Failure Is Not an Option

6 Principles That Advance Student Achievement in Highly Effective Schools

This is a book for district and school leaders that describes how to reshape the school culture to become a high performing school and professional learning community that is able to sustain success for every student. Anchored in the moral purpose of sustaining success for all students, the book demonstrates how to reshape school cultures to support continuous student success by building trust as a foundation for the learning community and then implementing the 6 principles of the FNO Framework:

1) Establishing a common mission, vision, set of values and goals

2) Ensuring achievement for all students by setting up systems for prevention and intervention and building on student strengths

3) Engaging in collaborative teaming that is focused on teaching for learning

4) Using data based decision-making for continuous improvement

5) Actively engaging families and the community

6) Building sustainable leadership capacity

With contributions from Pedro A. Noguera, Andy Hargreaves, and Dean Fink, this book not only outlines the Who, What, and How of becoming a high-performing school and learning community, but also shows how to avoid ten common routes to failure, and provides numerous resources, many case stories and examples from Alan's work in schools and districts around the U.S.