The Trust Factor: Strategies for School Leaders

Julie Peterson Combs, Stacey Edmonson, and Sandra Harris

Eye on Education, 2013, 180 pages.

According to the authors of The Trust Factor: Strategies for School Leaders, trust—an essential resource for school improvement—is best understood through the metaphor that Stephen Covey uses in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. Covey explains that relation­ships, like bank accounts, are suscep­tible to deposits (Trust Builders) and withdrawals (Trust Busters). These deposits and withdrawals occur based on a leader’s actions and words that can lead to a trust deficit or surplus. A trust surplus can act as a buffer when we make mistakes, which we will, because we are all human.

The authors underscore that “the ability to model and maintain trust­ing relationships is a critical leader­ship skill. High trust provides the platform for change and innovation.” In an era of high accountability and systemic change, it is of utmost impor­tance that administrators earn the trust of those they work with and for if they plan to effectively lead change.

The Trust Factor: Strategies for School Leaders is organized into three parts. Part I deals with Trust Busters, those behaviors that break down trust in educational relationships. Part II provides tactics that administrators can use as Trust Builders. The final section highlights ten Trust Boosters that are designed to help a leader who has already established trust enhance and sustain that culture. At the end of each section, an assessment is pro­vided for self-reflection.

The Trust Factor: Strategies for School Leaders can be read cover to cover, but on reflection, I believe the book is truly intended to be a reference resource for the identified areas for growth. Each section provides reflec­tive questions, a focused summary, and, in many cases, tools.

The book can best be summarized by a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “What you do speaks so loudly that I can­not hear what you say.” Those we lead are watching our actions and responses to determine whether to continue to follow us. What will they decide?

As I reflect on this question, I know that this book will be a tool that I will keep close at hand. In a year when I am learning about a new evaluation system for teachers, as well as for myself as an administra­tor, trust is going to be a key factor.

Reviewed by Regina R. Stewman, principal of Sonora Elementary School in Springdale, Arkansas.

Strategic Co-Teaching in Your School: Using the Co-Design Model

Richael Barger-Anderson, Robert S. Isherwood, and Joseph Merhaut.
Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company, 2013, 213 pages.

Informative? Yes. Innovative? Not particularly. I was drawn to this book based on the descrip­tion of the Co-Design Model as a research-based, “innovative schoolwide approach used in districts nationwide to strengthen collaboration and inclusion.” While I found the book to be useful and informative, I did not find its content to be particularly inno­vative or thought-provoking. The book makes a solid case for the importance and benefits of inclusion, and provides a textbook-like overview of the history of special education and the character­istics of common disabilities.

The authors then present the Co-Design Model, defining it as “the interaction of professionals engaged in collaborative efforts who share in the obligatory responsibilities for the administration of instructional and non-instructional duties and tasks within an educational setting.” This seemed to me to be a wordier defini­tion than necessary.

The authors maintain that there are nine essential elements of the model that require consideration and atten­tion. These elements highlight my earlier point about innovation; not surprisingly, those include such factors as leadership, curriculum knowledge, co-instruction, and co-design time. Each of the nine elements is explored within a separate chapter, followed by a discussion of “pathways” that support learning for students in inclusive class­room settings.

The authors explicitly include pre-service teachers in their target audi­ence, and the book seems particularly well suited to those with limited expe­rience in this area.

That said, I did find the book to be useful in several ways. First, I appreci­ated suggestions of outside resources, such as the Scales for Predicting Suc­cessful Inclusion assessment, which I will be looking into as a possible tool to enhance our decision-making around student placement. Second, the descriptions and examples of co-teaching models beyond the most common “one teaches/one assists” arrangement could be useful in help­ing to support teachers in expanding their repertoire of co-teaching skills. Finally, the templates and examples, including a co-teaching observation template, are practical resources that principals may appreciate.

Reviewed by Ayesha Farag-Davis, principal, Williams Elementary School in Newton, Massachusetts.

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