Case Studies for School Leaders.

The development of effective school leaders is critical to the success of students. Case Studies for School Leaders: Implementing the ISLLC Standards by William Sharp, James Walter and Helen Sharp is based on the valid notion that acquiring requisite knowledge and understanding, developing good judgment and knowing when and how to act requires active rather than passive learning.

Some 133 case studies are presented in this work, and each one is anchored to the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium's standards. The standards include knowledge, dispositions and performances, and the case studies are focused on the performance standards. This is important because, ultimately, it is the performance of school leaders that matters.

Practicing administrators will recognize themselves in these case studies as they are representative examples of situations school leaders face regularly. Each case study should stimulate thoughtful discussion and reflection.

The authors suggest the book be used for administrator training in universities and by state organizations involved in school leader preparation and training. I believe these case studies also could be used effectively by school district leadership teams for ongoing discussions of issues, to build common understanding, to reduce administrator isolation and to increase reflective individual and district practice.

(Case Studies for School Leaders: Implementing the ISLLC Standards, by William L. Sharp, James K. Walter and Helen M. Sharp, Technomic Publishing Co., Box 3535, Lancaster, Pa. 17604,1998, 250 pp. with index, $34.95 softcover)