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Guidelines for transforming and improving the nation's public schools are presented in this book, with a focus on the regional laboratory's program for educational change. The program is organized around "designing schools for enhanced learning" and is based on three principles--a focus on learning, a systemic approach to change, and building a sense of community. Four essential components of the process are examined: classroom practice; policies and structures; student support strategies; and family and community involvement. Five chapters describe each stage of school restructuring--getting started, exploring options, preparing for change, making change, and continuing to change. Each chapter focuses on key tasks and considerations, presents sidebars describing activities and giving program examples, and concludes with a relevant school vignette about a "Kindle the SPARK" participant. An essay on early childhood education concludes the book. Thirty-four figures are included. Appendices contain selected references, an annotated bibliography, and a list of resource organizations. (105 references) (LMI)

The second part of a 3-part guide developed as a resource for people involved in the selection and implementation of new programs in school settings, this collection of articles covers such topics as consultation, educational change, and linking processes. The following readings are included: "Behavior of Innovative Personnel," by Gary A. Griffin and Ann Lieberman; "Rules of Thumb for Change Agents," by Herbert A. Shepard; "Dissemination of Information from Centralized Bureaucracies to Local Schools: The Role of the Linking Agent," by Karen Seashore Louis; "Federal Programs Supporting Educational Change: Executive Summary," by Paul Berman and others; "The Diffusion of an Innovation Through Inter-Organizational Linkages," by Douglas A. Paul; "Introducing Change Through Model Demonstration Programs: Giving Diffusion a Boost," by Dr. Richard C. Harris; "The Organizational Dilemma of Educational Change Models: Toward a Solution," by Sam D. Sieber; and "Organizations as Social Interventions: Rethinking Assumptions About Change," by Thomas B. Greenfield. A bibliography is provided. (FM)

The third part of a 3-part guide developed as a resource for people involved in the selection and implementation of new programs in school settings, this examination of each phase of the linking agent's work contains articles and papers by more than 30 authors and is organized according to six stages: (1) initiating the relationship with the school improvement site, (2) defining the problem, (3) selecting a program, (4) implementing the selected program, (5) evaluating the program, and (6) disengaging from the program. (FM)

This guide for school improvement uses as its foundation the Concerns-Based Adoption Model which describes the changing feelings of individuals as they learn about, prepare for, use, and refine new practices. Seven linear steps are depicted as they relate to the school improvement process: (1) establishing the school improvement project: (2) assessment and goal setting; (3) identifying an ideal solution; (4) preparing for implementation; (5) implementing; (6) review; and (7) maintenance and institutionalization. For each step an explanation is provided on what is involved and why, and tools and procedures to select from. At the end of each step a "dialogue" is offered between the two authors--one who has spent years studying school improvement, the other facilitating it. An appendix is provided of school improvement resources available to schools. (JD)