Meeting challenge with the three R's of reinvention.

© Copyright Tony Wagner, 2002 (first published in Education Week, November 27, 2002)

Districts are making progress with elementary school reforms around the country. Fourth grade reading and math scores are up in many states. In elementary schools where recently I've spent time, there's a sense of emergent pride and hope.

Not so in secondary schools. Districts that have seen test scores increase for elementary-age children see those same kids' scores fall in 8th grade. The slump is often even worse by the time the students get to 10th grade. Secondary school reformers are profoundly demoralized. They have no sense of what's going wrong, or what new strategies they might try.

New small schools foster a different kind of accountability.

© Copyright Tony Wagner, 2001 (first published in Education Week, December 5, 2001)

Public education accountability is an abiding preoccupation of policymakers and business leaders today, and for good reason. We need to ensure that schools are truly educating all students for a future that is very different from the one their parents were prepared for. But growing numbers of people inside and outside of schools are concerned about the educational consequences of the increasing use of "high stakes" standardized tests as the primary driver of accountability.

© Copyright Tony Wagner, 2001 (first published in Education Week, April 11, 2001)

President Bush's strong support for the goal of raising learning standards for all students and focusing additional resources on improving schools that serve poor and minority children represents a significant step forward for this country. His proposals come at a point in time when standards and standardized tests have helped to create awareness of the achievement gap between students of different backgrounds and to frame the national challenge we face.

An Action Theory of School Change

© Copyright Tony Wagner, 2001 (first published in the Phi Delta Kappan, January 2001)

I HAVE worked in education for 30 years -- as a teacher, principal, teacher educator, and consultant and as head of several nonprofit organizations working with schools. For the past 12 years, I have both studied and facilitated the change process in numerous schools and districts in the U.S. and abroad. I spend most of my weeks working in schools and with various groups concerned about education.

This article is an attempt to distill what I have learned about how successful leaders create change in schools -- change aimed at improving learning for all students. I call this an "action theory" of change because it is a synthesis of ideas informed by theory but developed primarily from practice -- trial and error and disciplined reflection. The theory describes how to create the conditions and capacities for sustaining change, which must be developed before more specific action plans can be considered.