"This book is a must read for teacher leaders, principals, and central office administrators. The authors make a substantive and powerful argument for addressing reflection at all levels of the organization and provide practical tools and insights to facilitate a comfortable transition from theory to practice. This book will be valuable to anyone serious about ensuring success for all students." Stephanie Hirsh, Deputy Executive Director National Staff Development Council "I treasure this book. It is informative, well written, and important to educational leaders." Robert Garmston, Cofounder Institute for Intelligent Behavior El Dorado Hills, CA Reflective Practice to Improve Schools allows educators to examine individual and collective beliefs and assumptions, leading to insights about instructional effectiveness. A unique, useful tool for understanding the potential--in fact, the necessity--of reflective practice, this important new book offers a practical guide to initiating or extending individual and collaborative commitments to reflective practice schoolwide. The authors, a distinguished team of practitioners, provide the following: A framework and strategies for reflective thinking and acting - Essential considerations for designing and developing reflective practices - Examples of reflective practice at the individual level, between partners, in small groups, and schoolwide - Reflective activities to guide individuals and collaborators toward applied strategies Now more than ever, educators need real opportunities to continuously and meaningfully reflect on their practice--by themselves and with their colleagues--to create schools in which both students and adults continually learn. This is the book that can begin or enrich that journey. "This book is a must read for teacher leaders, principals, and central office administrators. The authors make a substantive and powerful argument for addressing reflection at all levels of the organization and provide practical tools and insights to facilitate a comfortable transition from theory to practice. This book will be valuable to anyone serious about ensuring success for all students." -- Stephanie Hirsh, Deputy Executive Director "I treasure this book. It is informative, well written, and important to educational leaders." -- Robert Garmston "This book is essential to anyone interested in a framework and strategies for supporting a school staff in reflecting on its practice to increase learning at the individual and organizational levels, and subsequently enhancing student learning." -- Shirley M. Hord Published On: 2001-01-31 ". . . poses a challenging, compelling argument and is highly recommended for any educator in search of tips, tricks, and techniques for self improvement on the job." -- Midwest Book Review December 2001 Published On: 2005-08-01 Jennifer York-Barr  received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her development, research and teaching has been grounded in partnerships with schools and school districts. Her early worked focused most specifically on creating classroom communities in which students with various exceptionalities were included. That work grew into a broader focus on growing school communities grounded in conversations that support ongoing reflective practice and learning. She has been honored with several college and university level teaching awards and has authored or co-authored more than 100 publications most of which are focused on instructional collaboration, inclusive schooling, teacher leadership and professional learning. William A. Sommers, Ph.D. of Austin, Texas, continues to be a learner, teacher, principal, author, leadership coach, and consultant. Bill has come out of retirement five times to put theory into practice. He was on the Board of Trustees for five years and President for the National Staff Development Council now called Learning Forward. Dr. Sommers is the former Executive Director for Secondary Curriculum and Professional Learning for Minneapolis Public Schools, and a school administrator for over 30 years. In addition to being an adjunct faculty member at several universities, he has been a program director for an adolescent chemical dependency treatment center and on the board of a halfway house for 20 years. Bill has co-authored eight books, and co-authored chapters in several other books. In January 2016 Bill and his colleague Skip Olsen launched a website www.learningomnivores.com which includes educational blogs, new rules, and book reviews. Bill is a practitioner who integrates theory into leading and facilitating schools. Dr. Sommers has continued to be a leadership coach for over 25 years to school administrators. Gail Ghere Gail received her PhD from University of Minnesota in educational policy and program evaluation. She has a Masters degree in Special Education with practice experience as a related service provider. Over her career,