This tool was designed to deepen the understanding of what it takes to develop a system of excellent high schools. It provides a framework and guidelines for district leaders, community stakeholders, educators, administrators, parents and students to discuss, assess and map out the process of transforming their high schools to meet the needs of…

Efforts to make substantial and substantive improvements related to mental health in schools and student/learning supports requires much more than implementing a few demonstrations. Improved approaches are only as good as a school district's ability to develop and institutionalize them equitably in all its schools. This process often is called…

Literature is presented maintaining that principals can promote educational change by diagnosing and remedying the organizational health of their schools. A guide for examining levels of organizational health is given and an inservice training model discussed. (MJL)

This guide is the third of three documents that make up a Professional Development Package for Educational Systems Design. It is intended for use by members of a core design team and assumes that the school district and community have committed themselves to a systems design process, and that a design leadership group representing the school…

This field guide provides a look into education in relation to a concept that has already been established in science, business and therapy. This book will encourage and educate readers about systemic thinking through examples and ideas pertinent to education and its reform. Following a Foreword (Michael Fullan) and Introduction (Blane Despres),…

To meet public scrutiny and increased demands for quality public education, schools must plan. Developing legitimate plans depends on the ability to recognize the patterns that guide current practice and uncover those that will create change. Educators need to understand the planning concepts that have helped business meet new challenges. To bring…

This guide is the first of three documents that make up a Professional Development Package for Educational Systems Design. Together, the documents constitute an integrated package designed to help educators and others accomplish specific purposes relative to a communitywide systems design effort. The orientation guide is ideally used in a 1-day…

The drive for systemic reform in education reflects a widespread hunger in all sectors of society to make sense of the whole, as is shown in the increasing recognition of people in organizations of the interrelatedness of the organizations' parts. However, many attempts at systemic reform are hampered by the lack of a common view of what an…

Because schools must operate in a changing environment, educators must manage change whether they wish to or not. Administrators must plan accordingly, and the best plans arise from a solid theoretical base. This book provides that base, by drawing on systems theory to develop effective approaches to strategic and operational planning in…

This guide is the second of three documents that make up a Professional Development Package for Educational Systems Design. The intended audience for this guide is a leadership group empowered to provide leadership, policy direction, and support for a design effort. This group may consist of the educational leadership in a community in cooperation…

This guide/toolkit is designed as a resource aid for those in schools and communities who are concerned about sustaining valuable initiatives and innovations. The focus is on sustaining valued functions and collaborations. A particular emphasis is on efforts designed to enhance how schools address barriers to learning and teaching. The material is…