Change Leadership

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.

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.

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 AdaptiveChallenges.Organizational Beliefs and Behaviors.Individual Beliefs and Behaviors.Accepting the Challenge and the Risks:Moving Toward Communitiesof 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 CriticalFirst 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 EducationalTransformation.Measuring Success and the Challenge of High-Stakes TestScores.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 FocusTogether.Hold High Expectations for All Our Students.Involve Building and Central Office Administrators inInstruction.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.