You Can't Do It Alone

As director of Public Agenda’s Education Insights Division, Jean Johnson authored dozens of articles and reports on how parents, teachers, students, and the general public see public education today. A leading authority on public opinion in education, she also speaks and writes extensively on how school leaders can work with communities and colleagues to build robust support for change.

• Foreword by Daniel YankelovichChapter 1: It’s Enough to Make Your Head SpinChapter 2: Mind the GapChapter 3: The Indispensable CompactWhy Engaging Teachers is Job No. 1Chapter 4: Change the Rules and People Are Bound to Get Upset Chapter 5: Are Younger Teachers Different? Chapter 6: Being an Instructional Leader—Getting the Results the Kids Deserve. Chapter 7: The Knowledge Sweepstakes Chapter 8: When Money Is ShortChapter 9: It Takes Two to Tango: Engaging Parents and Students to Ramp Up LearningChapter 10: The Big Turnaroud: Chapter 11: A New Model of the Informed PublicChapter 12: Dialogue and Engagement—And How They Differ from Communications as Usual Chapter 13: Reaching Out to the Community for HelpChapter 14: Is It Time for School Leaders to Speak Up for Themselves—and for the Rest of Us? Epilogue: Re-Connecting the American People with their SchoolsAppendix: So You Want To Do Some Engagement? Here’s Where to StartAcknowledgmentsAbout the Author

This book is pleasantly surprising filled with practical information, strategies, and advice culled mostly from 20 years of survey and focus group data collected by the Public Agenda, a non-profit research and engagement organization. . . . This book is a communication manual for school leaders committed to reform, and lives up to its billing. You Can't Do It Alone is recommended to practicing administrators and to faculty teaching in school leadership preparation programs.