Schools Can Change

Dale W. Lick is President and Professor Emeritus at Florida State University, a former President of Georgia Southern University, University of Maine, and Florida State University, and, most recently, a University Professor at Florida State University, where he did research in the Learning Systems Institute and taught and directed doctoral students in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, and worked on educational and organizational projects involving transformational leadership, change creation, learning organizations, distance learning, school improvement, enhanced student performance, educational technology, new learning systems, strategic planning, and visioning. Included in over 50 national and international biographical listings, Dr. Lick is the author or co-author of eight books and more than 100 professional articles, chapters and proceedings, and 285 original newspaper columns. His recent books are: Whole-Faculty Study Groups: A Powerful Way to Change Schools and Enhance Learning, 1998; Whole-Faculty Study Groups: Creating Student-Based Professional Development, 2001; Whole-Faculty Study Groups: Creating Professional Learning Communities That Target Student Learning, 2005; and The Whole-Faculty Study Groups Fieldbook: Lessens Learned and Best Practices From Classrooms, Districts, and Schools, 2007, all with Carlene U. Murphy, Corwin Press; Schoolwide Action Research for Professional Learning Communities: Improving Student Learning Through The Whole-Faculty Study Groups Approach, 2008, and Schools Can Change: A Step-By-Step Change Creation System for Building Innovative Schools and Increasing Student Learning, 2012, with Karl H. Clauset and Carlene U. Murphy, Corwin Press; and New Directions in Mentoring: Creating a Culture of Synergy, 1999, with Carol A. Mullen, Falmer Press (London), 1999. Dr. Lick received B.S and M.S. degrees from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Riverside, all in Mathematics, and has three levels of certification in Leading and Managing Change from Conner Partners, Atlanta, GA. His alma maters have honored him with the Michigan State University 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award, and, on its 40th Anniversary in 1994, the University of California, Riverside, with the designation as One of 40 Alumni Who Make a Difference. Learn more about Karl Clauset's PD offerings Karl H. Clauset is director of the National WFSG Center. He is an experienced school improvement coach and Whole-Faculty Study Group (R) trainer. Since 1999 he has helped more than ninety elementary, middle and high schools launch WFSG and has supported the schools through the implementation phase. He was the lead author, with Dale Lick and Carlene Murphy, for Schoolwide Action Research for Professional Learning Communities: Improving Student Learning Through the Whole-Faculty Study Groups Approach (Corwin Press, 2008), which focuses on the collaborative work teacher teams do to improve their teaching and increase student learning. He is also a senior consultant with Focus on Results and works with principals, school leadership teams, and central office staff to help them align and strengthen efforts to improve teaching and learning. Previously, he worked as a site developer with ATLAS Learning Communities, a nationally recognized school reform program, and in standards-based reform and international education development at the Education Development Center. In his earlier careers in education, he was a teacher and administrator at the Jakarta International School in Indonesia, and taught in secondary schools in Philadelphia, Zambia and Tanzania. He received a national award from ASCD for the outstanding dissertation in supervision for his doctoral dissertation on the dynamics of effective schooling. As a faculty member at the Boston University School of Education, he taught graduate courses in educational policy analysis, organizational analysis, and planning. Before moving to western Washington in 2003, he served as an elected school board member and board chair for six years in his Massachusetts community. Carlene U. Murphy is founder and executive director of the National WFSG Center and the principal developer of the Whole-Faculty Study Groups (R) system of professional development. In August 2007, she began her 50th year of work in public schools. She started her teaching career in 1957 as a fourth grade teacher in her hometown of Augusta, GA. The next year she moved to Memphis, TN where she taught for 13 years, returning to Augusta in 1972 and retiring from the district in 1993 as its director of staff development. During her 15 years as the district's chief staff developer, the district received many accolades, including the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Professional Development from the American Association of School Administrators and Georgia's Outstanding Staff Development Program Award for two consecutive years. She was awarded the National Staff Development Council's Contributions to Staff Development Award and served as the National Staff Development Council's chair of the annual national conference in Atlanta in 1986, president in 1988, and board member from 1984 to 1990. The friendships she formed and cemented during the over thirty years of her close relationship with NSDC were life-changing. After retiring from the Augusta, Georgia schools, she has worked with schools throughout the United States implementing Whole-Faculty Study Groups. She has written extensively about her work in Educational Leadership and Journal of Staff Development and has written with Dale Lick two other books about the WFSG system: Whole-Faculty Study Groups: Creating Professional Learning Communities That Target Student Learning, Corwin Press, 2005; and The Whole-Faculty Study Groups Fieldbook: Lessons Learned and Best Practices from Classrooms, Districts, and Schools (co-editor), 2007. Another book with Karl Clauset and Dale Lick, Schoolwide Action Research for Professional Learning Communities: Improving Student Learning Through the Whole-Faculty Study Groups Approach (Corwin Press, 2008), focuses on the work of study groups and gives descriptive data from schools implementing WFSG. She now lives on a small horse farm just outside of Augusta in a four generational home, which includes her husband, Joe, daughter, three grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Even with all the activities in such a home, she still finds time to write about her work, correspond with colleagues and read about the latest developments in education.

List of Figures and Tables Online Resources Foreword Preface Purpose and Need Who Should Read and Use This Book? Organization and Contents Acknowledgments About the Authors 1. The Change Creation System School Improvement School Reforms The Roots of the Change Creation System No Silver Bullet, One Brick at a Time Standards for Professional Learning and Practice The Change Creation System Summary Part I. Fundamentals of Effectiveness 2. Fundamentals of Effectiveness for School Improvement Understanding the Culture Culture of Discipline Culture of Change Creation Culture of Relationships and Collaboration Culture of Transformational Leadership Cultural Change Summary 3. Fundamentals of Vision and Successful Change Vision Change Success and Failure of Change Effective Sponsorship in Schools Change and Resistance in Schools Universal Change Principle for Schools Summary 4. Fundamentals for Creating Learning Teams and Professional Learning Communities Collaboration and Teamwork Action Teams and Professional Learning Communities Authentic Teams and Synergy Comentoring Teams Learning Teams Professional Learning Communities Summary Part II. The Process of the Change Creation System 5. Introducing the Decision-Making Cycle Action Teams Decision-Making Cycle Preparing to Start the Decision-Making Cycle Summary 6. Identifying Student Learning Needs and Forming Action Teams Student Learning Needs That Action Teams Address How to Identify Student Learning Needs Form Action Teams and Select Student Needs to Address Selecting Student Needs to Address Support for Identifying Student Needs and Forming Action Teams Summary 7. Introducing Action Teams Action Teams in the Change Creation System The Work of Action Teams Purposes of Action Teams Action Team Principles Action Team Process Guidelines Effective Action Team Meetings Action Teams as a Bundle of Changes Summary 8. Support for Action Teams Keep the Focus on Student Learning Protect Time for Action Team Meetings Establish Routines Provide Regular, Frequent, and Constructive Feedback to Action Teams Understand the Developmental Stages of Action Teams Help Struggling Teams Move Forward Develop Communication Networks and Strategies to Share Action Teams' Work and Results Form Administrator Action Teams Summary 9. Creating Team Action Plans Team Action Plan Creating Team Action Plans Support for Action Teams on Their Team Action Plans and Logs Summary 10. Implementing Learning and Inquiry Cycles for Innovation and Improving Student Learning: Parts 1 and 2 Implementing Learning and Inquiry Cycles Supporting Learning and Inquiry Cycles for Innovation and Student Learning Summary 11. Implementing Learning and Inquiry Cycles for Innovation and Improving Student Learning: Parts 3 and 4 Implementing Learning and Inquiry Cycles Supporting Learning and Inquiry Cycles for Innovation and Student Learning Summary 12. Assessing the Impact of Action Teams and Sharing Results and Best Practices Assessing the Impact of Action Teams on Teacher Practice and Student Learning Sharing Results and Best Practices and Applying Lessons Learned Repeating the Decision-Making Cycle Each Year Supporting Assessing the Impact of Action Teams and Sharing Results and Best Practices Summary Epilogue References Index

"The Change Creation System is an empowerment of professional educators who want to meet the learning needs of their students and inform their own practice. Finally, a call to reform by a collaboration of school professionals who develop best practice for the students in their own schools. This is an informed work that provides a step by step process for school wide renewal and individual professional development as it appeals to the best that is within us and students." -- Sherry Markel, Professor, Teacher Education "This book will become an essential resource to school districts as they continue to develop capacity to lead students and staff to greater levels of effectiveness. This book will take all of us from where we are and move us to make greater differences for our students." -- Claudia Thompson, Academic Officer, Learning and Teaching "In a changing world, our schools must change, but far too often administrators do not know how to make the changes necessary to keep up with the rapidly developing world. This book offers a wealth of resources, practical experience and a direct model for how to change to meet the needs of learners. This book is a "must read" for any administrator who wants to make a long-lasting impact on the learning outcomes in his or her school." -- Renee Peoples, Teacher "This is the most comprehensive book on the topic of school change ever written. The suggested practices and strategies at various stages create a comprehensive, meaningful text. This book helps us gain practical wisdom at all levels in our districts and schools." -- Lyne Ssebikindu, Assistant Principal "If school communities are looking for a comprehensive road map for school improvement, they will not find anything more comprehensive. The authors not only set out a plan on how to get to where you need to go, but they identify every small pothole that you will encounter, and which can sometimes derail school improvement. This book in two words-comprehensive, authentic." -- Neil MacNeill, Headmaster "This text should be required reading for all future principals and found on the desk of all current school leaders. Promoting school improvement in teaching, learning and student performance is the leaders mantra today. The process of change in schools is complex, however this step-by-step manual provides leaders with the tools they need to improve academic performance. It is comprehensive and rich in detail but more importantly, it provides the roadmap and details for success." -- Harriet Gould, Adjunct Professor "The authors' work with the change creation system is significant. Far too many good initiatives fall short or are abandoned due to lack of planning and exclusion of important stakeholders. Lick, Clauset and Murphy, in a very matter of fact style, tell us of the consequences of change, the time involved, and how to build a sustainable culture over time. They don't pretend that it is easy, but give the educator confidence that it can be done." -- Eddie Ingram, Superintendent "Our school has used the Whole Faculty Study Groups for the past decade, and this book updates the model with relevance to the current changes happening in public education. For schools or districts looking to improve their current delivery of professional development, Schools Can Change is a proven system that works!" -- David Wilm, Principal "Schools Can Change is like a good novel that you can't put down, one in which you want to go over the key parts again and again. It is full of sound advice and a very good cross section of proven practices on educational change. We look forward to using a number of the suggested strategies with our staffs in the years to come." -- Don Boyd and Jessica Antosz, Principals