Daniel Duke, a leading scholar of educational leadership, has written extensively on school improvement, educational change, and school safety. For the past decade, he has been involved in preparing school turnaround leaders and studying the school turnaround process.

• IntroductionChapter 1 It’s All about Leading ChangeChapter 2 Launching the Turnaround ProcessChapter 3 Diagnosing the Causes of Low PerformanceChapter 4 Planning for the Short Term and the Long RunChapter 5 First Order Strategies – The Foundations of TurnaroundChapter 6 Second Order Strategies – Getting Focused on Student OutcomesChapter 7 Setting the Stage for a New BeginningChapter 8 Ensuring Early ProgressChapter 9 Sustaining ProgressChapter 10 The Role of the School District in Turnaround SuccessLast WordIndex

Leadership for Low-Performing Schools may be the most important book of the decade. Dan Duke’s focus on “Never-give-up leadership,” combined with a step-by-step guide for working through stumbling blocks he’s seen in decades of work in troubled contexts, make this a must read volume. Practitioners, policy people, and professors can do no better than to start turn-around efforts right here.