Getting Serious About the System
A Fieldbook for District and School Leaders
- D'Ette F. Cowan - Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
- Stacey L. Joyner - Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
- Shirley B. Beckwith - Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
Concentrating on aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment to state and Common Core State Standards
Working on the underlying issues and people that impact the system
Gathering support from all staff members to maximize time, resources, and energy.
Supplements
"This book is a critical roadmap to district and school transformation. It takes the guess work out of determining where improvement is needed."
"The working systemically model provides a research-based approach to school improvement. The clearly defined step-by-step approach will assist any school or district in its improvement efforts. My professional practice has been significantly changed as a result of my direct experience implementing SEDL’s working systemically approach."
"This book not only describes processes and strategies but provides the tools needed for those leading the process. This is a process that a campus or district leader could use that would examine and use the resources they already have and is not another program they need to buy."
"The vignettes pulled everything together and increased my understanding of the phases. The tips for building relationship between team members and dealing with sensitive issues are also very helpful."
"This is the most comprehensive approach to improving a school system that I have seen in one text. I would absolutely recommend this book to my colleagues."
"This book challenges leaders to focus on what is most important and identifies the improvement efforts required to achieve dramatic results in the classrooms. It is brimming with ideas on how to transform education systemically and provides teachers, administrators, and leaders with a comprehensive resource to improve student achievement."
“The authors provide decades of high-quality professional development and hands-on work with schools and school districts. I appreciate and applaud their efforts to translate research on data use, professional development, leadership, and collaboration into tools and processes useful to educators.”
The book was less about systems theory than I hoped.