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District Leadership That Works: Striking the Right Balance
Bridge the great divide between distanced administrative duties and daily classroom impact. This book introduces a top-down power mechanism called defined autonomy, a concept that focuses on district-defined, nonnegotiable, common goals and a system of accountability supported by assessment tools. Defined autonomy creates an effective balance of centralized direction and individualized empowerment that allows building-level staff the stylistic freedom to respond quickly and effectively to student failure.
Initiate second-order change to promote student achievement. Set nonnegotiable district-defined goals for achievement and instruction through a collaborative process with stakeholders. Create defined autonomy that allows teachers creative freedom while ensuring student achievement. Monitor progress through formative assessment tools. Counteract any resistance to second-order change.
Chapter 1: Does District Leadership Matter?
Chapter 2: Putting Our Findings in Perspective
Chapter 3: Setting and Monitoring Nonnegotiable Goals for Achievement
Chapter 4: Setting and Monitoring Nonnegotiable Goals for Instruction
Chapter 5: Collaborative Goal Setting, Board Alignment, and Allocation of Resources
Chapter 6: Defined Autonomy in a High-Reliability District
Chapter 7: The Perils and Promises of Second-Order Change
Initiate second-order change to promote student achievement. Set nonnegotiable district-defined goals for achievement and instruction through a collaborative process with stakeholders. Create defined autonomy that allows teachers creative freedom while ensuring student achievement. Monitor progress through formative assessment tools. Counteract any resistance to second-order change.
Chapter 1: Does District Leadership Matter?
Chapter 2: Putting Our Findings in Perspective
Chapter 3: Setting and Monitoring Nonnegotiable Goals for Achievement
Chapter 4: Setting and Monitoring Nonnegotiable Goals for Instruction
Chapter 5: Collaborative Goal Setting, Board Alignment, and Allocation of Resources
Chapter 6: Defined Autonomy in a High-Reliability District
Chapter 7: The Perils and Promises of Second-Order Change
- GenresEducationLeadership
176 pages, Perfect Paperback
First published April 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 8, 2026
Practical Ideas for District Leaders, With Implementation as the Real Challenge
District Leadership That Works was required reading for my graduate program, and it also doubled as study material for the TExES 268 exam and the superintendent certification exam. Reading it with those goals in mind gave me a good sense of how useful it is for anyone preparing for a leadership role.
Marzano and Waters build the book around a central idea they call defined autonomy. Districts set clear, nonnegotiable goals for achievement and instruction, then give building level staff the freedom to decide how to reach them, with assessment tools monitoring progress along the way. The chapters walk through this step by step, from whether district leadership matters at all, to setting and monitoring goals, to aligning the board and resources, to the perils and promises of second order change.
There is a lot of good information and plenty of ideas worth taking seriously. Where I expect the most pushback is implementation. Balancing centralized direction with real teacher autonomy sounds great on paper, but getting buy-in and managing resistance in an actual district is a much harder task, and the book is honest that second order change is not easy.
I appreciated that it was a quick, easy read despite how much it packs in. It never felt bogged down, even with the volume of research and recommendations.
If you are an aspiring administrator, a graduate student, or someone preparing for certification exams, this is a solid, accessible resource. Just go in knowing that the real work begins after the last page.
District Leadership That Works was required reading for my graduate program, and it also doubled as study material for the TExES 268 exam and the superintendent certification exam. Reading it with those goals in mind gave me a good sense of how useful it is for anyone preparing for a leadership role.
Marzano and Waters build the book around a central idea they call defined autonomy. Districts set clear, nonnegotiable goals for achievement and instruction, then give building level staff the freedom to decide how to reach them, with assessment tools monitoring progress along the way. The chapters walk through this step by step, from whether district leadership matters at all, to setting and monitoring goals, to aligning the board and resources, to the perils and promises of second order change.
There is a lot of good information and plenty of ideas worth taking seriously. Where I expect the most pushback is implementation. Balancing centralized direction with real teacher autonomy sounds great on paper, but getting buy-in and managing resistance in an actual district is a much harder task, and the book is honest that second order change is not easy.
I appreciated that it was a quick, easy read despite how much it packs in. It never felt bogged down, even with the volume of research and recommendations.
If you are an aspiring administrator, a graduate student, or someone preparing for certification exams, this is a solid, accessible resource. Just go in knowing that the real work begins after the last page.
November 23, 2025
An evidence-based argument that district leadership does impact student performance, and what district leaders can do to help shape practice and policy to make the most impact for their students. A number of helpful examples are included that could be used as templates for implementation.
Recommended to those interested in education, data-driven policies, leadership, or change management.
Recommended to those interested in education, data-driven policies, leadership, or change management.
January 3, 2018
Great read. Clear, research-based findings that are explained in a user-friendly way. I will definitely be looking into Marzano's School Leadership book as I look towards my dissertation.
April 15, 2019
A rehash of other Mcrel work. Instead read Simply Better, Classroom Instruction that Works, and Building Leadership that Works.
November 22, 2009
Marzano and Waters provide another meta-analytic work that promotes the need for collaborative goal-setting among all stakeholders in education systems. It also identifies the important role of district leadership in areas such as accountability and professional development. Definitely a necessary read for potential and current school leaders.
December 29, 2009
Do you detect a theme from what I am currently reading professionally? We've decided to focus for the next three years on district improvement/reform and I'm trying to read as much as I can about that. If you have any other books to recommend, please share. In the meantime, I'll keep you posted on my learnings.
September 17, 2011
Very solid account of district level school leadership practices that positively impact student achievement.
September 18, 2012
Uh, yeah...over-hyped! Hard to replicate in reality.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews