Improve Learning by Building Community (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781412969611)

John C. Daresh is professor of educational leadership at the University of Texas at El Paso. Over the years, he has held faculty or administrative appointments at the University of Cincinnati, The Ohio State University, the University of Northern Colorado, and Illinois State University. He has also worked as a consultant on high school reform and administrator professional development for universities, state departments of education, national and state professional associations, and individual schools and districts across the United States, and also in Barbados, Canada, France, Holland, Israel, Turkey, South Africa, and Taiwan. By far, the bulk of Daresh's international service has been in the United Kingdom where he served an advisor and trainer for the School Management Task Force that developed and promoted support programs for beginning headteachers, the National College for School Leadership, the Welsh Office of Education, the North West Network for Diploma Development in Cheshire, Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Lincoln, the University of Hull, CREATE Consultancies, and literally dozens of Local Education Authorities and individual schools across England and Wales.

Daresh recently completed three years of service as the lead consultant on principal mentoring programs for the Chicago Public Schools as that megadistrict was faced with the challenge of bringing in mostly inexperienced principals to serve in nearly of the school system's elementary and high schools.

Jane Lynch currently serves as the faculty leader of the Department of Business, Information Technology, and Enterprise at All Hallows Catholic College in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. Prior to this appointment, she served as a teacher at Sandbach High School in Cheshire. Her route to the field of education did not follow a traditional path. Her undergraduate degree at Keele University was in law and economics, resulting in a career as a solicitor supported by postgraduate study at Christleton Law College in Chester.

Her interest in working more directly with young people led to a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education in Business Studies (Secondary) at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she later pursued advanced graduate work in educational management. She left the world of law and business to follow her strong interest in education, and the last 21 years of her professional life have been devoted to that focus. Lynch's work in program development in business and enterprise has become increasingly recognized across England, where she has been invited to serve on a number of panels and committees seeking to forge stronger links among schools and the world of business. She was recently provided with a leave from her work at Macclesfield to support educational program planning with the Cheshire County Educational Office.

She has also continued her national role of participating in numerous projects dedicated to developing young people's employment skills. She serves as a consultant in enterprise education in Cheshire; as the leader of the Northwest England Business, Administration, and Finance (BAF) Diploma Network; as the Enterprise Learning Partnership coordinator for Cheshire and Warrington; and as the chair of the BAF Diploma County Forum.