After almost three decades of school reform, student achievement nationally is about where it was when it started, and student behavior has declined dramatically. Numbers of dropouts, especially in cities and among the poor and minorities, have gotten much higher. Yet many billions of dollars have been spent; countless professionals have carried…

Evaluations of school restructuring, particularly school-based management (SBM) and shared decision making (SDM), have tended to focus on problems of implementation and on its consequent failure to fulfill its promises. Inadequate resources, unclear responsibilities, inhibiting regulations, and institutional resistance have all been cited as…

If fundamental change in education is to be lasting and effective, it must be a systemic transformation that pervades all aspects of the organization. The New American Schools Development Corporation (NASDC) mission requires rapid, comprehensive change. The Community Learning Centers program described in this document features systemic change with…

Many recent educational reform efforts are based on the active involvement of administrators, educators, parents, and community members, all stakeholders in decision making. This paper presents findings of a study that investigated communication strategies used by shared decision-making teams in a small suburban school district in New York State…

The necessity of design and planning for school restructuring with a macro focus on education systems design is discussed in this paper. Eight support and implementation strategies are identified: utilization of a formal change process; planned coordination; multiple sponsorship; formation of a grassroots collaboration network; external and…

Given the current social and economic changes, American education must change in order to connect students to the future. This book is comprised of a collection of essays on the topic of systemic change in education. The book focuses on reform for the future by bringing together systems theory with detailed examples of strategies and cases that…