In this insightful look at school reform, Robert Evans examines the real-life hurdles to implementing innovation and explains how the best-intended efforts can be stalled by educators who too often feel burdened and conflicted by the change process. He provides a new model of leadership along with practical management strategies for building a framework of cooperation between leaders of change and the people they depend upon to implement it.

Make change humanly possible When we ask schools to change, we are asking human beings to change and this requires special tools and a human-centered approach. Change the heart of the system by enabling the hearts and minds of those who make schools work. Learn to make sense of challenging change journeys and accelerate implementation with this practical framework that includes human-centered tools, resources and mini case studies. Understand why resistance is to be expected and how to get through it. Discover three different kinds of change strategies and when to use which one Learn how to use the “messy middle” of change, where real transformation happens. "Julie Wilson dares to turn common sense into an action plan. This is an urgent, important book for all educators and parents." Seth Godin, Author "Julie Wilson is both a visionary and a pragmatist. Her book is a wonderfully clear and concise guide for leaders who seek to navigate the road to educational transformation." Tony Wagner, Author

Explores how recent changes in children's and parents' roles in the family have impacted the education system and offers teachers advice and strategies for dealing with the effects of those changes.

This book offers a highly revealing and troubling view of today's high school students and the ways they pursue high grades and success. Denise Pope, veteran teacher and curriculum expert, follows five motivated and successful students through a school year, closely shadowing them and engaging them in lengthy reflections on their school experiences. What emerges is a double-sided picture of school success. On the one hand, these students work hard in school, participate in extracurricular activities, serve their communities, earn awards and honours, and appear to uphold school values. But on the other hand, they feel that in order to get ahead they must compromise their values and manipulate the system by scheming, lying, and cheating. In short, they do school, that is, they are not really engaged with learning nor can they commit to such values as integrity and community. The words and actions of these five students - two boys and three girls from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds - underscore the frustrations of being caught in a grade trap that pins future success to high grades and test scores. Their stories raise critical questions that are too important for parents, educators, and community leaders to ignore. Are schools cultivating an environment that promotes intellectual curiosity, cooperation, and integrity? Or are they fostering anxiety, deception, and hostility? Do today's schools inadvertently impede the very values they claim to embrace? Is the success that current assessment practices measure the kind of success we want for our children?

PepsiCo's award-winning chief design officer reveals the secret to creating life-changing innovations: putting human needs at the center of any design process. Innovation is an act of love-or at least it should be. Always. It is a gesture of empathy, respect, generosity, of one human being's devotion to another, writes Mauro Porcini at the beginning of this extraordinary book. It is in part a memoir by one of the world's leading designers-the first chief design officer at both 3M and Pepsi. But even more, it is a manifesto for a genuine, authentic, and deeply humanistic approach to design, one that aims to create personal and social value first and financial and economic value afterward. In every industry, new technologies have lowered the barrier to entry like never before. Either you design exceptional products or somebody will beat you to it. Porcini shows, through example after example and story after story, that the key to real, world-changing innovation is to put people first-not only the people we innovate for but also the people who lead the innovation process. Putting people first requires what Porcini calls unicorns: people who are in love with people, who have a genuine fire in them to create meaningful solutions for actual human beings. In this book, he describes them, celebrates them, and details their superpowers so you can find them, hire them, grow them, and retain them. Some are qualities you might expect-the ability to dream combined with the ability to execute. But when was the last time you heard an executive ask prospective hires if they were kind, optimistic, curious, or humble? Porcini uses his journey across startups and multinational corporations, through successes and failures, to create a handbook for modern innovators.

Only one thing really differentiates your business from your competitor: your people. Do you have the right talent in the right place at the right time? It's no longer enough to have a 'workforce': you need a high-impact Talent Force. The authors first identify the massive social, cultural, and economic shifts that are transforming hiring as we know it. We are a smaller, closer, and more competitive world, as Baby Boomers are retiring in the US, India is flourishing due to outsourcing and educational development, and China is a strong new economic force. Add to that the fact that today's best people have radically new expectations and approaches to work; this book reveals what they want and how to meet those needs while building your business. Learn how to develop and implement a worldclass talent plan that aligns with business objectives, and define metrics to track and optimize success. Discover how candidates are using technology to evaluate new opportunities, benchmark compensation, and create new back-channels of communication about worklife. Maximize these new technologies to grow Talent Force, tap into new sources of competitive intelligence and stay ahead of the pack. Foreword xi Acknowledgments xiii About the Authors xv Preface xvii Introduction xix Chapter 1: The Quality Talent Imperative 1 Chapter 2: Talent Market Demands 11 Chapter 3: Building a Competitive Talent Organization 35 Chapter 4: The Cultural Obsession of Work 59 Chapter 5: Building a Talent Community 77 Chapter 6: Tangible Talent Measurement 93 Chapter 7: Talent Goes on Offense 115 Chapter 8: Relationship Recruiting (Still) Rules 133 Chapter 9: Talent Forces of Tomorrow 151 Index 163

"A school′s MicroSociety program is not a gimmick, as Professor Cherniss carefully describes and discusses. It is a process that gives students responsibilities and obligations. They experience the benefits of collaboration and the problems of group cohesion, and they learn how and why the bottom line of their economic enterprise requires foresight, decision-making, flexibility, creativity, and more. Are there problems in creating and maintaining such an enterprise? Yes, but Professor Cherniss candidly, critically, sympathetically, and constructively explains why readers will have no doubt that the MicroSociety′s educational potential is indeed great. It is the opposite of a transient fad, of which there has been a surfeit." -Seymour B. Sarason, Professor Emeritus Psychology & Education, Yale University See meaningful whole-school reform strategies through the lenses of the MicroSociety® program! The steady stream of quick-fix educational reforms du jour has drowned out the optimism and drive of many school leaders. To buoy the hopes and success of change agents, this guide offers a real look into school reform, with its trials and triumphs, and pinpoints specific strategies for overcoming the former and achieving the latter. Looking closely at the MicroSociety® whole-school reform model, the text empowers leaders with a systemic approach to implementation and sustainability of meaningful change. Along with the history and basics of MicroSociety®, it highlights research-based tactics, enabling administrators, teachers, parents, and students to fully invest in and affect positive, enduring reform. The book features: Actual challenges and proven solutions for everything from dealing with "problem" students and time constraints, to attaining genuine teacher buy-in and seamless curriculum 16 straightforward guidelines for before, during, and after implementation In-depth case studies illustrating the gamut of outcomes, from failure to success, and why they resulted Insights on how "emotional intelligence" influences the change process Implications for educational policy