"Integrating Educator Well-Being, Growth, and Evaluation is a game-changer for school leaders seeking to build a truly supportive and human-centered culture. Cohen and Denevi offer a powerful, practical roadmap that reimagines evaluation as a catalyst for connection, reflection, and sustainable growth. Its a timely and essential guide for aligning our values with our practices to better support the educators at the heart of our schools."
Rebecca Ritter, Head of Teaching and Learning, The Shefa School, NY
This book is an incredible resource filled with detailed guidance, inspiring examples, and practical assignments that are guaranteed to revolutionize your approach to teaching and evaluation! I wholeheartedly encourage you to dive into this journey with a Professional Learning Community (PLC) over the next year. Together, you can unlock the potential to transform your professional community and elevate students' lives through dynamic ecosystems of growth. Get ready for an exciting adventure in education!
Torian Hodges-Finch, Educator, Coach, Facilitator, Leader and Organizer
"At a time when schools are grappling with teacher burnout, outdated evaluation systems, deep-rooted inequities, and a real need to strengthen both teacher confidence and connection, Lori Cohen and Elizabeth Denevi offer something we truly need. Integrating Educator Well-Being, Growth, and Evaluation isnt just a bookits a powerful invitation to rethink how we support teachers in ways that genuinely make a difference for students.
Cohen and Denevi move us beyond the old habit of treating equity, care, professional growth, and evaluation as separate efforts. Instead, they weave them into a holistic, humanizing approach with the power to transform school culture from the inside out. At the heart of the book is a compelling framework for creating a healthy environment: lay the foundation with equity, nurture the soil with educator well-being, cultivate growth through continuous learning, and tend the ecosystem with purposeful evaluation. This framework is supported by assessment toolsand step-by-step leadership practicesthat offer a much-needed shift from compliance-driven teacher support systems to ones rooted in authentic, lasting change."
Dwayne Chism, Author, Leading Your School Toward Equity (ASCD)
"Cohen and Denevi know how challenging it is to make schools more equitable, how quickly the shiny new approach to PD tarnishes, how easily well-intentioned administrators become distracted by everything from unexpected emergencies to day-to-day inevitabilities. It's this profound understanding of the life of schools and the people in them that makes their book so useful and powerful a tool: Read it for actionable ideas about how to change your evaluation process; for insights into employee's well-being; or just for the reassurance that there are people out there who appreciate how hard you are working to do the right thing (and are sympathetic to all that gets in the way of your doing it). Whatever motivates you to read this book, know that it will transformin the best, most important wayshow you think about your school."
Melissa Kantor, Independent School Administrator
"Lori Cohen and Elizabeth Denevi just get it leading schools in our current landscape is hard, and doing it differently can feel near impossible. But their book offers hope that transformation is achievable, one step at a time. Cohen and Denevi call on leaders to courageously create the conditions for all individuals in the school ecosystem to learn and thrive. They advocate for going beyond surface-level fixes and instead addressing the root causes of inequity and a lack of well-being. Leaders can put these ideas into practice right away by exploring one of the book's countless tools, including protocols, scripts, and reflective inventories. The shifts you make as a result of reading this book will undoubtedly ripple out and affect the entire school ecosystem."
Krystal Wu, Educator, Facilitator, and Coach
"This book is a gift to the field of education. It offers not just strategies, but a full-hearted reimagining of what it means to build schools where educatorsand by extension, studentscan truly thrive. Rooted in a deep commitment to human dignity, equity, and collective well-being, the authors weave together topics often siloed in professional conversations: coaching, leadership, adult learning, emotional intelligence, and systemic equity. The authors make a compelling case that educator well-being is not a luxuryits the very foundation of a healthy school ecosystem. They challenge the culture of quick fixes and one-off trainings, instead calling for sustained, community-rooted practices that prioritize trust, repair, and ongoing learning. Whether youre a school leader, instructional coach, teacher, or anyone working in education systems, this book will challenge and inspire you. Its a call to redesign not just programs, but culture."
Maria Dyslin, Chief Academic Officer, One City Schools
Cohen and Denevi provide explicit steps to encourage educational leaders to humanize and tend to the growth and wellbeing of their educators, so the educators can in turn, humanize and tend to the growth and well-being of our students. Empowering leaders, educators and community members to work in collaboration alongside each other, they offer a variety of tools to use, adapt or supplement the mission and vision of educator wellness and growth both equitable and sustainably. In the ever-changing educational landscape and world, Cohen and Denevi provide tools and educational criticality that allows educators and educational stakeholders at all levels to navigate changes with consistency, transparency and above all, care for oneself and one another.
Jasmine Locke (she/her), Doctoral Candidate, Doctorate of Education Leadership, Lewis & Clark College
"More than a guide, this book is an invitation to reimagine what school leadership can feel like. Cohen and Denevi center on what matters most: relationships, purpose, and dignity, and offer the structure to build something authentic and sustainable."
Bianca Espinosa, School Administrator and Teacher Mentor Leader
