“One of the things I appreciate most about this book is that it not only presents sound and innovative insights into the start-up of a professional learning community, but more importantly, it focuses on applied practices that will ensure its continuity and maintain its effectiveness and dynamism over time.”Richard Dufour, author and educational consultant“This book emphasizes that improving school performance in the modern era depends on the strength of leadership and collaborative teams. Erkens and Twaddell showed us how to create a school culture of continuous development and improvement, in which all staff and students work in an integrated and harmonious way.”Bill Olsen, Principal, Rutland High School, Rutland, Vermont“Between the covers of this book, two pioneers of the profession provide us with a summary of their experience, which they have acquired through effort, sweat, and thought, to be at the readers’ fingertips in the form of a clear and comprehensive guidebook...that we have waited for for a long time. With this wonderful positive behavior, they set an example for their fellow experienced and skilled practitioners by revealing to us the content of their long experience and insightful visions regarding the most appropriate and best implementable strategies to confront the challenges surrounding the leadership of professional societies and ways to overcome them.”Grace Hoagland, Director of Leadership Programs, School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CaliforniaIn this important book, authors Cassandra Erkens and Eric Twaddell present seven leadership practices for highly effective professional learning community leaders, which include aligning systems, creating coherence, transparency, and embodying practices and expectations. In order to move from theory to practice, the authors rely on many years of research and personal interviews to highlight the successes of the most efficient and effective leaders, and to review the difficulties they faced in educational districts and schools with work teams at the North American level, thus trying to restructure professional learning communities. . Despite the geographical scope in which the authors move This book provides techniques, mechanisms, experiences, and knowledge that can be replicated and applied in the field of guiding leaders in schools around the world, starting from kindergarten, through the primary and middle stages, and all the way to the secondary stage, in order to form successful and sustainable professional learning communities.In this practical guide:• The authors identify and explain seven practices for highly effective professional learning community leaders• They define a leadership framework to guide the reshaping of school culture• They present applicable insights and experiences obtained from teachers, school principals, and administrators themselves