Inventing Better Schools
An Action Plan for Educational Reform

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.

The Never-Ending Story.

The Need for Invention.

The Technological Imperative.

Producing Knowledge Work.

Beliefs, Vision, and Mission.

Assessing District Capacity.

Creating the Capacity to Support Change.

Changing the System.

Working on the Work.

Measuring What Matters Most.

Leading the Change Process.

Inventing the Future: The Task Before Us.

Appendices: Action Plans for School Restructuring.

A. Memphis City Schools, Memphis, Tennessee.

B. Phillipsburg School District, Phillipsburg, New Jersey: School District Profile Team Report.

PHILLIP C. SCHLECHTY is founder and CEO of the Center for Leadership in School Reform. The creator of some of the nation's most innovative professional development programs for educators, he has been the recipient of the American Federation of Teachers Quest Citation and the American Educational Research Association's Professional Service Award. Schlechty is the author of Schools for the 21st Century and Shaking Up the School House.