Improving education is a key priority for governments around the world. While many suggestions on how best to achieve this are currently under debate, years of academic research have already revealed more about how to encourage change than is sometimes assumed. This volume brings together for the first time some of the most significant work of Karen Seashore Louis, one of the foremost thinkers and researchers in the field. Organizing for School Change presents a unique variety of research-based results from studies conducted over the past twenty-five years. What emerges is not an idealistic plan, but a realistic picture of what needs to be done if schools are to be made better. Drawing on a wide and comprehensive list of sources, the ideas brought together in this collection will prove invaluable and insightful reading, stimulating both newcomers and veterans of the field to consider educational research in new ways.

A major problem confronting schools is that many students are turned off from learning and are bored. Boredom is destructive of learning. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) initiative of the US government (2001) stemmed from the claim – accompanied by sharp debates pro and con – that many schools in the United States fail to achieve basic educational objectives, and that many schools are doing a poor job for a wide variety of reasons and surely not just because of student boredom (Brigham, Gustashaw, Wiley, & Brigham, 2004; Essex, 2006; Goodman, Shannon, Goodman, & Rapoport, 2004; Sunderman, Tracey Jr. , Kim, & Orfield, 2004). The model of school organization and instruction presented here seeks to provide an effective plan for significant improvement in secondary school education, one of whose central aims is to make students genuinely engaged in what they are learning. The NCLB legislation emphasizes, inter alia, the need for school improvement. Without it one cannot reasonably anticipate improvement over current levels in student engagement in learning and in academic achievement. The NCLB literature frequently employs the term “school improvement” to refer to the quality of the teachers, such as their academic credentials, instructional competence, and their knowledge of subject matter. Similarly, “school restructuring” is said to include steps such as transforming the school into a charter school, replacing the teaching staff, or inviting a private company to administer the school. The use of those terms in this work is distinctly different.

Provides information to help administrators organize school structure, advance effective techniques, increase worker satisfaction, and promote productivity.

This handbook brings together chapters exploring key issues, important debates and points of tension, in order to create a substantial review of the field of school organization.

In 1988, the Chicago public school system decentralized, granting parents and communities significant resources and authority to reform their schools in dramatic ways. To track the effects of this bold experiment, the authors of Organizing Schools for Improvement collected a wealth of data on elementary schools in Chicago. Over a seven-year period they identified one hundred elementary schools that had substantially improved—and one hundred that had not. What did the successful schools do to accelerate student learning? The authors of this illuminating book identify a comprehensive set of practices and conditions that were key factors for improvement, including school leadership, the professional capacity of the faculty and staff, and a student-centered learning climate. In addition, they analyze the impact of social dynamics, including crime, critically examining the inextricable link between schools and their communities. Putting their data onto a more human scale, they also chronicle the stories of two neighboring schools with very different trajectories. The lessons gleaned from this groundbreaking study will be invaluable for anyone involved with urban education.

The two volumes of the second edition of the International Handbook of Educational Change comprise a totally new, and updated collection of the most critical and cutting-edge ideas in educational change. Written by the most influential thinkers in the field, these volumes cover educational change at both the theoretical and practical levels. The updated handbook remains connected to the classical concerns of the field, such as educational innovation, reform, and change management, and also offers new insights into educational change that have been brought about by social change and shifting contexts of educational reform. Like the first best selling Handbook, this one will also undoubtedly become an essential resource for people involved in all spheres of education, from classroom teachers, teacher leaders and administrators to educational researchers, curriculum developers, and university professors. No other work provides such a wide-ranging and comprehensive examination of the field of educational change.

A comprehensive discussion, from multiple perspectives, of the complex nature of school collaboration efforts.

The Self-Organizing School provides ground-breaking insights and guidance about how schools can fulfill their aspirations for quality and productivity in learning and teaching. The book describes a comprehensive decade long school design process and effort that improves teaching quality and student outcomes. The practical guidance and examples employed throughout the book are supported by one of the most extensive longitudinal studies of a school reform process, including data from over 1600 classroom observations, 12,000 student evaluations and research studies of school change, technology use, student achievement, collaboration, and teacher effectiveness.

This volume contains the must reads for a depth of understanding about organization change. Each of book's seventy-five papers included in this volume have launched their own fields of inquiry or practices and are the key readings for any student or practitioner of organization development. The most notable articles on organization development by such luminaries in the field as Bennis, Schein, Tichy, Tushman, Weick, Drucker, Quinn, Beckhard, O'Toole, Bridges, Hamel, Gladwell, and Argyris.