Document Type
Issue Area One
Abstract
Restructure, transform, reform, change; these words cause educators to reflect on the practices that seem to have served Iowa schools well for decades. These words cause board members to question the decisions made by their administrators. And, these words cause a plethora of models to appear that show us what the "transformed school" should look like. Are we ready to change? Have we prepared ourselves with enough knowledge so we can determine the direction of our change? Do we really need to change? These questions follow closely behind when educators speak the words restructure, transform, and reform.
It is difficult for many educators as well as their communities to see the need for restructuring our schools. As recently as September, 1993, Jaime Vollmer, director of the Iowa Business, Labor, and Education Roundtable, found that only 15% of Iowans believed their schools needed to change. Our students consistently do well on standardized measures of achievement, and our drop-out and illiteracy rates are relatively low. How then do we sell the idea of reform when we are not even sure reform needs to occur? How possibly can we get our teachers to buy into the idea of transformation when the indicators tell them they must be doing the job pretty well already?
Journal Title
Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series
Volume
5
Issue
1
First Page
16
Last Page
18
Publisher
Institute for Educational Leadership, University of Northern Iowa
City
Cedar Falls, IA
Copyright
©1994 Institute for Educational Leadership, College of Education, and the University of Northern Iowa
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Denny, M. Sue
(1994)
"Shared Leadership Can Provide Impetus for Reform, Change,"
Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series: Vol. 5:
No.
1, Article 8.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/iel_monographs/vol5/iss1/8
