Harvard Education Press

Resourceful Leadership
Tradeoffs and Tough Decisions on the Road to School Improvement

By Elizabeth A. City

Evidence from high-performing schools shows that efficient use of resources is essential for creating the conditions that support school improvement. How can school leaders use scarce resources more efficiently? And what should their priorities be? In Resourceful Leadership, Elizabeth A. City examines decisions about the use of three key resources—time, money, and staff—and how tradeoffs among them are integrated into school leaders’ improvement strategies. She undertakes a detailed study of two small urban high schools in their first year of conversion from a large, comprehensive high school.

Resourceful Leadership is divided into six chapters that present a lively and insightful analysis of school leaders’ dilemmas, decisions, and tradeoffs. Woven through the book is the discussion of additional intangible but essential resources: vision, trust, ideas, energy, and hope. The book offers both the theory behind effective resource use and a practical look at the decisions, tradeoffs, and practices that support it.

“The central thesis of this book,” City writes, “is that resources matter for student achievement, and that school leaders can make decisions about resources that matter.”

Administrators from all kinds of schools—not only small ones—will find this book uniquely valuable as they seek to make strategic use of the resources available to them.

Advance Praise:

“City realizes that the important part of the story is not about the numbers—it’s about the people. Within each chapter she weaves together seemingly disparate considerations such as values and beliefs, policies and funding, vision and hope. She delineates clearly the choices that each school leader makes, capturing the possibilities and the paradoxes of each step down the road.”
—Larry Myatt, Founding Headmaster, Fenway High School, Boston, Mass.

“District administrators often think in very narrow and traditional ways about how to use resources. By offering a rich description of the change process in two urban high schools, Resourceful Leadership opens up a dialogue about new ways to think about and use resources. Combining the ‘hard’ analysis of resource use with the ‘soft’ but equally important side of the change process (vision, hope, trust, ideas, and energy) is an important contribution. This well-written and timely book offers powerful lessons for school and district leaders.”
—Jim Kushman, Director, Center for School and District Improvement, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

“Resourceful Leadership paints a rich portrait of the day-to-day complexity involved in leading school improvement. Liz City has thoughtfully woven together strands from research, practice, and policy. The result is a realistic and vivid description of the central challenges in the vitally important work of school leadership.”
—Paul Reville, President, Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy; Chairman, Massachusetts State Board of Education; and Director, Education Policy and Management Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Highlights:

• Resource Use That Counts: Which research-based resource practices make a difference for student achievement?
• Vision, Hope, Trust, Ideas, and Energy: How can school leaders cultivate the “roots” of school improvement?
• Time: How can we allocate time to personalize learning and help students reach their potential?
• People: What opportunities and dilemmas do schools face as they invest in hiring, professional development, and supervision?
• Money: The shortest chapter in the book—and when you get to it, you’ll know why.
• Resource Use at the District Level: How can district leaders use strategies, precision, personalization, and relationships to support their schools’ performance?

About the Author:

Elizabeth A. City is a senior faculty member at Boston’s School Leadership Institute, where she teaches courses in using data, learning and teaching, and staffing and professional development. City is coeditor of Data Wise: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching and Learning (Harvard Education Press, 2005).