Changing schools from the inside out
Subtitle: small wins in hard times
By: Robert L. Larson
Edition: 3rd ed.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Pub. Group; Rowman & Littlefield Education
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Lanham, Md
Language: eng
Number of pages: 237
ISBN-13: 9781607095279; 9781607095286; 9781607095293
Subjects: Aims and objectives; School improvement programs; Secondary Education
Description: At any time, public schools labor under great economic, political, and social pressures that make it difficult to create large-scale, 'whole school' change. But current top-down mandates require that schools close achievement gaps while teaching more problem solving, inquiry, and research skills, with fewer resources. Failure to meet test-based standards can produce consequences such as school closure or staff replacement. With this real-world challenge to education foremost, this book presents pertinent research and instructive case studies of two 'good' high schools. It advocates a proven strategy of small-scale, incremental change, small wins, which increases the likelihood that schools will improve despite a climate of 'do more with less.' Chapters describe the current societal context; the history of major change projects since the 1970s; the organizational and social characteristics of schools and classrooms; human factors that encourage and support improvement; the effects of technology; forces affecting teachers and principals; commonplace components of and vehicles for change; and practical 'levers and footings' for change that can have a high positive payoff.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The current context for school improvement; title: What research and practice teach us about change; title: Schools as organizations; title: Bromley and mansfield: two case studies; title: Good schools and small-scale change; title: Magnifying the innovation map; title: The potential of small wins and related strategies; title: Levers and footing for change.