Bootstrap Leadership: 50 Ways to Break Out, Take Charge, and Move Up by Steve Arneson

In this book, Arneson, a leadership coach, teaches how anyone can develop his or her own personal leadership development program to move their career forward.

Bringing the District Back In: The Role of the Central Office in Instruction and Achievement by Martha Abele MacIver and Elizabeth Farley-Ripple

To support higher student achievement, the authors recommend that central offices focus on responsive service to principals and developing clear systemwide goals for improvement.

Come on People: On the Path from Victims to Victors by Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D.

Two influential voices join forces to look at the challenges facing the African American community – especially a pervasive sense of hopelessness – and then outline the practical, common sense steps needed to move forward.

Crucial Conversations About America's Schools by John C. Draper and Nancy Protheroe

This book suggests ways that school leaders can reframe conversations about hot-button topics, such as low-achieving schools, teacher pay for performance, the drop-out problem, and the achievement gap, into more productive discussions leading to school improvement. 

The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch

This book describes the turbulent route that education reform has taken over the past five decades. It reveals that education reform shifts every 10 years, and it speaks to why we must make fundamental changes to compete in the new global economy and culture.

The Death of Common Sense in Our Schools And What YOU Can Do About It! by Jim Grant

Grant looks at the complex variables challenging our schools and the “pseudo-solutions” that continue to fail, then offers common sense advice on taking meaningful action.

Education Unbound: The Promise and Practice of Greenfield Schooling by Frederick M. Hess

Hess suggests that rather than continually trying to improve the American educational system perhaps we need to start again and create a new infrastructure. He advocates for an entrepreneurial approach with a focus on supporting outstanding teaching and learning.

The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker

This classic guide to effective management addresses time management, building on employee strengths, having a results focus, and prioritization.

Fertilizers, Pills, And Magnetic Strips: The Fate Of Public Education In America by Gene V. Glass

Glass describes how key technological advances have transformed our culture and therefore our public education system. Moreover, he contends that the underlying motives behind 21st century education reform are actually to cut the costs of public education and to create quasi-private schools at public expense for the middle class.

The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future by Linda Darling-Hammond
                                            
Stanford education professor Darling-Hammond makes a case for the need to transform American schools and studies successful educational strategies around the world for new ways that we might create more personalized and effective instruction and build stronger relationships among students, faculty, staff, and parents.

Future Think by Edie Weiner and Arnold Brown

From this book, readers can learn how to predict what’s likely to lie ahead by using several techniques, including:

• Overcoming the mental traps that keep executives from understanding and managing change.
• Unlocking the hidden patterns of change.
• Finding metaphors that will allow your mind to function creatively and powerfully.
• Harnessing evolution to make better business decisions.
• Capitalizing on the power of the lowest common denominator.
• Learning how to use demographics to understand future customer needs.

Good to Great by Jim Collins

Collins examines what it takes to move a company or organization from “good” to “great”

High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them by J.F. Rischard
                                            
Based on discussions from the World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, Rischard explores the common thread among 20 global issues and a new away to approach these issues.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How it Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman

Friedman, author of The World is Flat, proposes that by seriously and comprehensively addressing the global environmental crisis, America can find renewed purpose and vigor.

Leading in a Culture of Change by Michael Fullan

Fullan combines expertise from the business and education arenas into a template for improving leadership.

Leadership Courage by David Cottrell

The author stresses that effective leaders must have the inner strength to make difficult decisions, even in the face of controversy. The important thing is to do the right thing for the right reason.

Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms by Diane Ravitch

This history of education in America captures the writer’s view that “reforms” have undermined the academic advancement of students and the democratic principles of the nation.

Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation by Neil Howe and William Strauss

According to the authors, the Millennials, those born between 1982 and 1990, have been bolstered by growing up in a protective and multi-cultural society, strict discipline, and schools being held accountable for their achievement. They have the promise to become hard-working community builders.

The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century by George Friedman

When Dr. Hairston served as a high school principal, he reminded his students at every opportunity: “Whatever happens – be it good or bad – we all make a contribution to it.” As a superintendent, he reminds administrators and staff regularly that it is on our watch that we must make a difference in the lives of children. George Friedman’s book explores history and geopolitical patterns to shine a light on the people and activities that will contribute to our world in this century.

Nine Shift by William A. Graves and Julie Coates

The authors note parallels between the first 20 years of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and look ahead at how nine major shifts will affect business and work, personal lives, and education.

Nobodies to Somebodies by Peter Han

Novelist Tom Clancy was an insurance agent well into his 40s. He sold his first novel for a pittance to a little-known publisher. Today he’s one of the world’s most popular authors.

Clancy and many other successful people were once just ordinary Nobodies with talent, but little or no experience. They had career interests, but few clear goals. They wanted to find work that would be financially rewarding and personally fulfilling – but they didn’t know how. And they had to overcome all the uncertainty and obstacles of being Nobodies.

Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City by Antero Pietila

This book examines the role of race and residential real estate practices in shaping Baltimore and its surrounding communities from the 1880s through the beginning of the 21st century.

Resonant Leadership by Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee

The authors show leaders how to improve their organizations with mindfulness, hope, and compassion.

Shaking Up the Schoolhouse: How to Support and Sustain Educational Innovation by Phillip C. Schlechty

In this book, Schlechty discusses how to make schools and school systems “change adept” and to foster leadership at every level.

Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars by Patrick Lencioni

The concept of “silos” has become synonymous with the barriers that separate work teams, departments, and divisions – causing people who are supposed to be on the same team to work against one another.

Sixteen Trends, Their Profound Impact on Our Future: Implications for Students, Education, Communities, Countries, and the Whole of Society by Gary Marx

This work, designed to foster thought and questioning, focuses on how to advance student achievement in light of current and emerging trends in politics, the economy, technology, demographics, and more.

The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman

Tom Kelley, the managing director of the world-famous design firm IDEO, reveals the strategies his firm uses to foster innovative thinking throughout the organization and shows how a culture of continuous innovation and renewal can be nurtured and sustained.

Tinkering with Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform by David Tyack and Larry Cuban

They conclude that meaningful improvements in public education are less about administration and more about effective teachers making connections to students. “Reform” works best, they argue, when it either involves teachers as key decision-makers or when it provides teachers with new tools or approaches that work in the classroom. In other words, progress in the schools is dependent on teachers being empowered as classroom leaders.

Tuesday Morning Coaching: Eight Simple Truths to Boost Your Career and Your Life by David Cottrell

Cottrell proposes that long-term success comes from embracing eight small, simple yet powerful principles:

• Accept responsibility and move forward
• Give more than is expected
• Do what you say you will do
• Hold fast to your values
• Learn from mistakes and welcome change
• Set, envision, share and take action on your goals
• Invest your time in things you can control
• Read, listen, observe, and learn

Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements by Tom Rath and Jim Harter

Based on an international study, the authors explore how career, social, financial. Physical, and community wellbeing are interrelated and what contributes to our sense of wellness.

What Schools are For by John I. Goodlad

Originally published in 1979, What Schools Are For advocates for a new look at what the purposes of education should be.

Working on the Work: An Action Plan for Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents by Phillip C. Schlechty

This guide supports professional educators in developing and delivering authentically engaging and effective classroom lessons.

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

He describes, probably better than anyone, how technology and connectivity have “flattened” the world increasing global competition, increasing access to information, and increasing opportunities for those who know how to innovate and who know how to use and create new technology.