The Future of Schools : How Communities and Staff Can Transform Their School Districts (Leading Systemic School Improvement)

The Future of Schools will help changemakers move toward better functioning school systems using reliable, participative, and practical methods. The author describes an orderly sequence of activities that are intertwined with simple explanations. The principles and methods on which the book is based, follow from over fifty years of research ensuring that the processes yield reliable results. Each chapter discusses a range of variations and examples with both successful applications and potential pitfalls with simple ways of avoiding them. These variations and examples help the school district and its community to choose the best path through the planning and design processes for their unique people and circumstances. All of the methods and processes described are totally participative so that the schools and communities who use them can develop ownership of the processes and their outcomes. Not only does the school district change for the better, the community itself becomes more socially cohesive through working together for a common purpose.