Strengthening the Heartbeat

Study after study has concluded that no matter how competently managed a school may be, it is the bringing together of leadership and learning that makes the difference between ordinary and extraordinary performance. Strengthening the Heartbeat offers leaders a clear and compelling way to help their schools achieve extraordinary results. The proven principles outlined in this book can help any school build a culture of leadership and learning. Thomas J. Sergiovanni?a leading thinker in the educational leadership arena?shows how a strong heartbeat is a school's best defense against the obstacles leaders face as they work to change schools for the better. But strengthening the heartbeat of schools requires that we rethink what leadership is, how leadership works, what leadership's relationship is to learning, and why we need to practice both leadership and learning together. Filled with illustrative examples, Strengthening the Heartbeat shows how to build trust that leads to the creation of a vision and the building of a covenant that brings together principals, teachers, parents, and students to honor shared values, goals, and beliefs. When leaders are able to strengthen the heartbeat, their schools become stronger and more resilient. These qualities help leaders to share the burdens of leadership with others, to create collaborative cultures, and to be continuous learners. Leadership inevitably involves change and change inevitably involves learning. Using this book, school leaders will have the tools they need to make their schools the best they can be.

Preface: Strengthening the Heartbeat ix

The Author xix

Introduction: Value-Added Leadership Redux 1

1. Mindscapes 21

2. Leadership as Entitlement 41

3. Making Visions Useful 55

4. Hope, Trust, Community, and Other Virtues 75

5. A Teacher-Centered Approach 101

6. Collaborative Cultures and Organizational Competence 117

7. Using Ideas to Back Up Leadership 139

8. Styles, Dispositions, and Stages Count Too 163

References 179

Index 191

Thomas J. Sergiovanni is Lillian Radford Professor of Education and Administration at Trinity University in San Antonio. He is the author of The Lifeworld of Leadership, Leadership for the Schoolhouse, Building Community in Schools, and Moral Leadership (all from Jossey-Bass).

A HANDBOOK FOR HELPING YOUR SCHOOL ACHIEVE EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS

"Tom Sergiovanni has done it again...given all of us in this embattled, adrift profession something to provoke, inspire, and hang onto. I'd recommend this timely and consequential volume—in a heartbeat!"
—Roland Barth, founding director, Harvard Principals' Center

"In this age of accountability, when school administrators are more likely to wrest compliance than build commitment, Tom Sergiovanni reminds us that effective leadership is moral, purposeful, and collaborative. In this fine book, Sergiovanni not only builds a compelling case for value-added leadership, but also shows how to make it happen."
—Susan Moore Johnson, Pforzheimer Professor of Teaching and Learning, Harvard Graduate School of Education

"Any principal, teacher, or superintendent who seeks to 'Strengthen the Heartbeat' will find her own quickened by this remarkable text that mines essential truths and virtues while so clearly connecting trust, vision, culture, and leadership to student and school success. Sergiovanni's new work offers hope and larity in a time of conflicting agenda and puzzling priorities."
—Linda Lambert, professor emeritus, California State University, Hayward

"Tom Sergiovanni never lets us down, each successive volume bringing us closer to the moral, social, and intellectual purpose of school education and the nature of leadership which sustains it. This book is a timely reminder of just how powerful leadership can be when its focus is on learning."
—John MacBeath, professor of educational leadership, Cambridge University