Interview with Dr. Judy A. Alston  Author on School Leadership

Cultural Border Crossing and Student Achievement in American Schools

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Topic: Cultural Border Crossing and Student Achievement in American Schools

Dr. Judy A. Alston, co-author of School Leadership and Administration: Important Concepts, Case Studies, & Simulations (McGraw-Hill), discusses hot topics in school leadership with guest host, David Patterson,  in this 49th episode of District Leaders Podcast. The particular focus is about the importance and relevance of border crossings and student achievement in schools.  Join us for a breakthro0ugh discussion about motivation, critical thinking and student achievement for a wide base of students you serve in your schools every day.

• Research about effective schools by applying the concept of cultural border crossing.
• Addressing issues of racism, classism, and sexism,
• Recommendations for how school leadership can help students effectively cross borders and reach the highest possible levels of achievement.

Note: In addition to discussing her book, the interview includes reference to a recent article about border crossing in schools. The reference and abstract are Alston, J.A.(2004).The many faces of American schooling: Effective schools research and border crossing in the 21^st century. American Secondary Education, 32 (9), 79-93.

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Biographical Background

Judy A. Alston, Ph.D. is Director/Professor of the Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies at Ashland University.  She also teaches the following courses:  Leadership Theories, Ethics and Leadership, Issues in Higher Education, and Dissertation Research Design.  Her research foci include Gender and Educational leadership with a focus on Black Female school superintendents; Urban Education and Educational Leadership highlighting administrative reform in urban schools; and Diversity and Educational Leadership exploring how the intersections of class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual diversity, and ability affect leaders. She is author of numerous articles and book chapters.  She is the author of Multi-leadership in Urban Schools (University Press of America).  Additionally, she is co-author of the 7^th and 8^th editions of the bestselling textbook, School Leadership and Administration: Important Concepts, Case Studies, & Simulations (McGraw Hill).

A native of Charleston, SC, she graduated from Bishop England High School in 1983.  She then matriculated onto Winthrop College where she graduated with a B.A. in English in 1987.  She taught English at Cainhoy High School during the 1987-1988 school year.  She moved onto Brookland-Cayce High School (1988-1993). At that time she also completed a M.Ed. in Secondary English in 1990 and another M.Ed. in Educational Administration in 1992. In 1993, she began the Ph.D. program in Educational Administration at The Pennsylvania State University. She graduated in 1996.

Dr. Alston began her teaching in higher education at the University of Houston (1996-1999). She moved onto Bowling Green State University (OH) (1999-2005) where she was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in 2003. In 2005, she was appointed Associate Dean and Director of the Center for Education at Widener University in Chester, PA. In 2007, she began teaching in the Doctoral Program at Ashland University as an Associate Professor and in 2008 became the Director of the Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies. She was recently promoted to Full Professor.

Dr. Alston is an active member and leader in the American Educational Research Association (AERA).  Currently she serves of Chair of the Queer Studies SIG. She was recently elected as Chair-elect of the Research Focus on Black Education SIG. She is also an active member of Columbus (OH) Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Interview with Dr. Eugene G. White, Supt. Indianapolis Public Schools

Handling the Tough Decisions: Preserving Student Achievement during Budget Cuts

Handling the Tough Decisions: Preserving Student Achievement during Budget Cuts

Dr. Eugene G.White, Superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) in Indiana discusses difficult choices in district leadership with host Mr. Arthur Griffin. An accomplished author and recipient of 2009 Indiana Superintendent of the Year award (also in 2002). Having experience through the ranks from school principal through medium to large urban districts, he has much to share on leadership and coping with the difficult decisions faced in these roles.

Dr. White has authored two books for school leaders including Leadership Beyond Excuses: The Courage to Hold the Rope.

Specific topics included in this interview with Dr. White:

• Most difficult decisions faced across 30 years of school and district leadership
• Coping with large budget cuts while maintaining educational excellence
• Describing priorities, equity, and negotiation during process of budget cuts
• Effective strategies to promote student achievement
• Role of early childhood education
• Challenges facing district leaders today

District Leaders Podcast is always Leading Today for Success Tomorrow!

Biographical Background

Dr. Eugene G. White was born in Phenix City, AL, to a single 17-year-old mother in December 1947. He was the first person in his family’s history to graduate from high school. He grew up in a time of segregation and Jim Crow practices in Southeast Alabama. In high school, he excelled in football, basketball, and baseball. His mother, grandmother and athletic coaches heavily influenced him. He was a starting member of the 1966 Alabama State Championship Basketball Team and accepted a basketball scholarship to Alabama A&M University. He graduated with academic honors and set career scoring marks at Alabama A&M University.He was a teacher, coach and school administrator in the Fort Wayne Community Schools for 19 years. He was the first African American high school principal in the Fort Wayne Community Schools, where he served as principal of Wayne High School from 1985 to 1990. In 1990 he became the first African American high school principal of North Central High School in Indianapolis, serving until 1992. He was Deputy Superintendent of the Indianapolis Public Schools from July 1992 to January 1994. He served as Superintendent of the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township for 11 years. In 2005, Dr. White was named Superintendent of the state’s largest school district, IPS.

Dr. White has served in a large number of leadership capacities over the years, most recently as President of the American Association for School Administrators in 2006-07.

Dr. White has received a wide variety of honors over his career, including:

• 2002 and 2009 Indiana Superintendent of the Year
• 2007 National Association of Black School Educators (NABSE) Superintendent of the Year
• 2006 Modern Red Schoolhouse Distinguished Service Award
• 2001 Alabama A&M University Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee
• 1997 Indiana Music Educators Association Outstanding Superintendent of the Year
• 1995 Center for Leadership Development Education Award
• 1992 named by Redbook magazine as a “visionary leader” as principal of one of America’s  Best Schools

Dr. White is the author of the book, “Leadership Beyond Excuses: The Courage to Hold the Rope.”  He co-wrote a second book, “Leading Schools of Diversity.”

He received an Ed.D. in Education Administration and Supervision from Ball State University in 1982, an Ed.S. in Superintendency from Ball State University in 1977, an M.S. in School Health from the University of Tennessee in 1971, and a B.S. in Social Studies, Health and Physical Education from Alabama A & M University in 1970.  He is a Life Member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.

Dr. White is married to Jetties White and has two children: Reginald E. White, Dean of Students and Head Girls Basketball Coach, Arsenal Tech High School in IPS, and Kimberly R. White, a teacher and coach at John Marshall Community High School in IPS.

Interview with Dr. Bruce Cooper, Professor of Educational Leadership, and Policy,  Fordham University.  Solutions for School Finance and Policy Issues

Solutions for School Finance and Policy Issues

Dr. Bruce S. Cooper, Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy,  Fordham University, prolific author, well-known expert in school policy and finance and former President of the Politics of Education Society (PEA) is our guest for this special interview with District Leader’s Podcast joining our guest host Dr. Kathleen P. King.  In the field of educational administration, policy, and finance, Dr. Cooper is a trend setter and prolific author, research and mentor of school leaders and superintendents around the globe. In 2009, he also received the Scribner Award for Mentoring from UCEA. Join us for this vibrant discussion as Cooper and King share how school superintendents strategize to succeed during a time of decreased funding and increased demands.

Specific topics include the following hot topic issues in policy and finance related to stimulus funding:

• How can the stimulus funding money be allocated and distributed equitably to your schools?
• How can superintendents efficiently distribute monies across schools, children and special needs?
• Is there a proven method that will help school leaders?
• Why is school effectiveness demanded, and is there anything new about how it can be measured?

District Leaders Podcast is always Leading Today for Success Tomorrow!

Biographical Background
Bruce S. Cooper, Ph.D. is Professor in the Division of Educational Leadership, Administration, and Policy (ELAP) in the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University. A graduate of the University of Chicago (Ph.D. ’74 and M.S. ’72), Dr. Cooper has done extensive research on school finance, organization, policy, and reform, working at Coopers & Lybrand in the development of the In$ite finance model, with Mayor Guiliani on analysis on school-site funding in NYC public schools, and the decentralization of governance in the nation’s most centralized school system (no local districts, boards, or superintendents).

Drs. Ouchi and Cooper received a $1 million grant to analyze organization and funding in six North American districts (NYC, Chicago, LA, Edmonton, and Houston), looking at the relationship between funding, management, and student achievement. He has served on the editorial boards of The Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of School Leadership, and Policy and Leadership in Schools. He has authored and coauthored 22 books, and over 275 articles, chapters and papers, and serves these last years as national president of the Politics of Education Association.

Cooper co-edited Better Policies, Better Schools with (Allyn & Bacon, 2004) and Handbook on Education Politics and Politics for Lawrence Erlbaum (Drs. Lance Fusarelli and Jim Cibulka). His newest work is The Rising State: How State Authority is Changing our Schools Albany, NY: SUNY Press with Bonnie Fusarelli (2009).

Other recent books and very relevant include

• Better Policies, Better Schools (2004, Allyn and Bacon) with L.Fusarelli;
• Promises and Perils Facing Today’s School Superintendents (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003) with L.Fusarelli;
• Truancy Revisited (Scarecrow Press, 2003) with R. Guare;
• Optimizing Educational Resources (Greenwood Press, 1999); and
• Career Crisis in the School Superintendency? The Results of a National Survey , with L. Fusarelli, & V. Carella (Arlington, VA: National Association of School Administrators, 2000),
• Home Schooling in Full View (Information Age Publishing, 2006) was one of the first books on this new form of private education.

His consulting has included a national survey for Pres. Nixon for the President’s Commission on School Finance, work with Coopers & Lybrand LLP and SchoolNet, and with Mayor Guiliani in NYC on school finance and student achievement and high school to college transition. He’s currently an expert witness in a NY State equity/adequacy case.

Related Web Links:

• Fordham University, Graduate School of Education
  • http://www.fordham.edu
• UCEA, University Council for Educational Administration
  • http://www.ucea.org/

District Leader’s Podcast is produced and copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2007. All rights reserved.

For more information email us at podcast@districtleaderspodcast.org or phone us at 1-866-435-5337 (toll free) and leave a voice message for our co-hosts.

Interview with Author, Don Tapscott

Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World

In this episode, noted author on technology trends and issues, Don Tapscott, is interviewed by Arthur Griffin. Tapscott discusses the world of ‘digital natives’ and how the explosion of the Internet into mainstream society has necessarily and completely changed the process of k-12 education. Don Tapscott shows keen insight as he discusses how even people’s brains have changed and the research he’s conducted. He also describes some of his experiences in the field of education to draw connections with these phenomena and findings. Don’t miss this episode with one of the innovative leaders of our time.

Biographical Background

Don Tapscott one of the world’s leading authorities on business strategy, how information technology changes business, government and society and innovation in education. He is Chairman of nGenera Insight. He served as founder and chairman of the international think tank New Paradigm before its acquisition by nGenera. He is an internationally sought writer, consultant and speaker and his clients include top executives of many of the world’s largest corporations and government leaders from many countries. The Washington Technology Report called him one of the most influential media authorities since Marshall McLuhan. He is also Adjunct Professor of Management, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

Tapscott has authored thirteen widely read books about information technology in business and society, most recently GROWN UP DIGITAL: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, (McGraw-Hill, NY, October 2008). The book is the sequel to his 1997 book GROWING UP DIGITAL, where he defined the Net Generation. His penultimate book, written with Anthony Williams, is WIKINOMICS: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, (New York, Portfolio, January 2007). Management guru Tom Peters calls it “ … a breathtaking piece of work” and the book was the best selling management book on amazon.com in 2007.

His earlier books include, THE DIGITAL ECONOMY: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1996), one of the best selling books about technology in business ever, appearing on a number of bestsellers lists including the New York Times business book list. It had a run of seven months on the Business Week bestsellers list. It has been translated into 20 languages. GROWING UP DIGITAL: The Rise of the Net Generation (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1998) won the first Amazon.com Bestseller Award in the summer of 1998. It has been “recommended for all libraries” by the Library Journal. Time Magazine Senior Editor Joshua Cooper Ramo, described Growing Up Digital as a “compellingly written look at the generation that will make it happen.” It has been translated into 14 languages and was released in paperback in May,1999.

Tapscott is also widely know as the co-author of the international bestseller PARADIGM SHIFT: The New Promise of Information Technology (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1992) which was the first book to describe the fundamental change in computing from host-based systems for controlling costs to networks for transforming business models and strategy.

Don Tapscott holds a B.Sc. in Psychology and Statistics, an M.Ed. specializing in Research Methodology, and two Doctor of Laws (Hon) granted from the University of Alberta in 2001 and from Trent University in 2006.

Related Web Links:

• Book Information: Grown Up Digital

• Link in with the net generation: grownupdigital.com

District Leader’s Podcast is produced and copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2007. All rights reserved.

For more information email us at podcast@districtleaderspodcast.org or phone us at 1-866-435-5337 (toll free) and leave a voice message for our co-hosts.

Interview with Author, Clayton Christensen

Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns

In this compelling and intriguing episode, Clayton M. Christensen describes the recent changes in the educational system- both in how it is changing and how it should be changed further. This special interview with our host Arthur Griffin reveals the importance of gaming to the modern student, both for leisure and the benefits that the student gleans from it, as well as discussing many other trends in the modern college student and going into detail about his book Disrupting Class. Join us to learn more about this fascinating author and the ideas he has developed over years of study and experience.

Biographical Background
Clayton M. Christensen, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School since 1992, is the bestselling author of five books, a renowned management consultant, and a seasoned entrepreneur. His research and teaching interests center on managing innovation, creating new growth markets, and making practical the theory of disruption by focusing on problems of strategy, innovation and growth. Through Innosight (www.innosight.com), the Watertown, MA-based consulting firm he co-founded in 2000, Professor Christensen has used his theory of disruptive innovation to shape the management strategies of well-known industry giants, such as Procter & Gamble, General Motors and Credit Suisse.

Of Professor Christensen’s five published books, his seminal work is The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997), which received the Global Business Book Award for the best business book of the year. In 2008, Professor Christensen released Disrupting Class and the Innovator’s Prescription (forthcoming), groundbreaking examinations of two of America’s most important public sectors through the lens of disruption.

Related Web Links:

• Book Information: Disrupting Class

• Book Web site: Disrupting Class

District Leader’s Podcast is produced and copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2007. All rights reserved.

For more information email us at podcast@districtleaderspodcast.org or phone us at 1-866-435-5337 (toll free) and leave a voice message for our co-hosts.

Interview with Superintendent of Plainfield Public Schools in NJ
Dr. Steven Gallon III

Making the Adjustment as a New Superintendent

Categories: Leadership · Author · Trends in Education · Improving Student Performance · Urban Education · Making the Tough Decisions · Professional Development·   ARCHIVE ·

 On February 16, 2008, the School Board of Plainfield, NJ concluded its national search with the support of one of the nation’s largest educational executive search firms, Hazard, Young, and Attea, and unanimously selected Dr. Steve Gallon III as its Superintendent of Schools. Dr. Gallon, whose official tenure began on July 1, 2008, is a lifelong educator who has dedicated his entire life and career to the education and uplift of students, and the cause of urban education.

In the podcast interview conducted by Carolyn Pearson on in December, 2008, Dr. Gallon discussed at length the challenges of being a new superintendent. Dr. Gallon described how he positioned himself for change in Plainfield, New Jersey with a new team, in a different region of the United States and with support of his board.

Dr. Gallon is a seasoned educator and author who offers a clear perspective to what it takes to make a huge leap into a superintendent position and land ready for success.

 Enjoy this inspiring and visionary interview with one of the nation’s foremost educational leaders.

Biographical Background
Dr. Steve Gallon III was born and raised in Miami’s renowned Liberty City. After graduating from the public school system in Miami, he later attended and graduated in three years from Florida A & M University in Tallahassee, FL, earning Magna Cum Laude Honors with a degree in English Education. Though his parent’s youngest child, he became the first and only of six siblings to graduate from college. While raising his son and daughter as a single father, he worked full-time and furthered his education at Florida International University receiving a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership and a Doctorate in Educational Administration and Supervision. He has also participated in postdoctoral leadership institutes on Large-Scale School Reform and Management at Harvard and Stanford University.

Dr. Gallon, after serving as an English teacher entered the administrative ranks as Assistant Principal and was later appointed principal of Holmes Elementary School, a Pre-K through grade 6 school with a 1,180 student population at the time. In his third year and after marked improvements in student outcomes and community involvement, he was tapped to become principal of Miami Northwestern Senior High School, where he would serve for seven years—earning the third longest tenure in the school’s 50-year history. Under his leadership, student attendance, student performance, and graduation rates increased, as well as the provision of programs in honors, advanced placement, and the arts for the over 3,200 students in the comprehensive urban high school housed in a state-of-the-art facility.

Dr. Gallon has received numerous awards for his outstanding professional and community service. He was recognized as Region III’s “Rookie Principal of the Year”, Elementary School “Principal of the Year”, District Finalist for Principal of the Year, and “Educator of the Year” by Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Dr. Gallon was also the recipient of the NAACP Mary McCloud Bethune Educator’s Award. The College Board recognized Dr. Gallon as one of eight Americans featured nationally in their publication entitled “Heroes of a Different Kind” for leadership and service in education. In 2003, Dr. Gallon released his first book entitled The Principalship: Tribulations and Triumphs which was featured in the national educational publication Education Week, as one of three new titles for principals. His second book, When Morning Comes: Moments of Struggle, Strength, and Salvation provided the second installment in his urban education trilogy, which marks a work of personal and professional revelation. It was released in the fall of 2006. Having been featured in numerous media venues, and because of his spirit of enthusiasm, intellect, and dynamism, Dr. Gallon has served as an educational consultant, guest lecturer, and motivational speaker.

Growing up in one of Miami’s toughest neighborhoods, and becoming not only a survivor of those streets, Dr. Gallon learned early that only education can offer options beyond poverty and prison. His ability and dedication to galvanizing the school and community to enhance the educational opportunities of economically challenged and at-risk students has been recognized and applauded at the local, state, and national level.

Related Web Links:

• Plainfield Public Schools

District Leader’s Podcast is produced and copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2007. All rights reserved.

For more information email us at podcast@districtleaderspodcast.org or phone us at 1-866-435-5337 (toll free) and leave a voice message for our co-hosts.