1.6 Step-up-to-excellence:a change navigation protocol for transforming  (Page 6/20)

What are the‘big problems’facing educational reform? They can be summed up in one sentence: School systems areoverloaded with fragmented, ad hoc, episodic initiatives—[with] lots of activity and confusion. Put another way, change even whensuccessful in pockets, fails to go to scale. It fails to become systemic. And, of course, it has no chance of becoming sustained.(p. ix)

Many believe that change in school districts is piecemeal, disconnected, and non-systemic. Jack Dale, Maryland’s Superintendent of the Year for 2000 and the current superintendentof the Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia commented on the problem of incremental, piecemeal change. He said piecemeal changeoccurs as educators respond to demands from a school system’s environment. He asked (in Duffy, 2002),

How have we responded? Typically, we design a new program to meet each emerging need as it is identified andvalidated.... The continual addition of discrete educational programs does not work.... Each of the specialty programs developedhave, in fact, shifted the responsibility (burden) from the whole system to expecting a specific program to solve the problem. (p.34)

Another person who commented on the ineffectiveness of piecemeal change was Scott Thompson, AssistantExecutive Director of the Panasonic Foundation, a sponsor of district-wide change. In talking about piecemeal change, Thompson(2001) said,“The challenge [of school improvement], however,cannot be met through isolated programs; it requires a systemic response. Tackling it will require fundamental changes in thepolicies, roles, practices, finances, culture, and structure of the school system”(p. 2).

Regarding the inadequacies of the one-school-at-a-time approach, Lew Rhodes (1997), a formerassistant executive director for the American Association of School Administrators said,

It was a lot easier 30 years ago when John Goodlad popularized the idea of the school building as thefundamental unit of change.... But now it is time to question that assumption--not because it is wrong--but because it isinsufficient. Otherwise, how can we answer the question:‘If the building is the primary unit at which to focus change efforts, whyafter 30 years has so little really changed?’(p. 19)

Focusing school improvement only on individual school buildings and classrooms within a district alsoleaves some teachers and children behind in average and low performing schools. Leaving teachers and students behind in averageor low performing schools is a subtle, but powerful, form of discrimination. School-aged children and their teachers, families,and communities deserve better. It is morally unconscionable to allow some schools in a district to excel while others celebratetheir mediocrity or languish in their desperation. Entire school districts must improve, not just parts of them.

There are two additional consequences of piecemeal change within school systems. First, piecemealimprovements are not and never will be widespread; second, piecemeal improvements are not and cannot be long-lasting.Widespread and long-lasting improvements require district-wide change led by courageous, passionate, and visionary leaders whorecognize the inherent limitations of piecemeal change and who recognize that a child’s educational experience is the cumulative effect of his or her“education career”in a school district.