The Whole-Faculty Study Groups Fieldbook: Lessons Learned and Best Practices From Classrooms, Districts, and Schools

Master one of today's most successful school reform and school improvement strategies! The Whole-Faculty Study Group (WFSG) System is a student-centered, teacher-driven process for facilitating major staff development and schoolwide change. When applied properly, it has produced extraordinary results for thousands of educators and students in schools and school districts across the country. The Whole-Faculty Study Groups Fieldbook is a comprehensive guide to applying the WFSG process. Edited by Dale Lick and Carlene Murphy, this practical manual provides concrete strategies for implementing and sustaining a school improvement process in any environment. Offering extensive experience, each contributor explores a different aspect of Whole-Faculty Study Groups and supplies lessons learned and many first-hand examples of successful school reform and student performance enhancement. Written to complement existing resources or serve as a stand-alone guide, this book will Demonstrate how concepts can be applied in a variety of school improvement efforts Present relevant strategies and activities Illustrate how to use suggestions in real-world situations Highlight critical concepts through extensive case examples Provide helpful tips and lessons learned Explain how findings can be applied to professional learning communities Offering numerous illustrations of the WFSG System in action and a comprehensive collection of tools for initiating and sustaining successful improvement programs, this fieldbook is an essential resource for K-12 administrators, staff developers, and teachers involved with any type of school transformation effort.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Harold M. Brewer Preface Acknowledgments About the Contributors About the Editors Part I: Getting Started 1. Introducing Whole-Faculty Study Groups - Carlene U. Murphy and Dale W. Lick 2. Applying the Whole-Faculty Study Groups Framework in Schools - Ann Proctor 3. Aligning Whole-Faculty Study Groups With Staff Development Standards - Michael Murphy Part II: Leadership and Sponsorship 4. Enhancing the Principal′s Instructional Leadership Role - J. Patrick Mahon 5. Strengthening School Improvement Plans Through District Sponsorship - Anita Kissinger 6. Partnering With Teacher Unions for School Improvement - Adam Urbanski and Xochitl Perez Castillo Part III: Study Groups and Learning Communities 7. Answering the Question: Do Professional Learning Communities Really Work? - Andrew E. Koenigs 8. Establishing Student Study Groups - Robin P. Cooper and Gwendolyn Baggett 9. Implementing Study Groups for Principals - Emily Weiskopf Part IV: Key Success Elements 10.The Whole-Faculty Study Groups Rubric: Defining Context, Process, and Content - Carlene U. Murphy 11. Building Commitment - Kenneth Sherman and Kim Reynolds-Manglitz 12. Using Study Groups for Cultural Change in Schools - Michael L. Rothman and Ronald E. Walker 13. Changing School Culture - Jill Potts and Jeff Zoul 14. Using Data to Improve Achievement in Mathematics - Teri Roberts 15. Making Data-Based Decisions for School Success - Karl H. Clauset, Sherman H. Parker, and Marcia R. Whitney Part V: Instructional Strategies 16. Improving the Quality of Student Performance - Steve Keyes 17. Implementing Instructional Strategies - Terri L. Jenkins and Lynn K. Baber 18. Implementing Reading and Mathematics Programs - Julie J. Nall 19. Enhancing Performance in the English Language Arts - Charlotte Ann Buisson 20. Raising Student Achievement in Reading and Mathematics - Lisa S. Smith 21. Improving Reading in Primary Grades - Angela S. Dillon Part VI: Perspectives for Teachers and Teaching 22. Increasing Teacher Learning to Improve Student Learning - Beverly S. Strickland 23. Changing Teachers′ Beliefs About Students and Learning - Danette R. Smith 24. Creating School Successes: A Teacher′s Point-of-View - Beverly A. Gross 25. Planning and Implementing Strategies for School Improvement - Emily Weiskopf 26. Activating a Professional Teacher Evaluation Model - Jill Potts and Jeff Zoul Part VII: State and National Initiatives 27. Going Statewide With Whole-Faculty Study Groups in Louisiana - Teri Roberts 28. Developing and Supporting Leaders: A New Day, A New Way With New Results - Deb Page and Gale Hulme 29. Improving Schools Through Statewide Collaboration - Stephen M. Preston 30. Establishing a Support Network: The National Whole-Faculty Study Groups Center - Carlene U. Murphy Part VIII: An Overview of School Reform 31. Improving Schools: Seeing the Big Picture - Dale W. Lick and Carlene U. Murphy References Action Research--Related Sources Index

About the Author :
Dale W. Lick is President and Professor Emeritus at Florida State University, a former President of Georgia Southern University, University of Maine, and Florida State University, and, most recently, a University Professor at Florida State University, where he did research in the Learning Systems Institute and taught and directed doctoral students in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, and worked on educational and organizational projects involving transformational leadership, change creation, learning organizations, distance learning, school improvement, enhanced student performance, educational technology, new learning systems, strategic planning, and visioning. Included in over 50 national and international biographical listings, Dr. Lick is the author or co-author of eight books and more than 100 professional articles, chapters and proceedings, and 285 original newspaper columns. His recent books are: Whole-Faculty Study Groups: A Powerful Way to Change Schools and Enhance Learning, 1998; Whole-Faculty Study Groups: Creating Student-Based Professional Development, 2001; Whole-Faculty Study Groups: Creating Professional Learning Communities That Target Student Learning, 2005; and The Whole-Faculty Study Groups Fieldbook: Lessens Learned and Best Practices From Classrooms, Districts, and Schools, 2007, all with Carlene U. Murphy, Corwin Press; Schoolwide Action Research for Professional Learning Communities: Improving Student Learning Through The Whole-Faculty Study Groups Approach, 2008, and Schools Can Change: A Step-By-Step Change Creation System for Building Innovative Schools and Increasing Student Learning, 2012, with Karl H. Clauset and Carlene U. Murphy, Corwin Press; and New Directions in Mentoring: Creating a Culture of Synergy, 1999, with Carol A. Mullen, Falmer Press (London), 1999. Dr. Lick received B.S and M.S. degrees from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Riverside, all in Mathematics, and has three levels of certification in Leading and Managing Change from Conner Partners, Atlanta, GA. His alma maters have honored him with the Michigan State University 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award, and, on its 40th Anniversary in 1994, the University of California, Riverside, with the designation as One of 40 Alumni Who Make a Difference. Carlene U. Murphy is founder and executive director of the National WFSG Center and the principal developer of the Whole-Faculty Study Groups® system of professional development. In August 2007, she began her 50th year of work in public schools. She started her teaching career in 1957 as a fourth grade teacher in her hometown of Augusta, GA. The next year she moved to Memphis, TN where she taught for 13 years, returning to Augusta in 1972 and retiring from the district in 1993 as its director of staff development. During her 15 years as the district’s chief staff developer, the district received many accolades, including the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Professional Development from the American Association of School Administrators and Georgia’s Outstanding Staff Development Program Award for two consecutive years. She was awarded the National Staff Development Council’s Contributions to Staff Development Award and served as the National Staff Development Council’s chair of the annual national conference in Atlanta in 1986, president in 1988, and board member from 1984 to 1990. The friendships she formed and cemented during the over thirty years of her close relationship with NSDC were life-changing. After retiring from the Augusta, Georgia schools, she has worked with schools throughout the United States implementing Whole-Faculty Study Groups. She has written extensively about her work in Educational Leadership and Journal of Staff Development and has written with Dale Lick two other books about the WFSG system: Whole-Faculty Study Groups: Creating Professional Learning Communities That Target Student Learning, Corwin Press, 2005; and The Whole-Faculty Study Groups Fieldbook: Lessons Learned and Best Practices from Classrooms, Districts, and Schools (co-editor), 2007. Another book with Karl Clauset and Dale Lick, Schoolwide Action Research for Professional Learning Communities: Improving Student Learning Through the Whole-Faculty Study Groups Approach (Corwin Press, 2008), focuses on the work of study groups and gives descriptive data from schools implementing WFSG. She now lives on a small horse farm just outside of Augusta in a four generational home, which includes her husband, Joe, daughter, three grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Even with all the activities in such a home, she still finds time to write about her work, correspond with colleagues and read about the latest developments in education.

Review :
"Here are real-world examples of the WFSG model with the potential to guide the conversation toward core values, effective teaching, and improved student learning. You will have the opportunity to experience this model and general school improvement from the eyes of practitioners at all levels."