Monday, May 25, 2020

Kent Haruf Tribute

Have you ever been lucky enough to see how Kent Haruf works on his masterpieces? If yes, then you have definitely seen how he pulls a wool cap on the eyes, sits down in front of the manual typewriter and fully dives into the process of creation. He used to write one chapter a day, in the backyard of his home located in Salida, where Kent Haruf actually passed away at 71. Paragraphs, punctuations as well as capitalization – all these issues were left alone before the second draft. The number one task was to generate the first draft, to let the imagery stream run smoothly, single-spaced. He simply described the world previously created in his mind. He most famous work by Mr. Haruf is the â€Å"Plainsong† that reflects the lives of several families: a pregnant teenager, aging brothers, young boy and their mother, who suffers from depression. The author spent six years in order to complete the work. Critics highly praised the depth of his characters as well as his spare sentences and well described circumstances. No wonder that this book made Kent Haruf a real sensation! The author was rejected the very first time he applied to the Writers’ Workshop in Iowa at the age of 20, and even more rejections waited in the future. Fortunately, the author eventually broke through! His first novel was published in 1984. Six years later the world faced with the other masterpiece from Mr. Haruf. As for the â€Å"Plainsong†, this book provided the author with an opportunity to earn enough money to retire from the teaching position he took in Southern Illinois. At that time Kent Haruf continued to write blind. What was so special about this method? The point is that it took away the terrors and never let the author to get back and fix the sentence. The book called â€Å"Eventide† was published in 2004 and included some characters from the â€Å"Plainsong†. Some of the critics said that Kent Haruf had this magical ability to make the readers care about the small-town folks without all unnecessary sentimental clichà ©s. Born in Pueblo (Colo.), on Feb. 24, 1943, Kent Haruf grew up in Yuma and Wray – the towns that are located in the northeastern region of the state. He attended junior high and high school in Canon City. Kent Haruf was the students of Nebraska Wesleyan University situated in Lincoln. In 1965 he took the volunteer position in Peace Corps in Turkey. During the Vietnam War Mr. Haruf received conscientious-objector status and worked in an orphanage and a hospital. The author of the â€Å"Plainsong† was 41 when he actually sold his first literary work to the magazine called â€Å"Puerto del Sol†. His first marriage ended up with divorce. In addition to his wife, a talented and truly knowledgeable writer also had three daughters – Whitney Haruf, Sorel Haruf and Chaney Matsukis, as well as five stepchildren – Joel Dempsey, Amy Dempsey, Jessica Hedayat, Jennifer Dempsey and Jason Dempsey. Many grandchildren, a sister and two brothers – Mr. Haruf was surrounded by people, who truly loved him and appreciated his eternal talents!

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Analysis Of The Writing Style Of Octavia Butler - 1432 Words

Tinotenda Muchenje Dr. Shinn Sophomore Seminar 25 September 2017 First Essay Assignment Kindred By Octavia Butler The writing style of Octavia Butler is heavily influenced by her historical period and her life experiences. This is evident through investigation of her historical period, life experiences, her novel; Kindred. Butler’s writing is a unique mixture of neo- slave narratives, exaggerated tales, cultural rituals, fantasy, folklore, science fiction, and spirituality. Butler uses science fiction and fantasy as a means of exploiting racism, suffering, and the black female narrative of isolation and disconnectedness from society in many of her novels, namely, Kindred. Though her intent was not to be a science fiction†¦show more content†¦Board of Education of Topeka (1954). This case said that segregated schools were unconstitutional and resulted in the forced integration of schools. Overall the civil rights era was an era where ideas of black power and black excellence proliferated. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Black Panthers, and Malcolm X are often seen as symbolic figu res during this time. Even though black females like Ella Baker; Septima Clark; and Rosa Parks are not as recognized. Octavia Butler was born on June 22 1947 in Pasadena, California. She was the only child of Laurice and Octavia Margaret (Guy) Butler, but was raised by her mother and grandmother as a result of her father’s death during infancy. Her mother was a strict, overprotective, Baptist woman who worked tirelessly to support Octavia and her grandmother. Butler was immersed in a reality with strong female protagonists who endured extreme isolation, humiliation and misery. She watched her mother as she single handedly provided for the family and took the cruel, dehumanizing rhetoric of her white employers with a stone face. She listened to her grandmother, a slave who was forced to work in the cane fields of Louisiana, as she spoke of her past. As if their struggles were passed down through her blood, young Butler wore their mental scars like armour and spun exaggerated tales where their courage and heroism could be seen and commended. If my mother hadn t put up with all thoseShow MoreRelatedHills Like White Elephants : A Critical Analysis1708 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"Hills Like White Elephants†: A Critical Analysis Introduction: One of the many themes in his stories for which Ernest Heming way is known, includes feminism. At Hemingway’s time feminism was known as a famous movement and it affected many important writers like Octavia Butler and Virginia Woolf. Hemingway was a literary icon of his time and he was influenced by the political, social and human rights movements of his time. He was also touched by the hopelessness of women and how their thinkingRead MoreHistory of Social Work18530 Words   |  75 Pages............................................................................25 Elizabeth Gurney Fry ...............................................................................................................................................25 Octavia Hill ..............................................................................................................................................................26 Arnold Toynbee ............................................................. ....

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

What a Home Really is in The House on Mango Street Essays

What a Home Really is in The House on Mango Street â€Å"Home is where the heart is.† In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros develops this famous statement to depict what a â€Å"home† really represents. What is a home? Is it a house with four walls and a roof, the neighborhood of kids while growing up, or a unique Cleaver household where everything is perfect and no problems arise? According to Cisneros, we all have our own home with which we identify; however, we cannot always go back to the environment we once considered our dwelling place. The home, which is characterized by who we are, and determined by how we view ourselves, is what makes every individual unique. A home is a personality, a depiction of who we are inside and†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"I am an ugly daughter,† she says. â€Å"I am the one nobody comes for† (109). She feels she can relate to the four skinny trees outside her window. â€Å"Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine† (93) . Just as the trees survive under a harsh environment, Esperanza finds difficulty in accepting the neighborhood in which she lives. She is very self-conscious about her name, whose mispronunciation by teachers and peers at school sounds ugly to her ears. She struggles with jealousy of her younger sister Nenny and cynically says that she â€Å"has pretty eyes and it’s easy to talk†¦if you are pretty† (109). Ashamed of most everything she identifies with, Esperanza is maturing with a very low perception of herself. She is not content with her home and surroundings, and cannot be until she is happy with her own character. The neighborhood is not exactly a pretty place as Esperanza describes it. She says, â€Å"here there is too much sadness and not enough sky. Butterflies too are few and so are flowers and most things that are beautiful† (39). In the one year of Esperanza’s life that this book covers, she is raped, abused, and sees the death of the only person who would listen to her poetry- â€Å"Her name was Aunt Lupe and she was beautiful like [her] mother† (70). Her discontent with the neighborhood surrounding the house on Mango Street and the rough times that she experienced caused her to want to move away fromShow MoreRelatedLiterary Analysis Of The House On Mango Street1163 Words   |  5 PagesEzra Collins English 9: Tetlak Literary Analysis: The House on Mango Street November 3, 2017 Remember Where Your From The House on Mango Street On average 40,093,000 people in the United States move annually. In the book The House on Mango Street the main character Esperanza and her family are included in this number. They Come very poor roots, and they don t have much money. They move often, one day dreaming to live in a real house, one they don t have to share, one with their own yard, withRead MoreThe House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros766 Words   |  3 Pagesliterary analysis on â€Å"The House on Mango Street† by Sandra Cisneros. This story takes place in the center of an over populated Latino neighborhood in Chicago, a city where many of the poor areas are ethnically segregated. This novella uses two main symbols shoes and trees. Later in the literary analysis I will explain what these mean to the main characters. There are three main characters in the novella Esperanza, Sally and Nenny (short for â€Å"Magdalena†). The House on Mango Street tells the life of EsperanzaRead MoreThe House On Mango St reet Analysis1145 Words   |  5 Pagesnovel The House on Mango Street portrays the struggle of a young Latina girl from a bad neighborhood who is trying to have a better life. From the beginning, it is evident that the dreams of this young girl are to be independent, become a writer, and have a home of her own. To begin with, the author makes it clear from the start that Esperanza, the young Latina girl, is a big dreamer who wishes to be independent. Throughout the book, it is clear how much she talks about leaving Mango street and beingRead More Imprisoned on Mango Street Essay695 Words   |  3 PagesImprisoned on Mango Street â€Å"I am tired of looking at what we can’t have.† This particular quote explains that Esperanza desperately longs to leave Mango Street behind, but she also feels that she may be trapped forever. Esperanza is coming to realize she may never get out of Mango Street. Esperanza feels as though she is trapped many times. Three areas where Esperanza realizes just how trapped she is are a treasure in a furniture shop that they cannot have, Esperanza’s family making lies aboutRead MoreThe House On Mango Street Essay746 Words   |  3 Pagesand people are afraid to go near this neighborhood because, people thought they would get jumped or hurt. This neighborhood is known as Mango Street, and there is a young girl named Esperanza(Sandra Cisneros) that lives in a old broken down home. This is her story in The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is a young Latina writer, inventing for herself who and what she will become . Esperanza did not have many friends, was shy, and very sensitive but her love to write and telling of stories has gottenRead More‚Äà ºthe Setting of the House on Mango Street‚Äà ¹974 Words   |  4 Pages10:40-11:55 November 26, 2012 â€Å"The Setting of the House on Mango Street† The short story, â€Å"The House on Mango Street,† is a story that is centered within a particular neighborhood, which is evidently inhabited by middle-to-lower class folks. Although the introduction of the story does not state a specific location, it is safe to say that it is not the typical neighborhood where you would find rich white folks living. For example, the house where the protagonists live is described as almost collapsingRead MoreThe American Dream in The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros1511 Words   |  7 Pageseverybody has one, it can be from living in a large house and having a million dollars to just having the privilege to live in America and try to make something better for themselves in this new life or new start they are trying to grasp. There are many traditions and dreams of every American today while some dreams are practical and some are not and most of all their dreams are from the heart. The American dream is really simple--it consists of a house a job a car three kids and one dog but this is notRead MoreThe House On Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros886 Words   |  4 PagesThe House on Mango Street is a novel by Sandra Cisneros. The novel is acclaimed by critics and used in schools all around the world. â€Å"The House on Mango Street† is about a young Latina girl who is about the age of 12 when the novel begins. Sandra’s novels have sold over two million copies. Sandra was born on December 20, 1984, in Chicago, Illinois. In 2016, President Barack Obama presented her with the medal of ‘National Medal of Arts’. Title: The House on Mango Street Author: Sandra Cisneros TheRead MoreTheme Of Oppression In The House On Mango Street1470 Words   |  6 Pagesa murder on the loose who only kills people wearing a blue coat. Whats the first thing you do? Do you wear your blue coat in defiance of the blue coat killer? I mean, who is some murder to tell you what you can and cannot wear?Do you hide it, I mean theres a murder so it common sense, right? But what if you couldn’t hide them? Now imagine that the blue coat killer is a euphemism for the oppression in our society, and the blue coats are the things being oppressed in people, whether it be race, genderRead MoreEssay on The House on Mango Street and the Style of Sandra Cisneros1669 Words   |  7 PagesThe House on Mango Street and the Style of Sandra Cisneros Clearly, Sandra Cisneros writing style is one representative of a minority voice. Her amazing style allows her readers to take an active part in the minority experience. For this reason, I believe Cisneros has had a lot of influence and success in the status of minority writers, especially in the canon of what is read and taught in schools today. But, more than anything, Cisneros has shown that liberation can come through creativity

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Three Workable School Improvement Plans

Question: Evaluates three workable school improvement plans. Address the following in your paper: Include the consequences of reforms noted in the plans. Include the benefits of reforms noted in the plans. Defend the one that you think would work best at your school. Answer: School Improvement Plan: A school improvement plan means a type of road map that gives a basic idea that a school needs to make in order to give a better result to the student educational development. This sort of plan not only helps the students but also the teachers and principal as well. This improvement plan also lays down where and when such plan is required to be implicated. This type of plans help in monitoring the development of student achievements and other necessary factors like school environment which are also quite influential in development of student mind and capibilities. This type of school improvement plans has quite a few advantages like it helps to keep a up-to-dated knowledge about the development of the student and also this in turn helps the school to understand the needs of the students, teachers and parents. It is also influential in the accountability of performance of a particular school as results of the students gives knowledge about the school to the people at large. School Imp rovement Plan is a sort of mechanism. At the very first in order to create a school improvement plan ,the student councils, teachers, principals and other community members concerned with it starts seeking information about a particular school and then after analyzing the information gathered, they set out a degree changes required to be done to that particular school for the development of the student. While making these changes as set out in the plan, the comparison keeps going on between the original condition that was prevailing and the present changes that are being done. The basic changes that are required to be considered are curriculum delivery, school environment, parental involvement etc. First School Improvement Plan: The very first example that was set out applying the newly initiated school improvement plan was New Yorks Johnson City Central School District. They found a new way out for communicating the newly found rules without nullifying or conflicting the existing rules termed as ODDM. They believed that it not enough to have effective teaching system but a teaching system congruent with district objectives. There basic motives which they wanted to bring in for the development of the students .This particular school introduced ODDM (outcome driven development models). For example, in a school where ODDM is not present, suppose there are some major issues regarding the homework patterns given to the student. Parents complained about it and every teacher and a different or no reason for it. So, in order to make the teacher-parents communication smooth and effective, if a set of central rules are laid down then every teacher and every parents will be bound to follow it. Using the ODDM model it was analysed that homework will be more effective if the homework is related to the study which the student have already studied. This would help in Student Development. The basic missions of ODDM are mainly research base including pshycological base, transformational base, administrative support etc. Second School Improvement Plan: Halton District School Board sets out another example of School Improvement Plan. The two main purposes lay down by the school for improvement plan is to seek more capability in the skills and knowledge of the educators and also to improve student learning, achievement and well beings. The basic works of the Improvement Development board is to analyse both quantitative and qualitative data for specific development of the student and also to determine the policies and evidences that will help in this development of the student capacities and abilities. The Board should also allocate resources including professional learning. The basic benefits that the students will draw out of this School Improvement Plan are they will achieve high levels of academic knowledges, develop their skills and become a good example of good citizen. The benefit of the educators will be that they would learn continuously and would turn out to be the best educators of the world. Third School Improvement Plan: Toronto Catholic District School Board sets out another remarkable example of workable school improvement plan. The basic mission of every School Improvement Board is developing grace and knowledge in student and in turn helping them to live a life with dignity and faith. The initial and the basic cause for developing this boards are to ensure that the learning process for the students become richer with passing days and that they learn as well as the educators develop their in built skills since birth and continue till adulthood. The recent plan set out by the Toronto Catholic District School Board includes increasing student engagement, nurturing the catholic community, improving student learning and reducing the learning opportunity gap. Consequences Of Reform Noted In The Plans The initial improvement plan was initiated by New Yorks Johnson City Central School District named ODDM. Consequences would have been vast if this plan wasnt initiated during that time. Schools were facing different issues like homework related issues or school administration issues. After introducing ODDM quite a few issues were solved. The introduction of ODDM helped in administering the schools in a systematic matter. It could provide a logical way for learning of the students. Even the most desired thing when it comes to running a school is the parents-teachers communication so that both the teachers as well as the parents understand the basic needs of the children ad can take an initiative to work in the manner desired. The consequence of this Improvement plan programme was that the teachers, the principals all became more aware of the environment and status of education in the society, and opted to give best education to their child in all manner possible. Schools started working hard to develop the skill of the educators so that they proper education can be provided to the students. If this initiative was taken then most of the schools as well as the parents of the student would be still stuck in old patterns of teaching and as result neither the school will have any development nor the teachers nor the students. It is to early to understand the effects of this plan but the implementation of this improvement plans were having quite a few consequences among schools, nearby communities and individuals. The basic side- effect was that since individuals were being introduced to new plans and ideas about the educational system, their in-built concepts were getting hampered and as such a lot of queries and confusions were being cropping into their mind. This resulted into personal conflicts within oneself. It also started having issues in the social system because the previous educational system and the present changes opting to be brought in were conflicting with each other. It wasnt being easy for people or students or educators even to accept the changes so smoothly. Halton District School Board while implementing the Improvement plan faced quite a few issues. The implementation of the school Improvement plan faced certain consequences which made it difficult for them to manage the administration of school. While implementing the improvement plan, issues were raised regarding the proper advisory board. The parents felt that there was no proper evaluation of the datas and facts collected about the needs of the educational system. They felt that there was some defaults on the part of the advisory board to analyse the facts collected and investigated. As such the basic side-effect was that the students faced quite a few difficulties .Sudden changes in the educational system without proper information being applied made it difficult for them to adopt. Again due to improper and inadequate communication, the parents at the initial begin faced little problem in understanding the new methods that were being implemented. There were some positive effects as well for the new introduced Improvement Plan. The Principals, The educators, The students and the parents as well being able to get introduced to thoughts and scopes of education which they didnt have any idea about. Students and educators got a new bloom to the educational system. They werent anymore part of the patent old pattern educational system . They had something new to learn for themselves and for the community at large. As observed, Toronto Catholic District School Board had a mixed result of this newly introduced Improvement Plan. There were few good consequences and few adverse ones. The basic good consequences were a benefit for both the school authorities as well as the students. Students being introduced to the new system, accepted the changes in a very well mannered. The new system initiated a lot of interest in the students mind. Students who initial avoided school, started going to school regularly for they found a new interest in their boring educational system. Now the teaching method seem to be more interesting for them. Teachers even showed more interest in teaching method now. New interesting ways were being introduced newly and as such even the educators were getting to learn new applications while teaching the students. One more benefit that the school was getting after introducing the new Improvement Plan for the school development was that the school name was getting a lot of recognition in the society. Due to the newly introduced ways a lot of parents were being more interested in educating their children from this particular school. As a result the school reputation was getting higher and even the school was getting more approachable by the people at large. This was benefiting the school administration at large to run the school with good reputation and facilities. Few adverse effects were also being noticed while this changes were taking place. People in the society who have accepted and are well acquinted with the old patterns of education found it difficult for themselves to adopt to the new system. They felt that the new introduced method would confuse the students more than giving them ease in this system. Even they felt that the educators would now work less to gather knowledge for the purpose of teaching the students. There capibilities and teaching qualities would be degrading in nature instead of any development. Benefits Of Reform In The Plan: New York Johnson School City District: This school was the first one to introduce the School Improvement Plan. It worked hard on this plan at the base and as a consequence it had quite a few benefying results in hand. Johnson School City District became a highly effective school on introducing this Improvement Plan. Now their vision became more clear and focused and far-sighted. The environment of the school became safer and manageable. It also became eco-friendly for student to spent their time. This in turn helped them to be more nature cautious and also to grow up to be a better human being . Parents becoming aware of the new introduced system, now started expecting high rate of success from the students. Their expectation towards the school authority also increased with there growing needs. They now expected a better administration from the school authority in managing their children and a better developed educational system that would be benefiting their childs growth both physiological and pshycological. The benefit that the school drew by introducing this new improvement system was that the reputation and recoginition of the school increased with eventually in the city. People became more aware about this particular school due to their newly introduced methods that attracted the parents at large to give their students a better education. In this manner the school gained a lot of popularity and such it became benefiting for them to run this education business with proper administration and management . Halton District School Board: Another reputed school that introduced or worked for the improvement of school and educational system was Halton District School Board. The management of the school as well the parents of the student were benefited in a lot of manner. Enhancing their communication management among the teachers and the parents now helped both the classes to know better about the needs of the children studying . Teachers on communicating with the parents could get aware about the developed or lacking skills of a particular student, and hence could take initiative to work on that particular student according to the need. Parents on the other hand were now being introduced to the new developed system which not only helped them to give their children a better education but it also gave them a better opportunity to upgrade themselves with the changing pattern. They could also develop themselves. The most advantageous part of this plan was that now students were being monitored more frequently and as such the faculty of educators as well as the head authority of the school was getting to know better about the students need. Accordingly they could work on their plan for development. The school being more aware about the students need their focus shifted to high level of students achievement thereby focusing on the activities relating to learning . The students were the ones who were benefited the most. System of education were being channelized according to their needs and requirement. As a result students became more friendly with the atmosphere and their interest towards the school increased. They were becoming more comfortable with studies. Introduction of curriculum activities help the students not only to enhance their educational knowledge but also skills in other activities . Toronto Catholic District School Board: Since Toronto Catholic District School Board was a catholic school one of the improvements that they opted for was centrally development of Catholic churches and their beliefs and faiths in the work and the goals of school in the Catholic system . The basic explanation to this central development of catholic beliefs and faiths are that this schools based on catholic system would work more on their catholic churches and their parishes so to reflect that the development opting by them reflects their motives . Another positive result that could be reflected from the introduction of this Improvement plan is that a strong relation grew between the home and school. Frequent meeting between the parents and the teachers helped both sides to understand the system being used . Also another thing that needs to be mentioned is that the educational system overall was benefited. Introduction in one school drew focus of other schools to introduce and work on the same Improvement Plan analyzing their basic facts and requirements . Overall this particular new motivation used in the educational system helped the society to grow at large making people aware more about education, its need and developments required or already being made. It helped parents, educators and the students to enhance their knowledge and skills and also to groom themselves to be a better citizen to live in . Plan To Work Best At My School: After researching, studying and analyzing the various school improvement plans that have been working out in different zones of the world, Im of the opinion that the initiative taken so many years back was a futuristic one and its still being utilized in different parts of world today . The educational system have been vastly benefited . Students of todays day are more advanced in knowledge . If Im given a choice of adopting any of the above mentioned improvement plans ,I would like my school to adopt the Improvement Plan structured by the New Yorks Johnson City Central School District. In my opinion the first thing that needed to be improved in my school would be the management of the administrative department . Administration is something that forms the base of running any institution . So it is very necessary to manage the administrative department with proper care . Another thing that needs to be taken care of in our school is the homework managening plan that was adopted by the Johnson City Central School District. Parents need to get accustomed and have a knowledge about the homework given to their children and why. Only if they understand the need of homework for students, there involvement in the studies of their children would be more for they would have to guide their children at home and at the same time more interaction will take place between the teachers and the parents . Meetings should be arranged frequently between teachers and parents, so that teachers get to know that where their respective students are lacking and where do they need to concentrate, and parents would get to understand the process of how their children are being educated, their performance scale and how they should be guided at home. Interaction between parents and teachers are very important for this the only way out through which both the sides get knowledge about the current knowledge status of their child . Another thing that needs to be taken care of is the proper management of the administrative department. Administrative department is the main system in running a school . Hence it is very important to manage the administrative department with proper knowledge and under perfect guidance. Principal the head of the school should be appointed to someone who has ample knowledge about how to run a school and should have been worked earlier somewhere as a teacher . This is one of the improvement plans Johnson City Central School District took in hand so as to manage the school students, educators and the parents in a systematic manner so that none of the ends have any sort of complain against the education system they have taken up. This plan should be initiated in my school as well . Lastly, the thing that needs to be taken up for my school, is the way how New York Johnson Central School District is the introduction of necessary subjects that would be profitable for the students in later years . The basic requirement of benefiting subjects and curriculum activities will grow more interest in students towards education. Engaging students in curriculum activities will expand their capibilities of doing more activities together else than studies. Even the skill capacity of students will be explored at a huge scale . These are the basic changes required to be brought in accordance to the plans above cited. Reference Bernhardt, V. (2013).School Portfolio Toolkit: A Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation Guide for Continuous School Improvement. Routledge. Bird, J. J., Dunaway, D. M., Hancock, D. R., Wang, C. (2013). The Superintendent's Leadership Role in School Improvement: Relationships Between Authenticity and Best Practices.Leadership and Policy in Schools,12(1), 77-99. Dimmock, C. (2013).School-based management and school effectiveness. Routledge. Duke, D. L. (2013). Are We Pushing for Greatness? School Improvement Is about More Than Closing Achievement Gaps. Schools Also Must Balance Equity and Excellence.Phi Delta Kappan,94(5), 45. Dunaway, D. M., Bird, J. J., Wang, C., Hancock, D. (2014). Superintendents perceptions of the school improvement planning process in the southeastern USA.Educational Management Administration Leadership,42(4), 460-473. Forsyth, P. B., Adams, C. M., Hoy, W. K. (2011).Collective Trust: Why Schools Can't Improve without It. Teachers College Press. 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027. Harris, J., Davidson, L., Hayes, B., Humphreys, K., LaMarca, P., Berliner, B., ... Van Houten, L. (2014). Speak Out, Listen Up! Tools for Using Student Perspectives and Local Data for School Improvement. REL 2014-035.Regional Educational Laboratory West. Hartnell-Young, E. A., Marshall, R., Hassell, R. (2014). Implementing a generic school improvement framework: experience of the National School Improvement Tool in Australian settings. Harvey, D. (2011). School Improvement Team. Mangan, M. T., Hillman, K., Madl, T., Rossi, C., Wings, S. (2014). Illinois School Improvement Grants: Strategies and Conditions for Improving Student Outcomes. Osses, A., Bellei, C., Valenzuela, J. P. (2015). External technical support for school improvement: critical issues from the Chilean experience.Journal of Educational Administration and History,47(3), 272-293. Rogers, L. (2014). Schoolwide/School Improvement Plan. Seifert, D., Hartnell-Young, E. (2015). An Effective School Improvement Framework: Using the National School Improvement Tool. Taylor, D. L., Tashakkori, A., Crone-Koshel, L. (2014). A Model of Planning for School Improvement and Obstacles to Implementation.Jsl Vol 11-N6,11, 493. Van Der Voort, G., Wood, L. (2014). Assisting School Management Teams to construct their school improvement plans: an action learning approach.South African Journal of Education,34(3), 01-07. Yang, H. R., Shin, H. W., Kim, J. Y., Ryu, H. G., Kim, T. H. (2012). Improvement Plan for School Facility Management-Focusing on Public Educational Buildings in Gyeonggido.The journal of Sustainable Design and Educational Environment Research,11(1), 32-41. Yatsko, S., Lake, R., Bowen, M., Cooley Nelson, E. (2015). Federal School Improvement Grants (SIGs): How Capacity and Local Conditions Matter.Peabody Journal of Education,90(1), 27-52. Zepeda, S. J. (2013).Instructional leadership for school improvement. Routledge. Duke, D. L. (2013). Are We Pushing for Greatness? School Improvement Is about More Than Closing Achievement Gaps. Schools Also Must Balance Equity and Excellence.Phi Delta Kappan,94(5), 45. Harris, J., Davidson, L., Hayes, B., Humphreys, K., LaMarca, P., Berliner, B., ... Van Houten, L. (2014). Speak Out, Listen Up! Tools for Using Student Perspectives and Local Data for School Improvement. REL 2014-035.Regional Educational Laboratory West. Osses, A., Bellei, C., Valenzuela, J. P. (2015). External technical support for school improvement: critical issues from the Chilean experience.Journal of Educational Administration and History,47(3), 272-293. Van Der Voort, G., Wood, L. (2014). Assisting School Management Teams to construct their school improvement plans: an action learning approach.South African Journal of Education,34(3), 01-07. Rogers, L. (2014). Schoolwide/School Improvement Plan. (Myocyte enhanced factor 2C (MEF2C), 2014) (Weishaar, 2015) Yatsko, S., Lake, R., Bowen, M., Cooley Nelson, E. (2015). Federal School Improvement Grants (SIGs): How Capacity and Local Conditions Matter.Peabody Journal of Education,90(1), 27-52. Hartnell-Young, E. A., Marshall, R., Hassell, R. (2014). Implementing a generic school improvement framework: experience of the National School Improvement Tool in Australian settings. Yang, H. R., Shin, H. W., Kim, J. Y., Ryu, H. G., Kim, T. H. (2012). Improvement Plan for School Facility Management-Focusing on Public Educational Buildings in Gyeonggido.The journal of Sustainable Design and Educational Environment Research,11(1), 32-41. Dunaway, D. M., Bird, J. J., Wang, C., Hancock, D. (2014). Superintendents perceptions of the school improvement planning process in the southeastern USA.Educational Management Administration Leadership,42(4), 460-473. Seifert, D., Hartnell-Young, E. (2015). An Effective School Improvement Framework: Using the National School Improvement Tool. Forsyth, P. B., Adams, C. M., Hoy, W. K. 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