Inventing Better Schools: An Action Plan for Educational Reform [Paperback]

Phillip C. Schlechty (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 19, 2001

Schlechty shows both educators and parents how to envision reform and design quality educational systems. He explains how the visioning process must be rooted in real shared beliefs, how mission statements must unpack visions into concrete goals that are connected to action, and how the results of reform can be usefully assessed. Drawing on the author's vast experience in the day-to-day work of implementing school reform, Inventing Better Schools offers new approaches for setting standards and ensuring accountability--and includes samples of actual mission statements and strategic plans of successful school districts.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A well-known school reform advocate, Schlechty adds a refreshing voice to the ongoing how-to-fix-our-schools debate (e.g., E.D. Hirsch, The Schools We Need & Why We Don't Have Them, LJ 10/1/96). Drawing from strategic planning and quality management, he argues that truly reinventing schools requires a fundamental conceptual shift, replacing the focus on teacher and student test performances and behavior with a renewed focus on "knowledge work": intellectual challenge and daily creative engagement. Blocking this shift is our obsession with test scores, teacher performance, and policy nostrums such as charter schools and privatization; as an alternative, Schlechty suggests a "charter district system" that would assemble public schooling's major constituencies?parents, educators, business, community leaders?and force them toward common goals. The basic plan of this lively book, including several process-oriented chapters, is founded on years of trial and error. Despite a disappointing bibliography, it is highly recommended for all academic education collections.?Jessica George, Illinois State Univ., Normal
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Schlechty offers a clear and concise vision of systemic change to address the problems with education." (The School Administrator)

"Schlechty marshals readers through the ideas-to-action labyrinth of improving schools. . . . A worthy successor to his earlier work." (The American School Board Journal)

"A book filled with hope. . . . Not all reformers in the country will agree with Schlechty's solutions or even the problems, but they will be the richer for having read what he has to say on the subject." (Louisville Courier-Journal)

"Schlechty adds a refreshing voice to the ongoing how-to-fix-our-schools debate. . . . Highly recommended." (Library Journal)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (January 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787956104
• ISBN-13: 978-0787956103
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #489,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare opportunity to engage in educational reform debate, May 16, 1998

By 

Dr Neil MacNeill "Dr Neil MacNeill" (Ellenbrook, Western Australia, Australia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Inventing Better Schools: An Action Plan for Educational Reform (Jossey-Bass Education Series) (Hardcover)

Inventing Better Schools provides a rare opportunity for school administrators to to 'look over the shoulder' of a successful practitioner of educational reform.

Schlechty (pronounced Schlek-ty) predicates the teaching program on the belief that it is the teachers' jobs to actually ENGAGE students in meaningful learning. A radical idea!

He states: "Viewing students as a customer places the the school in the position of accepting the proposition that the school's obligation is to invent work sufficiently attractive that the students engarge in it voluntarily. (Coercion may gain compliance, but it does not produce engagement and commitment.

It is the obligation of the school and the teacher to invent work that attracts the attention and compels the energy of students, for it is in inventing products that customers will buy that a customer- focused business creates the conditions of its own survival."

Across the world the public school system is under threat and Phil Schlechty provides the most practical scenario for its survival that I have read.

** We are starting a school administrators' reading group/ discussion forum in our district and this text is our starting point. Over 30 principals nominated to be in this program in two days.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A stirring book for those who want to make a difference!, May 12, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Inventing Better Schools: An Action Plan for Educational Reform (Jossey-Bass Education Series) (Hardcover)

Few authors have been able to write a more practical and informative guide to reforming the American educational system than Phillip Schlecthy. He explains both the postive and negative aspects of education today and provides strategies for redesigning schools to become focused on producing high quality, engaging work for students. Thought-provoking questions are included as tools to help districts transform as well as cases studies which exemplify effective educational reform. Inventing Better Schools is revolutionary, thorough and bound to make an impact on anyone who is serious about revitalizing American schools

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Public School Reformers, January 14, 2002

By 

"gswillia" (Visalia, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inventing Better Schools: An Action Plan for Educational Reform (Paperback)

Inventing Better Schools, An Action Plan for Educational Reform, by Phillip C. Schlechty, is a must read for those interested in educational reform in the public schools including teachers, administrators, schools boards, and local educational leaders. Any district wishing to make systemic changes may wish to use this book to provide a common starting point for reform dialogue.

Schlechty presents his case as to the urgent need for public school reform and challenges educators to redefine what their role is in providing quality education for students. His two basic tenants for the urgent need for reform is the fear that public education could be lost to a voucher system and the increased need for people to have adaptive skills to be successful in an information based society.

The starting point for educational reform is the basic mission of schooling. Schlechty states, "The aim of schooling is an educated citizenry, but the core business of schooling is engaging students in work that results in their learning what they need to learn to be viewed as well educated in American society (page 31)." In his philosophy, if schools are looked at as a business, students are the primary customers.

Inventing Better Schools emphasizes that reform efforts in the past fail because the changes are not embodied by the whole organization and the culture that surrounds the schools. All stakeholders need to be involved in the reform process. To enable systemic change, four key questions need to be answered before by educational leaders:
1. Why is change needed?
2. What kind of change is needed and what will it mean for us when the change comes about?
3. Is what we are being asked to do really possible? Has it been done before? By whom? Can we see it in practice?
4. How do we do it? What skills do we need and how will they be developed (page 208)?
In the appendix, two districts provide examples of what goals and action plans they have by answering key questions like the ones above.

Take the time to read Inventing Better Schools, An Action Plan for Educational Reform before spending enormous amounts of energy on efforts that may only have limited lasting impact on education. Schlechty sums up his mission when he writes, "...great leaders are needed if real change is to occur. My hope is that this book will find such leaders and that they will find this book useful (page 185)."