Right From the Start
The Essential Guide to Implementing School Initiatives
- James Marshall - San Diego State University
Foreword by Douglas Fisher, A co-publication with Learning Forward
Finally, clear guidance on how to design programs that last
How many initiatives start with great fanfare only to end up accumulating dust on a shelf? Right From the Start tackles this challenge head on by offering a reliable, evidence-based implementation process. With upbeat clarity, this book examines the meaning of initiative, provides an intuitively sequenced structure and eagerly shares a vast array of tools. This is quite simply the book all veterans wish they had years ago.
Drawing on Marshall’s thousands of hours evaluating educational programs, this guidebook walks through the entire process of implementation, from needs assessment (more important than you think!) to evaluation—while providing strategies that yield predictable results. Organized to allow for reading cover to cover or to focus on a particular stage, the book includes
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Tools for analysis so you can effectively determine where you are and what you need
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Opportunities for self-assessment and reflection
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"Tales from the field" to help you avoid pitfalls and glean best practices
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Discussion questions for professional learning communities
Every educator and policy maker has ideas and knows exactly what will improve their school. That’s the easy part. But does the solution really fit the need of the school? Do the school players have the commitment or readiness to venture forward? To get it right the first time, apply Marshall’s model of implementation in your school.
Every educator and policy maker has ideas and knows exactly what will improve their school. That’s the easy part. But does the solution really fit the need of the school? Do the school players have the commitment or readiness to venture forward? To get it right the first time, apply Marshall’s model of implementation in your school.
This is the strongest and most comprehensive book I have read on the topic of implementation. James Marshall has a deep understanding of how school leaders and teachers need to implement initiatives, and he lays out how to do just that.
Right From the Start offers poignant examples, tools, and processes, and it inspires confidence in the potential for program and organizational transformation in multiple contexts. If you are seeking powerful, practical advice, this is the resource you’ve been looking for.
James Marshall has a wise and dynamic approach to program design. I wish I had found this book years ago.
James Marshall’s practical guide offers schools an invaluable tool to plan and strategize efforts that will ensure the expected student outcomes. This is a must read for leaders who are passionate about equity and excellence for all students.
Every leader who strives to make a difference can benefit from James Marshall’s practical guide with its clear language and powerful examples. I wish I had studied this book 40 years ago!
Right From the Start provides leadership teams with a simple yet detailed framework they can utilize to examine the suitability of a program and to develop suitable programs for their context. It will help you identify key elements for consideration to ensure a higher level of implementation success.
These tools support planning, selecting, monitoring, evaluating, and revising your programs collaboratively to raise teacher and student performance. The intentional practices and questions lead from knowledge to action to reflection, with appreciative inquiry.
James Marshall provides guideposts to avoid common mistakes. You will find common sense approaches to building good programs—understand the audience, the needs, and the design with impact in mind. Stick with Marshall’s wise observations and guidance to get it right for the long term.
This is an essential guide for moving ideas into practice. All too often we are disappointed when the intended outcomes of our initiatives are not achieved. Marshall’s work provides what leaders need for action and success.