book comes from a religious context, the idea of servant leadership awakens the spirit of those who believe that school leadership is a calling and that ministering to others is the true role of the “ad-ministrator.” This book is a primary source for much contemporary writing.
Anthony Jackson & Gayle Davis
Turning Points 2000: Educating Adolescents in the 21st Century. (2000). Teachers College Press.
Many educators consider this the benchmark of middle school philosophy. As we struggle to refashion middle schools, this book deserves a place in our libraries, and its ideas need to be discussed in our faculty rooms.
Phil Jackson & Hugh Delehanty
Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior. (1995). Hyperion Press.
Jackson molded a winning team of basketball players using nontraditional approaches to coaching. The book is especially readable for those interested in sports. For those who skip the sports page, however, a surprise is in store. Jackson's approach to building a winning team will resonate in the hearts and minds of all school leaders.
Rachael Kessler
The Soul of Education: Helping Students Find Connection, Compassion, and Character at School. (2000). ASCD.
With superb audacity, Kessler suggests that even teachers and principals need time to be still. In the turbulent world in which both educators and students live, Kessler speaks with a prophetic voice of a more spiritual future for schools.
Gloria Ladson-Billings
The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children. (1997). Jossey-Bass.
Crossing Over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms. (2001). Jossey-Bass.
Written from observations of teachers in the classroom, The Dreamkeepers affirms the intuitive and reflective nature of good instruction and the effectiveness of a variety of strategies for children of all races and cultures. Crossing Over to Canaan continues Ladson-Billings's investigation of teaching children of color. Teachers and school leaders of students with diverse backgrounds will benefit from Ladson-Billings's wisdom and insights.
David Loader
The Inner Principal. (1997). Falmer Press.
Loader is both a poet and a scholar. He presents the principal's role in a series of metaphors—as an alchemist, Cinderella, and the frog prince, among others. Loader helps principals wrestle with their own personal uncertainties and professional paradoxes. Although Loader was a principal in a private, residential girls' school in Australia, the universality of the principal experience pervades these pages.
Deborah Meier
The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem. (1995). Beacon Press.
Most have heard of this classic about Central Park East, the school begun by Meier in East Harlem, where she built a community of students who did not succeed in the traditional school setting. In readable storytelling, Meier discusses the essential elements of a good school, highlighting the power of small schools and a thoughtful curriculum. Meier's true story is one to which the reader will relate. Although the Central Park East situation is unique, its essence is applicable to all.
National Association of Elementary School Principals
Leading Learning Communities: What Principals Should Know and Be Able to Do. (2001).
This well-researched document serves as a barometer for practitioners of school leadership. Most readers will find their own strengths listed in these pages. A few points, however, might persuade readers to make some changes in their own leadership practices.
National Commission on Excellence in Education
A Nation At Risk: The Imperative of Educational Reform. (1983). U.S. Department of Education.
Few write about the contemporary education scene without framing it in the context of this document. The assertion that public education was “awash in the sea of mediocrity” pushed the alarm button in the United States and propelled us into a flurry of school improvement that we now view as normal and natural. All who are mindful of the adage “Those who don't know history are condemned to repeat it” should know this monograph.
Thomas J. Sergiovanni
The Lifeworld of Leadership: Creating Culture, Community, and Personal Meaning in Our Schools. (2000). Jossey-Bass.
Without a familiarity with Sergiovanni's work, the school leader is bereft. The Lifeworld of Leadership incorporates much of his earlier work into an understandable framework. Principals will gain a deeper understanding of why decisions should be made at the school and classroom levels. Sergiovanni weaves the place of culture, character, community, and assessment as threads forming the fabric of good schools. His thinking addresses both the organizational and the personal levels of leadership. The essence of Lifeworld is hope—some of which the reader receives whenever reading Sergiovanni's work.
Sergiovanni's The Principalship: A Reflective Practice Perspective, 4th ed. (2001), Moral Leadership (1992), Building Community in Schools (1994), and Leadership for the Schoolhouse (1996) are also worth reading.
Theodore R. Sizer
Horace's Hope: What Works for the American High School. (1996). Houghton Mifflin.
The last book in a trilogy about Horace, a new teacher who is overwhelmed by and disillusioned with the reality of a high school, is a must for all high school teachers. Sizer speaks clearly and practically about creating high schools connected both to learning and learners. That high schools have begun to adopt (and adapt) Sizer's ideas is reason for hope.
Margaret Wheatley
Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future. (2002). Berrett-Koehler.
In this short book, Wheatley suggests that we find a new and powerful way to make an impact on children's learning when we learn to listen to one another and share our hopes and dreams. Wheatley intersperses poetry with essays, art, and extraordinary writing. Read this book. Wrap it as a special gift for teachers, principals, superintendents, and any others who work for meaningful change.
