Leading Change in Your School: How to Conquer Myths, Build Commitment, and Get Results

by Douglas B. Reeves

Guiding schools through significant change is one of the toughest challenges educational leaders face, but learning from the examples of those who have succeeded can make it less daunting. In Leading Change in Your School , distinguished author and researcher Douglas B. Reeves offers lessons learned through his work with educators in thousands of schools around the world and presents real-life examples of leaders who have met the challenge of change head-on—with impressive results for their schools and districts. Readers will also find practical resources for engaging their colleagues in change initiatives. Expanding on a number of his columns in the journal Educational Leadership , Reeves offers insights ad recommendations in four areas:
* Creating conditions for change, including assessments to determine personal and organizational readiness for change;

* Planning change, including cautionary notes about strategic planning;

* Implementing change, including the importance of moving from rhetoric to day-to-day reality; and

* Sustaining change, including the need to reorient priorities and values so that individual convenience gives way to a shared sense of the greater good.
The change leaders—both teachers and administrators—whose stories Reeves tells come from varied districts, but they share a passion for creating schools that work for all students. They are, Reeves says, "people like you, sharing similar challenges but perhaps with different results."

Genres: Education, Leadership

180 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 2009

Reviews

[Zak Wallenfang]

This book was given to me by a colleague and while it does has some good ideas towards leadership and how to make change, it falls into the pattern of being overly generic with little actionable steps. Of course we should look at grading practices, but what would you suggest we should change too? Of course consistent literacy practices help but what are some examples and implementation process used? I asked this sort of question too many times during this book. It has a place for a beginning read but not one for an established leader to take too many ideas from.

[Penny]

I've been reading a lot of books about education of late, and this is an excellent one. Not in the classic/stellar category, but a good practical guide to thinking about and effectuating change in schools to benefit students. It's a book that makes you want to roll up your sleeves and tackle the challenges at your school head on ... literally ... change agency is an intellectual endeavor, requiring thoughtful analysis and planning.

I'm on a local school board, and I will be sharing this with our new superintendent and new principal. I marked passages to return to and to share with them. Reeves also sites some good additional resources, giving credit to other researchers and writers on the same topic. I was surprised, however, in his section on interviewing to get the right teachers that he made no reference to the Haberman interview, which helps principals find teachers who are more likely to be successful with students in high poverty schools.

Yet it was good for me to read passages that described where my school is and why it needed a change in leadership. We have a lot of work to do, and Leading Change offers some good advice to help us do it.

[Tracey]

This book is definitely for school leaders seeking to make changes in their schools. Examples of what other schools have done successfully and unsuccessfully are provided. Insights in the four areas of creating conditions for change, planning change, implementing change and sustaining change are described.

[Brian Neises]

Great resource book. Will definitely be picking it up again if I ever move from teaching into administration.

[Zachary Martin]

Fantastic book on change leadership, particularly for budding teacher leaders. Reeves backs up his statements and conclusions with real data that can be tracked down. Well researched read as well. I found myself looking to the resources page to guide future reads.

[Brian Michael]

Assigned text for my EL 5300 class at OU for my Master's Program.

[Katie Lalor]

Good ideas with lots of evidence and examples. Definitely a book to get you started thinking about new ideas about changing education. Pretty quick read too.

[Mallory Huseman]

Great surface level book with solid examples. Well put together and a very fast read.

[Jessalyn Lopez]

For the masters 🎓

[Natasha & Melisa]

The book "Leading Change in Your School: How to Conquer Myths, Build Commitment, and Get Results is a must have for school administrators. It is an easy read filled with practical ideals and common sense fixes to day to day struggles for educators and administrators alike. One complaint that I will make is about the organization of the beginning of the book. It begins with an introduction that hooks you and ignites the fire within you to make change. The book then redirects its focus to hands on activities that help you develop your approach to personal change as well as organizational change. These chapters would probably fit better after the introduction which will help the reader embrace their approach to adaptive change within your professional and personal life. Overall the book is insightful as well as thoughtful and engaging.
Reeves provides practical and meaningful strategies for educational leaders who are determined to bring change in schools. One important fact that he mentions is that leaders need to be knowledgeable of instruction and also be knowledgeable of human behavior. If a leader is knowledgeable of how humans, adults and children develop then he/he can use that knowledge as an strategy. This brings up the importance of making sure that every member of a school community feels value.

[Scott Hayden]

A must read for teacher leaders and admin. I keep referencing and recommending this book even though I finished it 2 years ago.

Taking "weeding" to heart and have started that conversation among admin. They're holding me to it. :)

Love the myth-breaking chapter, especially the one about "buy in." I hear that myth a lot. I think I need to start asking people "What do you mean by that?" when they spout it as a form of resistance to change.

[Megan]

Douglas Reeves "Leading Change in Your School" has a lot of good information. It discusses how to effectively implement change, change that makes actual and productive differences. It takes a look at the pitfalls people sometimes fall into and how to combat them. It also discusses ways to implement changes effectively. This book is a pretty quick read too which is important when you're target is a group of very busy professionals.

[Christina]

I would have liked a bit more content. Many of its ideas are ones that I have read about in more detail in earlier books. However, the personal and organizational readiness assessments in chapters 2 and 3 were helpful.

[Nita]

The first rule of change -- leaders must identify and communicate what does not change.

[Kathy Dyer]

Good book, great ideas and tools. The appendix that was borrowed from Mike Wasta has some very useful tools for conversations about change.

[Monica Hawk]

Great ideas and tools go assess the "changability" factor of the school and leader.

[Kate]

Good (and challenging) ideas from numerous sources. Great book for professionals and parents alike.