Jim Knight - Unmistakable Impact: A Partnership Approach for Dramatically Improving Instruction

A true master of walking his talk, Jim Knight humbly shares what he has learned about establishing environments characterized by empowerment, authenticity, joyfulness, equality, respect, and learning. He offers many powerful resources to guide principals and coaches in their transformation efforts.

Stephanie Hirsh
Executive Director, Learning Forward

A must-read for anyone who cares about learningthis book is from the heart. Knight uses his own experiences to describe processes and strategies for impacting student and adult learning in todays schools.

Sandee Crowther, President
Phi Delta Kappa International

Jim Knights work has had a tremendous impact on the quality of our professional development practices that are job-embedded and meet the real needs of our teachers. He is a consummate relationship builder who models how to establish the types of relationships necessary for second-order change to occur.

Carolyn J. Teigland, Associate
Superintendent for Education Services
Cecil County Public Schools, Elkton, MD

Jim Knight outlines a clear path to success for educators to make sense out of the complex nature of external mandates, competing initiatives, and prevailing traditional models found within many schools and districts around the nation.

Ken Geisick, Superintendent
Riverbank Unified School District, CA

UNMISTAKABLE

Impact

This book is dedicated to my parents, Joan and Doug.
Ive always known that my parents loved me, believed
in me, and supported me. The rock-solid foundation
my parents gave me has made it possible for me to
create this book and do most of the work I do. If this
book is any use to you at all, you can thank my
parents for making that possible.

jim knight

Foreword by Michael Fullan

Copyright 2011 by Corwin

All rights reserved. When forms and sample documents are included, their use is authorized only by educators, local school sites, and/or noncommercial or nonprofit entities that have purchased the book. Except for that usage, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Knight, Jim.

Unmistakable impact: a partnership approach for dramatically improving instruction / Jim Knight; foreword by Michael Fullan.

p. cm.

A Joint Publication With Learning Forward.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4129-9430-9 (pbk.)

1. TeachersIn-service trainingUnited States. 2. School improvement programsUnited States. I. Learning Forward (U.S.) II. Title.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

10 11 12 13 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Michael Fullan

Resource A: Impact Toolkit can also be accessed at the Unmistakable Impact companion website at www.corwin.com/unmistakableimpact

T he beauty of Unmistakable Impact is that it moves effortlessly back and forth from the big picture to micro application. It does so because the author, Jim Knight, is clearly deeply immersed in making the big ideas work.

He makes the case that dramatically improving instruction is a matter of focus, simplicity, precision, leverage, and a cut across humanity that infuses all of this work. Knight then builds a powerful case on ideas that work through partnership principles, the role of the principal as lead learner, and grounds this work in the Big Four ideas that incorporate content planning, formative assessment, instruction, and community building. This set of ideas, clearly depicted early in the book, provides a comprehensive agenda for what school improvement should focus on, but Knight does not stop there.

He then proceeds to furnish us with high-leverage strategies to get there. We get ideas and tools for creating the Target, observing and monitoring progress, and how the principal as lead learner needs to work closely with teachers while getting support from central office.

Building on his already impressive work on instructional coaching, we see how the key components of coaching work in practice to achieve results. Unmistakable Impact drills into the role of workshops and follow-up based on equality, choice, voice, reflection, dialogue, and praxis. But these are not just normative niceties. They are buttressed by incorporating key impact factors like intensive learning teams, principals as first learners, coaches as integrators, and detailed design principles that provide clear guidelines for taking specific action.

Unmistakable Impact is a treasure trove of ideas in two ways. It contains scores of ideas for going deeper, which Knight presents at the end of each chapter, complete with a short list of best source books. Second, each concept in the chapters is accompanied by a tool or checklist to carefully guide action. These practical tools are complete and invaluable. In addition, the Resources offer the whole Toolkit.

Jim Knight models his advice to be a lead learner. He clearly constantly draws on recent best sources in the literature and makes them accessible to the reader. He holds up high but specific expectations for action within a framework of respect for practitioners. Unmistakable Impact contains the best of both worldscompelling ideas and reader choice.

The ideas in this book are entirely compatible with our own recent work in Ontario and elsewhere. We have found that good ideas, high expectations, precise application, leadership support from principals and coaches, and multiple partnerships produce amazing results in teacher engagement and student achievement (Fullan, 2010a, 2010b).