Resourceful Leadership

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.