Asking the Right Questions: Tools for Collaboration and School Change

Use these practical tips and real-world examples to facilitate meaningful school change!

This updated edition of the bestseller focuses on collaboration at the district, school, and classroom level. Chapters highlight the questions that educators need to address when implementing school change initiatives. The author builds on a highly successful framework with new questions to help shape practice and more thoroughly examine improvement plans. Additional enhancements include:

• Innovative strategies to facilitate teamwork and change
• Additional examples of change scenarios from the field
• Review questions and chapter summaries that highlight key points
• A CD-ROM featuring a discussion guide for individual and group study

Edie L. Holcomb is executive director of curriculum and instructional services for Kenosha Unified School District No. 1 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. She has experienced the challenges of improving student achievement from many perspectives:

• From classroom teacher to university professor
• From gifted education coordinator to mainstream teacher of children with multiple disabilities
• From school- and district-level administration to national and international consulting
• From small rural districts to the challenges of urban education

She is highly regarded for her ability to link research and practice on issues related to instructional leadership and school and district change--including standards-based curriculum, instruction, assessment, supervision, and accountability. She has taught at all grade levels, served as a building principal and central office administrator, and assisted districts as an external facilitator for accreditation and implementation of school reform designs. As associate director of the National Center for Effective Schools, she developed a training program for site-based teams and provided technical support for implementation of school improvement efforts throughout the United States and in Canada, Guam, St. Lucia, and Hong Kong. She developed a comprehensive standards-based learning system for the staff and 47,000 students of the Seattle, Washington, city district and has supervised K-12 clusters of schools and evaluated principals.

Her work received the Excellence in Staff Development Award from the Iowa Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development in 1988. In 1990, her study of the needs of beginning principals was recognized by the American Association of School Administrators with the Paul F. Salmon Award for Outstanding Education Leadership Research.

She served as an elected member-at-large on the Leadership Council for ASCD International, played an active role in Washington State's School Improvement Assistance Program, and contributed to development of the new School System Improvement Resource Guide. Holcomb is the author of four previous books and numerous articles and reviews.