Creating Great Schools.Once holding a virtual monopoly, public schools now are threatened with extinction extinction, in biology, disappearance of species of living organisms. Extinction occurs as a result of changed conditions to which the species is not suited. . Recent technological developments afford individual parents, networks of parents and other organizations the ability to meet most of children's educational needs while bypassing the public schools. In his latest book, Creating Great Schools: Six Critical Systems at the Heart of Educational Innovation, Phillip Schlechty offers a clear message to educational leaders, board of education members and legislative policy makers that public education is "still our best hope for ensuring that all Americans are well-educated." However, if public schools expect to survive in this century, they must dramatically change the way they do business. Schlechty, who is the founder and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of the Center for Leadership in School Reform, has spent the past three decades writing about school reform. He views schools through a sociological lens. In this latest work, Schlechty urges schools to change their focus from producing compliance in students to one of encouraging commitment. Moreover, he warns that the innovations to transform schools will necessarily be disruptive disruptive /dis·rup·tive/ (-tiv) 1. bursting apart; rending. 2. causing confusion or disorder. because they will require changes in systems as well as changes in technical skills and understanding. Most of the book is devoted to Schlechty's description of the six critical systems that must be transformed: recruitment and induction, knowledge transmission, power and authority, evaluation, direction and boundaries. Although he doesn't always provide answers, Schlechty offers key guiding questions at the end of each chapter that could be used to engage key stakeholders Stakeholders All parties that have an interest, financial or otherwise, in a firm-stockholders, creditors, bondholders, employees, customers, management, the community, and the government. in conversations about improving their schools. (Creating Great Schools: Six Critical Systems at the Heart of Educational Innovation by Phillip C. Schlechty, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , Calif., 2005, 259 pp. with index, $30 hardcover) Reviewed by Judith A. Zimmerman Assistant Professor of Educational Administration and Leadership Studies, Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University, at Bowling Green, Ohio; coeducational; chartered 1910 as a normal school, opened 1914. It became a college in 1929, a university in 1935. , Bowling Green, Ohio Bowling Green is the county seat of Wood CountyGR6 in the U.S. state of Ohio. At the time of the 2000 census, the population of Bowling Green was 29,636. It is part of the Toledo, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area. |
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