The School Mission Statement: Values, Goals, and Identities in American Education by Steven E. Stemler and Damian J. Bebell is designed for educators involved in creating, improving, or reevaluating their school mission statements. This tip focuses on crafting a mission statement that includes creating and maintaining a "challenging environment" for all students.

The following guest post is written by Eye On Education author Cynthia McCabe. McCabe, the author of the title The Fearless School Leader: Making the Right Decisions, recently became a new executive officer in her district. She will be blogging sporadically about her experience in this new position. Read below for McCabe's thoughts on aligning curriculum to the Common Core State Standards.

Your school’s website is often the first contact families may have with your school. As use of the Internet has grown, people increasingly rely on your web presence to provide them with information about your school, its programs and activities, as well as basic contact information (phone, email, directions). While most individual school websites are governed by district policies and fit a unique format, many districts provide a link from the district page to your own unique web page. Here are some tips for developing your school’s website:

In The Learning Leader: Reflecting, Modeling, and Sharing, principals, principals-in-training, and other school leaders get practical, easy-to-implement strategies for professional growth, strengthening relationships with faculty and staff, and making the necessary changes to improve K-12 learning environments. WIth the tip below, authors Jacqueline E. Jacobs and Kevin L. O'Gorman provide insight into replacing outmoded faculty meeting announcements and managing discussions.

Instructional Supervision: Applying Tools and Concepts, 3rd Edition by Sally Zepeda is a valuable guide for all graduate levels students and prospective school leaders enrolled in courses in instructional supervision and teacher evaluation. In this tip, Zepeda gives readers a few pointers about informal classroom observations and provides a sample informal observation note and observation form.

Sometimes referred to as pop-ins, walk-ins, or drop-ins, informal classroom observations...

The following guest post is written by Eye On Education author Cynthia McCabe. McCabe, the author of the title The Fearless School Leader: Making the Right Decisions, recently became the new district executive officer at her school. She will be blogging sporadically about her experience in this new position. Read below for McCabe's thoughts on the "basics" of teaching.

As the District Executive Officer, I have the opportunity to interact with many educators across the nation, as well as in my own district. One thing I’ve noticed lately is how impactful it is to focus on the basics and do them right. 

This tip, from High-Impact Leadership for High-Impact Schools: The Actions That Matter Most by Pamela S. Salazar, provides school leaders with five key questions they should ask themselves to ensure that they are effectively supporting their teachers, and constantly increasing the quality of teaching in their schools. Pamela Salazar will be providing even more tips for school leaders regarding teacher effectiveness at Eye On School Success, An Online Conference, this March!

The following guest post is written by Barbara R. Blackburn and Ron Williamson, Eye On Education's best-selling authors of Rigorous Schools and Classrooms: Leading the Way.

As a school leader, how can you shape the culture of your school to help increase the level of rigor in your school? The culture of a school is a powerful tool for shaping the behavior of those who work there because it reflects the important values and underlying assumptions of that school.

In his book Lead On! Motivational Lessons for School Leaders Pete Hall shares his wisdom, insights, and lessons lived and learned with school leaders at all stages of their careers. This tip gives school leaders six tips for reminding you why you love your job, and how to make it fun again!

School leaders are often asking: What should I look for in classrooms so that I know my teachers are promoting rigorous environments? In this video, Barbara shows school leaders what to look for, focusing on the questioning of students.

As some states gear up for Race to the Top Round 3, and other states continue to press forward in their quest to adequately evaluate teachers and curriculum, principals and school leaders often find themselves faced with the tough requirement to effectively assess the quality of their teachers. This tip, from Evaluating What Good Teachers Do: Eight Research-Based Standards for Assessing Teacher Excellence by James Stronge, provides principals and school leaders with eight suggested teacher performance standards and four tools they can use to document teacher performance.

In his book The Principal's Guide to the First 100 Days of the School Year: Creating Instructional Momentum, Shawn Joseph provides veteran principals, new principals, aspiring principals, and other school leaders with valuable resources to help them build instructional momentum during the beginning of the school year. This tip explains how and why leaders should reach out to the community at the beginning of the school year and share information about themselves!

In Lead On!: Motivational Lessons for School Leaders, Pete Hall presents readers with easy to follow his practical tips and strategies for taking action, goal-setting, motivating others, gaining perspective, and so much more! This tip will show you how to successfully set a goal for your teachers, your school, or yourself!

A Goal-Setting Game Plan

Goals hold a prominent spot in the educational landscape, but how do we decide which goals to set?

Differentiation Is an Expectation: A School Leader's Guide to Building a Culture of Differentiation, by Kimberly Kappler Hewitt and Daniel Weckstein, provides leaders with all that they need to promote differentiation in their schools and districts. This tip provides school leaders with five strategies they can use to show their teachers their appreciation, without creating an overly competitive and divisive work environment.