Leading School Change : 9 Strategies to Bring Everybody on Board

by Todd Whitaker

Make positive and immediate changes in your school with the support of your entire staff. New from acclaimed speaker and bestselling author Todd Whitaker ( What Great Teachers Do Differently , Dealing with Difficult Parents ), Leading School Change provides principals, assistant principals, district superintendents, and other educators with concrete steps for getting colleagues to champion and work toward the changes you want to make. Drawing from years of experience working with leaders at the school and district levels, Whitaker shares nine specific strategies for overcoming resistance, building cooperation, and recruiting hands-on help. An essential tool for leaders, this book delivers a complete action plan for those who want to implement results-oriented school change. Companion Study Guide Available

Genres: Education, Leadership

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2009

Reviews

[Cortney · Rating 2 out of 5]

As far as grad school textbooks go, this was useful and had some good strategies that were applicable not just in the classroom but inter-personally as well. I liked the discussion about how you cannot fight an emotion with logic; you often need to fight an emotion with another emotion. Those who are fearful, for example, know logically that what they fear is silly, but they still are gripped with overwhelming fear. Logically explaining over and over won't help them if they already know what you're telling them. They have to believe it on some deeper, emotional level. This is hard for me because I tend to dismiss emotional arguments immediately and seek to logic away any problem. On the flip side, I have some irrational fears myself and I know that logic does not alleviate them. Discussing change in terms of fear, and suggesting that managing it with another emotion can overcome fear, was an approach I had never thought of before. I find myself applying this in my classroom with my students and it's very useful.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick and easy read with ideas coming for years of experience. Todd Whitaker suggests 9 key ideas for leading school change. Many of them are simply common sense while others were new insights. Strategies included,

Identify the Change
Make Sure the First Exposure is Great
Determine Who Matters Most
Find the Entry Points
Reduce the Resistance
Harness the Power of Emotion
Look Past Buy-in to Action
Reinforce Changed Behaviours
Fit it All Together

I would have liked to have seen some of these ideas fleshed out with greater detail but see this as book as a resource I can return to in future times.