Schools Can Change
A Step-by-Step Change Creation System for Building Innovative Schools and Increasing Student Learning
- Dale W. Lick - Florida State University Learning Systems Institute and Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
- Karl H. Clauset - National Whole-Faculty Study Groups Center
- Carlene U. Murphy - National Whole-Faculty Study Groups Center
Foreword by Carlene U. Murphy
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
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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!"
"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."
