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Schools Can Change
Foreword by Carlene U. Murphy
Working at the grass-roots level, the change-creation system guides teachers and principals in school innovation and improved student learning. Includes a comprehensive collection of practical online resources.
- Grade Level: PreK-12
- ISBN: 9781412998741
- Published By: Corwin
- Year: 2012
- Page Count: 256
- Publication date: November 26, 2012
Price: $42.95
For Instructors
When you select 'request review copy', you will be redirected to Sage Publishing (our parent site) to process your request.
Description
Build a dynamic system for change!
From No Child Left Behind to Common Core standards, we are inundated with directives for improving our schools. How can we really create lasting change? By applying the Change Creation system!
The Change Creation system produces a creative, collaborative, nurturing school environment—and you can make it happen. The authors use what they have learned over two decades of working with schools implementing Whole Faculty Study Groups to make improvements and refinements that create a more streamlined and effective grass-roots system for measurable and sustainable student growth.
Learning community pioneers Dale Lick, Karl Clauset, and Carlene Murphy show teachers, principals, and schools how to:
- Develop the right vision, relationships, and culture to create and sustain change
- Create communication networks for sharing that work
- Model learning-inquiry cycles for action teams for success
- Build loyalty, trust, and responsibility within your teams and across the school
With a free, comprehensive online collection of practical resources including templates, checklists and action team assessment forms, Schools Can Change will become your keystone for school innovation and improved student learning.
"Far too many good initiatives fall short due to lack of planning and exclusion of important stakeholders. The authors tell us how to build a sustainable culture over time. They don't pretend that it is easy, but give the educator confidence that it can be done."
—Eddie Ingram, Superintendent
Franklin County Schools, Louisburg, NC
"This is the most comprehensive book on the topic of school change ever written. The suggested practices and strategies at various stages create a comprehensive, meaningful text. This book helps us gain practical wisdom at all levels in our districts and schools."
—Lyne Ssebikindu, Assistant Principal
Crump Elementary School, Cordova, TN
Key features
2. Based on more than two decades of success with the Whole Faculty Study Group approach to professional learning.
3. Free access to a valuable online collection of accompanying practical resources including templates, checklists,action team assessment forms, and an action team rubric.
Author(s)
Dale W. Lick
Included in over 50 national and international biographical listings, Dr. Lick is the author or co-author of eight books and more than 100 professional articles, chapters and proceedings, and 285 original newspaper columns. His recent books are: Whole-Faculty Study Groups: A Powerful Way to Change Schools and Enhance Learning, 1998; Whole-Faculty Study Groups: Creating Student-Based Professional Development, 2001; Whole-Faculty Study Groups: Creating Professional Learning Communities That Target Student Learning, 2005; and The Whole-Faculty Study Groups Fieldbook: Lessens Learned and Best Practices From Classrooms, Districts, and Schools, 2007, all with Carlene U. Murphy, Corwin Press; Schoolwide Action Research for Professional Learning Communities: Improving Student Learning Through The Whole-Faculty Study Groups Approach, 2008, and Schools Can Change: A Step-By-Step Change Creation System for Building Innovative Schools and Increasing Student Learning, 2012, with Karl H. Clauset and Carlene U. Murphy, Corwin Press; and New Directions in Mentoring: Creating a Culture of Synergy, 1999, with Carol A. Mullen, Falmer Press (London), 1999.
Dr. Lick received B.S and M.S. degrees from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Riverside, all in Mathematics, and has three levels of certification in Leading and Managing Change from Conner Partners, Atlanta, GA. His alma maters have honored him with the Michigan State University 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award, and, on its 40th Anniversary in 1994, the University of California, Riverside, with the designation as One of 40 Alumni Who Make a Difference.
Karl H. Clauset
Karl H. Clauset is director of the National WFSG Center. He is an experienced school improvement coach and Whole-Faculty Study Group® trainer. Since 1999 he has helped more than ninety elementary, middle and high schools launch WFSG and has supported the schools through the implementation phase. He was the lead author, with Dale Lick and Carlene Murphy, for Schoolwide Action Research for Professional Learning Communities: Improving Student Learning Through the Whole-Faculty Study Groups Approach (Corwin Press, 2008), which focuses on the collaborative work teacher teams do to improve their teaching and increase student learning. He is also a senior consultant with Focus on Results and works with principals, school leadership teams, and central office staff to help them align and strengthen efforts to improve teaching and learning.
Previously, he worked as a site developer with ATLAS Learning Communities, a nationally recognized school reform program, and in standards-based reform and international education development at the Education Development Center. In his earlier careers in education, he was a teacher and administrator at the Jakarta International School in Indonesia, and taught in secondary schools in Philadelphia, Zambia and Tanzania. He received a national award from ASCD for the outstanding dissertation in supervision for his doctoral dissertation on the dynamics of effective schooling. As a faculty member at the Boston University School of Education, he taught graduate courses in educational policy analysis, organizational analysis, and planning. Before moving to western Washington in 2003, he served as an elected school board member and board chair for six years in his Massachusetts community.
Carlene U. Murphy
After retiring from the Augusta, Georgia schools, she has worked with schools throughout the United States implementing Whole-Faculty Study Groups. She has written extensively about her work in Educational Leadership and Journal of Staff Development and has written with Dale Lick two other books about the WFSG system: Whole-Faculty Study Groups: Creating Professional Learning Communities That Target Student Learning, Corwin Press, 2005; and The Whole-Faculty Study Groups Fieldbook: Lessons Learned and Best Practices from Classrooms, Districts, and Schools (co-editor), 2007. Another book with Karl Clauset and Dale Lick, Schoolwide Action Research for Professional Learning Communities: Improving Student Learning Through the Whole-Faculty Study Groups Approach (Corwin Press, 2008), focuses on the work of study groups and gives descriptive data from schools implementing WFSG.
She now lives on a small horse farm just outside of Augusta in a four generational home, which includes her husband, Joe, daughter, three grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Even with all the activities in such a home, she still finds time to write about her work, correspond with colleagues and read about the latest developments in education.
Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Online Resources
Foreword
Preface
Purpose and Need
Who Should Read and Use This Book?
Organization and Contents
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
1. The Change Creation System
School Improvement
School Reforms
The Roots of the Change Creation System
No Silver Bullet, One Brick at a Time
Standards for Professional Learning and Practice
The Change Creation System
Summary
Part I. Fundamentals of Effectiveness
2. Fundamentals of Effectiveness for School Improvement
Understanding the Culture
Culture of Discipline
Culture of Change Creation
Culture of Relationships and Collaboration
Culture of Transformational Leadership
Cultural Change
Summary
3. Fundamentals of Vision and Successful Change
Vision
Change
Success and Failure of Change
Effective Sponsorship in Schools
Change and Resistance in Schools
Universal Change Principle for Schools
Summary
4. Fundamentals for Creating Learning Teams and Professional Learning Communities
Collaboration and Teamwork
Action Teams and Professional Learning Communities
Authentic Teams and Synergy
Comentoring Teams
Learning Teams
Professional Learning Communities
Summary
Part II. The Process of the Change Creation System
5. Introducing the Decision-Making Cycle
Action Teams Decision-Making Cycle
Preparing to Start the Decision-Making Cycle
Summary
6. Identifying Student Learning Needs and Forming Action Teams
Student Learning Needs That Action Teams Address
How to Identify Student Learning Needs
Form Action Teams and Select Student Needs to Address
Selecting Student Needs to Address
Support for Identifying Student Needs and Forming Action Teams
Summary
7. Introducing Action Teams
Action Teams in the Change Creation System
The Work of Action Teams
Purposes of Action Teams
Action Team Principles
Action Team Process Guidelines
Effective Action Team Meetings
Action Teams as a Bundle of Changes
Summary
8. Support for Action Teams
Keep the Focus on Student Learning
Protect Time for Action Team Meetings
Establish Routines
Provide Regular, Frequent, and Constructive Feedback to Action Teams
Understand the Developmental Stages of Action Teams
Help Struggling Teams Move Forward
Develop Communication Networks and Strategies to Share Action Teams' Work and Results
Form Administrator Action Teams
Summary
9. Creating Team Action Plans
Team Action Plan
Creating Team Action Plans
Support for Action Teams on Their Team Action Plans and Logs
Summary
10. Implementing Learning and Inquiry Cycles for Innovation and Improving Student Learning: Parts 1 and 2
Implementing Learning and Inquiry Cycles
Supporting Learning and Inquiry Cycles for Innovation and Student Learning
Summary
11. Implementing Learning and Inquiry Cycles for Innovation and Improving Student Learning: Parts 3 and 4
Implementing Learning and Inquiry Cycles
Supporting Learning and Inquiry Cycles for Innovation and Student Learning
Summary
12. Assessing the Impact of Action Teams and Sharing Results and Best Practices
Assessing the Impact of Action Teams on Teacher Practice and Student Learning
Sharing Results and Best Practices and Applying Lessons Learned
Repeating the Decision-Making Cycle Each Year
Supporting Assessing the Impact of Action Teams and Sharing Results and Best Practices
Summary
Epilogue
References
Index
Reviews
"The Change Creation System is an empowerment of professional educators who want to meet the learning needs of their students and inform their own practice. Finally, a call to reform by a collaboration of school professionals who develop best practice for the students in their own schools. This is an informed work that provides a step by step process for school wide renewal and individual professional development as it appeals to the best that is within us and students."Sherry Markel, Professor, Teacher Education
Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ
"This book will become an essential resource to school districts as they continue to develop capacity to lead students and staff to greater levels of effectiveness. This book will take all of us from where we are and move us to make greater differences for our students."Claudia Thompson, Academic Officer, Learning and Teaching
Peninsula School District, Gig Harbor, WA
"In a changing world, our schools must change, but far too often administrators do not know how to make the changes necessary to keep up with the rapidly developing world. This book offers a wealth of resources, practical experience and a direct model for how to change to meet the needs of learners. This book is a "must read" for any administrator who wants to make a long-lasting impact on the learning outcomes in his or her school."Renee Peoples, Teacher
Swain West Elementary, Bryson City, NC
"This is the most comprehensive book on the topic of school change ever written. The suggested practices and strategies at various stages create a comprehensive, meaningful text. This book helps us gain practical wisdom at all levels in our districts and schools."Lyne Ssebikindu, Assistant Principal
Crump Elementary School, Cordova, TN
"If school communities are looking for a comprehensive road map for school improvement, they will not find anything more comprehensive. The authors not only set out a plan on how to get to where you need to go, but they identify every small pothole that you will encounter, and which can sometimes derail school improvement. This book in two words—comprehensive, authentic."Neil MacNeill, Headmaster
Ellenbrook Independent Primary School, Ellenbrook, WA Australia
"This text should be required reading for all future principals and found on the desk of all current school leaders. Promoting school improvement in teaching, learning and student performance is the leaders mantra today. The process of change in schools is complex, however this step-by-step manual provides leaders with the tools they need to improve academic performance. It is comprehensive and rich in detail but more importantly, it provides the roadmap and details for success."Harriet Gould, Adjunct Professor
Concordia University, Lincoln, NE
"The authors' work with the change creation system is significant. Far too many good initiatives fall short or are abandoned due to lack of planning and exclusion of important stakeholders. Lick, Clauset and Murphy, in a very matter of fact style, tell us of the consequences of change, the time involved, and how to build a sustainable culture over time. They don’t pretend that it is easy, but give the educator confidence that it can be done."Eddie Ingram, Superintendent
Franklin County Schools, Louisburg, NC
"Our school has used the Whole Faculty Study Groups for the past decade, and this book updates the model with relevance to the current changes happening in public education. For schools or districts looking to improve their current delivery of professional development, Schools Can Change is a proven system that works!"David Wilm, Principal
Matthews Middle School, Island Lake, IL
"Schools Can Change is like a good novel that you can’t put down, one in which you want to go over the key parts again and again. It is full of sound advice and a very good cross section of proven practices on educational change. We look forward to using a number of the suggested strategies with our staffs in the years to come."Don Boyd and Jessica Antosz, Principals
Ballenas Secondary School and Nanoose Bay Elementary School, British Columbia
For Instructors
When you select 'request review copy', you will be redirected to Sage Publishing (our parent site) to process your request.
Related Resources
- Access to companion resources is available with the purchase of this book.