The Impact of Politics in Local Education : Navigating White Water

This book will show administrators how to 'read' the political climate of a community, how to make meaning from the information, and how to proactively manage political issues in such a way that a stable school environment can be maintained.

Today, administrators must assume a different mindset if public schools are to remain viable and functional. Changing populations resulting in heterogeneous communities, diversity of community values, and finite resources meeting the infinite desires of a demanding constituency have created the necessity for political acumen on the part of local educational leaders. The primary reason for the upheaval occurring in schools today is not that the instructional element is being neglected, but that the building-level administrators have a woeful lack of proficiency in managing the politics that impact schools. This book gives administrators a better grasp of educational politics at the campus level as the school interacts with the community in which it is embedded. Through theory, application, and personal reflection, The Impact of Politics in Local Education will show administrators how to ''read'' the political climate of a community, how to make meaning from the information, and how to proactively manage political issues so that a stable school environment can be maintained.