The world needs great individual educational changemakers capable of identifying problems and creating bold, scalable solutions. But the world also needs Dream Teams--groups of talented administrators, teachers, staff, students, and community members who are passionate about making things better for kids, believe that school-based change is the…

Describes Schools for Thought (SFT), a model developed at Vanderbilt University using three educational programs (Fostering Communities of Learners, Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environment, The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury) to promote literacy, attitudes toward school, and mathematical and scientific problem solving. Examines the…

This article reviews five frequently cited attributes of effective schools, presents steps in creating significant schools, considers the importance and role of talent development, and describes relevant applications of the Creative Problem Solving framework to synthesize school improvement and talent development efforts. (DB)

A collection of papers on particular issues commissioned by the chief state school officer in Wisconsin reassesses education--the state of the art and the future direction in general. Issues selected for discussions are those that highlighted the majority of the superintendent's discussions with lay people while campaigning for office and…

This book is directed toward students in organizational-theory and problem-analysis classes and their professors, as well as school administrators seeking to examine their problems and policies from new perspectives. It explains and illustrates methodology for describing, documenting, and analyzing organizational problems. Part I, "Methodology,"…

This module discusses the theory and practice of school improvement and outlines a nine-step systematic problem-solving process for developing an action plan addressing school improvement goals. The first section describes a general model for the study of the school as a social system, as developed by Getzels and Thelen (1960). The second section…