Preface

I have seen many similar efforts at schools and districts across North America over the past eight years. In my 1998 book, Staying Centered: Curriculum Leadership in a Turbulent Era, I documented the work of 10 such schools. These were amazing places to study because they offered clear examples of educators working harder and smarter than I had ever seen, experimenting methodically, and measuring progress intelligently in the name of the students they served. Like the benevolent teachers they were, the educators in these schools showed great patience with me.

One day I visited a principal in a small school to get a better grasp of her curriculum work for multi-aged classes. I was very moved by the quality of her program, and told her that she had made wonderful progress.

“Steve,” she said, “We are never going to get there. We will always be on the way.”

Of course, I knew that this was true—that the processes of refinement and reinvention were built into the reform program by design. What impressed me was how clearheaded she was about the issue of constant development, and how enthusiastically she grasped the challenge.

In Staying Centered, I described four important steps that faculty at the schools I studied took to sustain curriculum leadership:

1. Initiating change;
2. Selecting a curriculum-instruction-assessment approach;
3. Establishing professional development practices; and
4. Handling challenges to their work, which I define as turbulence.

I covered approximately the first five years of curriculum leadership development at each of the schools discussed in the book, and their stories are very instructive for those who wish to begin the complex but inspiring process of deep reform. But life at these schools didn't stop after five years, and questions soon arose for which I had no answers. What happens when a powerful leader leaves? How can an innovating school keep its learning agenda alive? What do schools do to bring new teachers, students, and families into the community while at the same time keeping talented veterans inspired? Finally, what do reforming schools do when district, state, and federal upheavals threaten to turn their programs upside down? To answer these powerful questions, I went back into the field, traveling across the United States to visit old friends and new ones alike. If Staying Centered is the story of innovating schools making promising beginnings, this book is my attempt to find out how innovating schools followed through over the first decade and a half.

A Word About the Organization of This Book

One thing that has not changed over the years is the busy pace of educators at all levels. Much as we would like to sit and contemplate the issues before us, we seldom have time for deep reflection. The demands of our work mean that we are quite selective in our reading and usually want to see concrete benefits. Knowing this, I have designed this book to be used quickly and easily by teachers, administrators, board members, community members, and students of educational reform and innovation. Because many readers are likely to be strong spatial learners, I have included many diagrams and graphics to illustrate major ideas.

The book is divided into the following four sections:

• Challenge 1 is intended to help you work through the steep challenge of leadership succession. Here you will explore possible patterns of leadership change, as well as ways to help new leaders get off to a successful start reforming their schools.
• Challenge 2 focuses on keeping the learning agenda alive. Here you will see how schools deal with the pressures of rapid growth and increased demands on faculty, staff, and administration. I also discuss the pivotal role of shared governance in helping schools remember their missions and stay on course.
• Challenge 3 explains how successful schools keep the culture of invention alive in the face of inevitable staff turnover. You will also discover how schools welcome new students and families by helping them understand the school culture, and how they learn from every new arrival.
• Challenge 4 shows how leading schools deal with serious disruptions from the world beyond their walls. In this chapter you will find new ways to deal with changes at the district level, your state's accountability system, and the No Child Left Behind legislation. You will also learn how schools can recast their visions to fit new demands without selling out core values.

Every section of this book begins with something I call a “turbulence gauge.” Throughout the book, I have developed Turbulence Theory to describe the tossing and turning that schools face when working on their development. The purpose of the gauge is to help you determine how relevant the chapter is to your school right now. Take a minute to consider the turbulence gauge for Challenge 1 (see Figure C-1) to see what I mean. This particular turbulence gauge focuses on the issue of leadership succession. The “degrees of turbulence” in the left column reflect four general levels of volatility in schools. These levels are defined in the center column, and their relevance to the chapter topic is outlined in the right column.

The gauge is pretty straightforward. As you look at each challenge, consider only where your own school fits in the rubric. You do not have to read this book in a linear way if you do not want to. You may prefer to use the gauges at the start of each section to decide where to begin reading, and where to go from there. For example, if you are not dealing with a leadership succession problem this year, but are faced with a serious challenge from the state, it should be easy for you to determine that you should start with Challenge 4. Like a sailor trimming the sails on a four-mast ship, your goal is not to completely avoid turbulence but to adjust your situation so that you are not overwhelmed by it. You need to visualize the work ahead and prioritize your work carefully before moving on. Turbulence is inevitable—but like the wind filling the sails, it can be useful as well.

Most of the chapters follow the same format. First, I provide some background on the issue. Next, I provide suggestions on how to go from learning about an issue to gaining the confidence to respond. To help make the connection between the issue being discussed and your own needs, each challenge ends with specific steps to help you implement the suggestions in your own setting.

My fondest hope for this book is that it will help you deal with one of the most serious challenges we face in education: sustaining a school's progress in a time of serious disruption. By addressing crucial issues with practical examples and strategies, I hope that the book will do more than merely raise interesting questions—I want this book to serve as a compass, helping you navigate the turbulent waters ahead.