The HOPE Foundation has designed an effective formula for transforming schools. Their premise is leadership capacity and school culture are critical to implement any policy or structural change. Teachers embrace their work because it is respectful of them, and it empowers teachers and principals to drive student achievement.
Our friends at HOPE Foundation asked me to share the contest they have developed. I like a contest that discovers best practices, educates what a winning school would look like, and recognizes the hard work of transformation that educators are doing. Please share this with those who are interested in improving the current status of their school.
The Award Winning Failure IS Not an Option ® book is about to hit its third edition--and you can be a part of it! We’d like you to share your top strategies with specificity to both connect you to your peers who do the same, and to potentially be included in this next edition and have complimentary access for you and one other person to any upcoming HOPE event featuring major presenters.
GUIDELINES
-All submissions must be sent to jweierheiser@hopefoundation.org by September 1, 2012
-All submissions must be sent as a word document (.doc or .docx)
-All submissions must be within 20 words of specified word count for each topic
-The HOPE Foundation has permission to publish each entry on their website, other websites, and in print
-You can respond to ANY or ALL of the questions below.
WINNERS
-each response below that is selected by The HOPE Foundation for inclusion in the third edition of Failure IS Not an Option ® will yield two seats in the fall/winter event of your choice.
TOPICS
21st Century Education - In general, we are interested in what exactly this means to you and your learning community. Who was involved in specifying this and what actions are now underway in your school to reflect this new view of education? What were the challenges? What was it like prior and what is it like now? What are the new scenarios that have arisen? How have they been handled? What new conversations are occurring and what exactly are they? What new relations or partners are involved? How are external mandates being integrated into your work and what are the most effective ways to do this?
In particular, how has this shifted your actions in the following areas:
Mission: Share your school’s mission statement in 100 words or less.
Vision: Share your school’s vision statement in 100 words or less.
Values: Share your school’s values in 50 words or less.
Goals: Share your school’s goals in 50 words or less.
How do/will you address the following? (200 words each)
Comprehensive systems for prevention and intervention to assure success for all students
Collaborative teaming focused on teaching and learning
Data-driven decision making for continuous improvement
Engagement of Family and community
Building sustainable leadership capacity
Winners will be chosen September 15 and will be notified via email. Winners will also be announced on The HOPE Foundation blog and social media pages.