Staying on Track

An Educational Leader's Guide to Preventing Derailment and Ensuring Personal and Organizational Success
Second Edition
Dale L. Brubaker - University of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina
Larry D. Coble - Centre for Creative Leadership, Greensboro
Staying on Track
July 2006 | 200 pages | Corwin
Create Flyer

Purchase

eBook
ISBN: 9781483362229
Available from January 0001
Paperback
ISBN: 9781412939362
Available from January 0001

Description

"This second edition is moving, realistic, and candid. New chapters on how to negotiate accountability pressures and the seasons of an educational leader's life are excellent. Every would-be and present administrator would benefit from reading this book."
-Seymour B. Sarason, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Yale University

Identify and prevent potential career derailment!

School leaders deal with pressures, pitfalls, and opportunities every day. The authors maintain that creative leaders can keep schools moving in the right direction by reflecting on their natural talents and maximizing the strengths of their staff.

This completely updated guide helps you assess your role as an administrator, shows how you might sabotage your prospects for promotion or retention, and provides strategies to remedy the situation. Two new chapters address the political realities of the No Child Left Behind Act and answer these queries:

  • What causes an educational leader to derail?
  • What are potential accountability and high-stakes testing derailment factors?
  • What skills are most important for improving data-driven decision making, student achievement, and test results?

This new edition will help you start, or keep, your forward momentum and get you closer to your ideal job.

Contents

Contents

Contents

Preface

Preface

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

About the Authors

Prologue: A Cautionary Tale

Prologue: A Cautionary Tale

1. Accountability and High-Stakes Testing

  • The National Level
  • The State Level
  • The School-System Level
  • The School Level
  • Conclusion

2. Self-Assessment Checklists

  • Checklist A
  • Checklist B
  • Conclusion

3. What Causes Educational Leaders to Derail?

  • Causes of Assistant Principal and Principal Derailment
  • Causes of Superintendent Derailment
  • Conclusion

4. Antiderailment Strategies

  • The Recommendations
  • Conclusion

5. Professional and Personal Plans for Development

  • What Works and Doesn’t Work in Professional Development
  • Professional Development Recommendations for a School or School System
  • A Personal Development Plan for Improvement
  • Conclusion

6. Preparing Teacher Leaders for Tomorrow’s Leadership Positions

  • A Grounding for Teacher Leader Development
  • The Realities of Context in Which Teachers Lead
  • The Teacher Leader and the Presentation of Self
  • The Teacher Leader and Meetings
  • The Teacher Leader as Networker
  • Conclusion

7. The Seasons of An Educational Leader’s Career

  • Preparing the Way to Become an Educational Administrator
  • Entering Educational Administration
  • Settling In—The Middle Years
  • The Later Years as an Educational Administrator
  • Conclusion

Afterword

Afterword

Resources

Resources

References

References

Index

Index

Additional materials

Description

"This second edition is moving, realistic, and candid. New chapters on how to negotiate accountability pressures and the seasons of an educational leader's life are excellent. Every would-be and present administrator would benefit from reading this book."
-Seymour B. Sarason, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Yale University

Identify and prevent potential career derailment!

School leaders deal with pressures, pitfalls, and opportunities every day. The authors maintain that creative leaders can keep schools moving in the right direction by reflecting on their natural talents and maximizing the strengths of their staff.

This completely updated guide helps you assess your role as an administrator, shows how you might sabotage your prospects for promotion or retention, and provides strategies to remedy the situation. Two new chapters address the political realities of the No Child Left Behind Act and answer these queries:

  • What causes an educational leader to derail?
  • What are potential accountability and high-stakes testing derailment factors?
  • What skills are most important for improving data-driven decision making, student achievement, and test results?

This new edition will help you start, or keep, your forward momentum and get you closer to your ideal job.

Contents

Contents

Contents

Preface

Preface

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

About the Authors

Prologue: A Cautionary Tale

Prologue: A Cautionary Tale

1. Accountability and High-Stakes Testing

  • The National Level
  • The State Level
  • The School-System Level
  • The School Level
  • Conclusion

2. Self-Assessment Checklists

  • Checklist A
  • Checklist B
  • Conclusion

3. What Causes Educational Leaders to Derail?

  • Causes of Assistant Principal and Principal Derailment
  • Causes of Superintendent Derailment
  • Conclusion

4. Antiderailment Strategies

  • The Recommendations
  • Conclusion

5. Professional and Personal Plans for Development

  • What Works and Doesn’t Work in Professional Development
  • Professional Development Recommendations for a School or School System
  • A Personal Development Plan for Improvement
  • Conclusion

6. Preparing Teacher Leaders for Tomorrow’s Leadership Positions

  • A Grounding for Teacher Leader Development
  • The Realities of Context in Which Teachers Lead
  • The Teacher Leader and the Presentation of Self
  • The Teacher Leader and Meetings
  • The Teacher Leader as Networker
  • Conclusion

7. The Seasons of An Educational Leader’s Career

  • Preparing the Way to Become an Educational Administrator
  • Entering Educational Administration
  • Settling In—The Middle Years
  • The Later Years as an Educational Administrator
  • Conclusion

Afterword

Afterword

Resources

Resources

References

References

Index

Index

Additional materials

SAGE Publishing Logo

Staying on Track

An Educational Leader's Guide to Preventing Derailment and Ensuring Personal and Organizational Success

Dale L. Brubaker , Larry D. Coble
Cancel Print

July 2006 | 200 pages | Corwin

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Paperback 01/02/2026 9781412939362 $37.95
Lifetime 01/02/2026 9781483362229 $35.00

"This second edition is moving, realistic, and candid. New chapters on how to negotiate accountability pressures and the seasons of an educational leader's life are excellent. Every would-be and present administrator would benefit from reading this book."
-Seymour B. Sarason, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Yale University

Identify and prevent potential career derailment!

School leaders deal with pressures, pitfalls, and opportunities every day. The authors maintain that creative leaders can keep schools moving in the right direction by reflecting on their natural talents and maximizing the strengths of their staff.

This completely updated guide helps you assess your role as an administrator, shows how you might sabotage your prospects for promotion or retention, and provides strategies to remedy the situation. Two new chapters address the political realities of the No Child Left Behind Act and answer these queries:

  • What causes an educational leader to derail?
  • What are potential accountability and high-stakes testing derailment factors?
  • What skills are most important for improving data-driven decision making, student achievement, and test results?

This new edition will help you start, or keep, your forward momentum and get you closer to your ideal job.


Table Of Contents:

  • Contents
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Authors
  • Prologue: A Cautionary Tale
  • 1. Accountability and High-Stakes Testing
  • The National Level
  • The State Level
  • The School-System Level
  • The School Level
  • Conclusion
  • 2. Self-Assessment Checklists
  • Checklist A
  • Checklist B
  • Conclusion
  • 3. What Causes Educational Leaders to Derail?
  • Causes of Assistant Principal and Principal Derailment
  • Causes of Superintendent Derailment
  • Conclusion
  • 4. Antiderailment Strategies
  • The Recommendations
  • Conclusion
  • 5. Professional and Personal Plans for Development
  • What Works and Doesn’t Work in Professional Development
  • Professional Development Recommendations for a School or School System
  • A Personal Development Plan for Improvement
  • Conclusion
  • 6. Preparing Teacher Leaders for Tomorrow’s Leadership Positions
  • A Grounding for Teacher Leader Development
  • The Realities of Context in Which Teachers Lead
  • The Teacher Leader and the Presentation of Self
  • The Teacher Leader and Meetings
  • The Teacher Leader as Networker
  • Conclusion
  • 7. The Seasons of An Educational Leader’s Career
  • Preparing the Way to Become an Educational Administrator
  • Entering Educational Administration
  • Settling In—The Middle Years
  • The Later Years as an Educational Administrator
  • Conclusion
  • Afterword
  • Resources
  • References
  • Index

Recent Product Reviews:

"Offers advice in plain terms, checklists of key points to remember and implement, and a season-by-season overview of what to expect in the career of an educational administrator. A helpful and practical-minded guide to being the best administrator one can be."
Library Bookwatch, November 2006
"If all aspiring and practicing school leaders heeded the suggestions in Staying on Track, a tremendous loss of administrative talent to attrition could be avoided. Administrators can discover how to grow their own capacities to sustain their careers rather than to attempt to escape the realities of their jobs by running from one position to the next or resigning in disillusionment. This new edition offers two additional chapters aimed at helping leaders understand the four stages of an administrative career and how to avoid derailment by the high-stakes testing movement."
Sue F. Burgess, Superintendent of Schools, Dare County Public Schools, NC
"An exciting guide to help aspiring educational leaders develop."
Terrence E. Deal, Professor of Education, University of Southern California
"Filled with practical, useful ideas to help you get (and keep!) your career going in the right direction. All school administrators should make this book a part of their personal learning plan. We are using it as a part of our intensive leadership training program."
Richard E. Maxwell, Executive Director (Retired), Buckeye Association of School Administrators
"This second edition is moving, realistic, and candid. New chapters on how to negotiate accountability pressures and the seasons of an educational leader’s life are excellent. Every would-be and present administrator would benefit from reading this book."
Seymour B. Sarason, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Yale University

Recommendations