Change Leadership: A Practical Guide To Transforming Schools

The Change Leadership Group at the Harvard School of Education has, through its work with educators, developed a thoughtful approach to the transformation of schools in the face of increasing demands for accountability. This book brings the work of the Change Leadership Group to a broader audience, providing a framework to analyze the work of school change and exercises that guide educators through the development of their practice as agents of change. It exemplifies a new and powerful approach to leadership in schools.

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Offers a proven, practical approach to leading system-wide school change

"Change Leadership is a truly wonderful and brilliant book. The ideas are powerful, deep, comprehensive, and grounded with tools to turn them into transformative action. A rare book that captures both the awful difficulty of causing change and a way to do it."
--Michael Fullan, former dean, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto; author, Leading in a Culture of Change
"The Change Leadership Group at the Harvard School of Education has, through its work with educators, developed a thoughtful approach to the transformation of schools in the face of increasing demands for accountability. This book brings the work of the Change Leadership Group to a broader audience, providing a framework to analyze of the work of school change and exercises that guide educators through the development of their practice as agents of change. It exemplifies a new and powerful approach to leadership in schools."
--Richard F. Elmore, Gregory Anrig Professor of Educational Leadership, Harvard Graduate School of Education
"Change Leadership uses believable examples and provides common sense analysis of the challenges facing today’s educators. It is a well-written, straightforward guide with clear explanations and practical solutions. I found it useful and entertaining."
--Thomas W. Payzant, superintendent, Boston Public Schools
"Caught between the imperative of preparing students for the next half-century and the political mandate for short-term performance improvement on standardized tests, many educators are dropping by the wayside but a few are stepping forward with new leadership skills and vision. Working with such leaders, Tony Wagner, Robert Kegan, and their colleagues have created an invaluable guidebook for those with the courage to have conviction without answers and the openness to learn together."
--Peter M. Senge, founding chairperson, SoL; senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; author, The Fifth Discipline
"There seem to be more books on school reform than there are schools in the United States. This one stands out. The volume, which grows out of a five- year study of school reform across the country, uniquely integrates both the organizational and human elements required for success."
--Arthur Levine, president, Teachers College, Columbia University

Foreword.


Preface.


Acknowledgments.


About the Authors.


ONE: Introduction: Reframing the Problem.


A Knowledge Economy Requires New Skills for All Students.


Greater Supports for Learning in a Changing Society.


Reform or Reinvention? Technical Challenges Versus Adaptive Challenges.


Organizational Beliefs and Behaviors.


Individual Beliefs and Behaviors.


Accepting the Challenge and the Risks:Moving Toward Communities of Practice via Collaborative Learning.


PART ONE: Improving Instruction.


TWO: Creating a Vision of Success.


Challenges to Improving Instruction.


Seven Disciplines for Strengthening Instruction.


Using the Seven Disciplines.


Launching an Instructional Improvement System: The Critical First Conversations.


Developing a Shared Vision.


Defining a New Framework for Effective Instruction.


Linking the New 3 R’s of Instruction.


THREE: Committing Ourselves to the Challenge.


Identifying Your Commitment.


Spotting Your Obstacles Through Self-Reflection.


Reflections.


PART TWO: Why Is This So Hard?


FOUR: Generating Momentum for Change.


Obstacles to Improvement Versus Momentum for Improvement.


Generating the Momentum for Systemic Change.


Communities of Practice as a Strategy.


FIVE: Exploring Individual Immunities to Change.


Attending to Countering Behaviors.


A Deeper Look.


Finding the Competing Commitment.


Taking the Next Step.


Reflections.


PART THREE: Thinking Systemically.


SIX Relating the Parts to the Whole.


Arenas of Change.


Toward Transformation: Using the 4 C’s.


Another Use for the 4 C’s.


SEVEN: The Individual as a Complex System.


Hidden Commitments and Personal Immunities.


Big Assumptions and Immunities.


Reflections.


PART FOUR: Working Strategically.


EIGHT: The Ecology of Change.


Phases of Whole-System Change.


Change Levers: Data, Accountability, and Relationships.


Strategic Change in Action.


Putting the Pieces Together: The Ecology of Educational Transformation.


Measuring Success and the Challenge of High-Stakes Test Scores.


NINE: Overturning Your Immunities to Change.


Steps Toward Individual Change.


Considering Steps for the Most Powerful Learning.


Phases in Overturning Your Immunities.


Becoming Fully Released from Immunities to Change.


Reflections.


TEN: Conclusion: Bringing the Outward and Inward Focus Together.


Hold High Expectations for All Our Students.


Involve Building and Central Office Administrators in Instruction.


Choose a Priority and Stay Relentlessly Focused on It.


Foster a Widespread Feeling of Urgency for Change.


Encourage a New Kind of Leader.


Develop a New Kind of Administrative Team.


Shining a Broader Light on Change.


Implications for the Change Leader: Toward Adaptive Work.


Concluding . . . or Commencing?


APPENDIXES.


A. Team Exercises.


B. Recommended Reading.


Index.