1.6 Step-up-to-excellence:a change navigation protocol for transforming  (Page 5/20)

SUTE is an innovative approach to creating and sustaining whole-system change in school districts. The changenavigation protocol for implementing SUTE is described below. The protocol also links the theory of systemwide organizationimprovement to proven tools for improving whole-systems and innovative methods for improving knowledge work. The phrase“proven tools”is not used frivolously. Tools integrated into SUTE have years of research and successful experience supporting theireffectiveness. Two of these tools are Merrelyn Emery’s Search Conference and Participative Design Workshop (Emery, 2006; Emery&Purser, 1996). A third tool that can be used instead of Emery’s Search Conference is Weisbord and Janoff’s Future Search (in Schweitz&Martens with Aronson, 2005). A fourth tool is Harrison Owen’s (1991, 1993) Open Space Technology. Elements of Dannemiller’s Real Time Strategic Change (Dannemiller&Jacobs, 1992; Dannemiller-Tyson Associates, 1994) also have been blendedinto SUTE. Another set of tools incorporated into SUTE is from field of socio-technical systems (STS) design (e.g., van Eijnatten,Eggermont, de Goffau,&Mankoe, 1994; Pava, 1983a, 1983b).

Concepts and Principles Underpinning the SUTE Change Protocol

The unit of change for SUTE is an entire school system. This is an essential principle that forms thefoundation of the SUTE protocol. The rationale for this principle can be drawn from teachings as old as the Bible where it was said,“As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body…. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts sharethe joy”(1 Corinthians 12:12, 12:26). In much the same way, a school district is one system even though it is composed of many“parts.”

Although a school district is a system, the dominant approach to improving school districts is not systemic;rather, it is based on the principles of school-based management, which aims to improve one-school-at-a-time orone-program-at-a-time. Many of the best current and past education reform programs are limited in their scope of impact because theyfocus almost exclusively on changing what happens inside single schools and classrooms. This focus is not misguided. Schools andclassrooms are where changes need to happen. School-based reform must continue. But, it needs to evolve to a different level becausethis focus is insufficient for producing widespread, long-lasting district-wide improvements.

The one-school-at-a-time approach creates piecemeal change. Piecemeal change inside a school district is anapproach that at its worst does more harm than good and at its best is limited to creating pockets of“good”within school districts. When it comes to improving schooling in a district, however,creating pockets of good is not good enough. Whole school systems need to be improved.

If history offers any guidance for the future, one consequence of piecemeal change is that good education changeprograms that attempt to improve student learning will come and go, largely with mediocre results. When there is success, it will beisolated in“pockets of excellence.”Regarding this phenomenon, Michael Fullan (in Duffy, 2002) said,