1. Change in Education
William Allan Kritsonis, PhD
Questions
You are the principal of a medium-sized, south-Texas high school and have
been asked by your superintendent to address the issue of discipline in your
school. The number of student discipline referrals has soared and tend to be the
result of confrontations between students and teachers and students with other
students. After much research and community input, the Boystown Model of
discipline is to be adopted by your school which has been proven to be highly
successful in improving human interactions in the school setting. You have a
veteran staff that has seen changes come and go over the years and is actively
and passively resistant to change. Describe the steps that you would go through
in order to implement this change and describe possible sources of conflict and
how you would address those issues.
You have just been elected to the local school board. The primary issue on your
campaign platform was the promise to change the school calendar from
traditional to year-round school. You have a majority of support among your
fellow school board members and the community. The school board president

2. has tasked you with spearheading the change by working closely with the
superintendent. Describe the steps that you would take to implement this
change and the potential problems, and solutions, which you would use to
address the concerns of the dissenting members of the district and community.
Topic discussion
The issue of change has been at the forefront of the educational debate
ever since the first schools were organized. Change is often feared, and those
who advocate change are viewed with suspicion. Educational change is the
source of much stress for administrators and teachers because of the lack of
clear goals and objectives. Community members clamor for educational change
when TAAS scores are low, but without giving much thought to what the actual
changes should be. Many school board members are elected promising change
and find themselves ill-prepared to brings those promises to fruition. Some
prominent researchers have suggested that one major dilemma facing the
movement toward educational change is that some solutions create even more
problems than they solve. Perhaps the most extreme belief is that some
educational problems are so complex and deeply ingrained in our society that
they are beyond the reach of any change. In order to be an effective leader, one
must be able to understand the steps involved in deciding when change is

3. appropriate, and if so, what has to be done in order to insure successful
implementation and follow-through.
Perhaps the greatest challenge faced by those in favor of change in
education is one of bridging the gap between theory and practice. There are
many educational research experts who know what the problems are in schools
today as well as those who know what should be done. The great difficulty lies
in deciding exactly what to do and how to do it. As stated by Firestone and
Corbett (1987); Fullan (1985); Clark, Lotto, and Astuto (1984); Huberman and
Miles (1984) suggest that, “there are no hard and fast rules, rather a set of
suggestions or implications given the contingencies specific to the local
situations…the uniqueness of the individual setting is a critical factor-what
works in one situation may or may not work in another.” The key consideration
for those advocating change is that there are generally accepted guidelines that
will assist with the process, but one should be careful to remain keenly aware of
local conditions or situations that could have a significant impact upon the
process of change.
In his book, The New Meaning of Educational Change, Michael Fullan
outlines three broad phases and describes each sub-step in detail. The process
begins with initiation, which is the time leading up to and including the decision
that a change is actually needed. Initiation is closely followed by

4. implementation, which is the sometimes-lengthy phase where ideas are turned
into action. The next step in the process is the continuation phase in which the
change is incorporated into the structure of the school or institutionalized as a
regular practice. Additionally, the change may disappear or be discarded for
various reasons at this phase in the process. Once the three phases have been
achieved, the resulting outcomes determine the effectiveness of the change and
whether desired goals have been met, more problems created, or if more
changes are required.
There are many possible factors that can affect the initiation of
educational change. These factors may combine to enhance or inhibit the start
of any program whose goal it is to implement educational change. One of
which is the existence and quality of innovations. Some educational issues
have been researched for decades and therefore have much research to draw
from. Other educational innovations may not be widely disseminated and
therefore not readily available from schools to draw from to solve their
problems. Additionally, some problems may be so unique to a situation that
researchers have yet to conduct studies on them. Limited access to educational
information in some communities puts the schools at a further disadvantage.
Teachers and administrators may be unaware of the latest educational programs
and the community members may lack the understanding of the educational

5. process to encourage their representatives to pursue specific programs that will
benefit their schools.
Some of the biggest advocates of educational change are the central
office administrators. Fullan identifies several studies that demonstrate that
administrator driven programs tend to have the resource allocated to them that
they need in addition to the proper level of encouragement for the staff. The
opposite is also true that initiatives for change that are not favored by the
administration tend to die before they are ever implemented.
Teacher advocacy for educational change is unique in the sense that it
rarely extends beyond the individual level. Teachers are often viewed as the
least innovative on a global scale, but tend to innovate within their own
classrooms at a much higher rate than anyone else within the educational
system. Many teacher innovations are not spread to other classrooms unless an
active and supportive environment is fostered for such a spread of ideas by the
campus administration.
The sources of change can be many and varied. Change may be directed
as the result of the passage of new legislation or from other federal directives
designed to promote the strategic interests of the national government. These
mandates from outside of the community are referred to as external change
agents. These changes may be accompanied with federal grant money in the

6. form of program grants that are to be implemented nationwide and cannot be
ignored.
The actual process of initiating change in education is one that has
several important underlying components that are critical to its success. The
three components are relevance, readiness, and resources. Relevance refers to
the need of the change in concert with its practicality for those who will have to
implement it, usually teachers, or those who it is supposed to help, the students.
A perceived lack of relevance may undermine any desired change before it ever
gets off the ground. Readiness refers to the capacity of the school for change.
Not only does the school have the need, but do the teachers and staff have the
desire and willingness to implement the change. Finally, the necessary
resources must be in place, in part at least, to get the change started. Necessary
funding for training, time, and additional support must be coordinated.
Additional resources may be allocated once the process begins and starts to
gather additional momentum.
Factors Affecting Implementation
Factors related to the characteristics of the change include need, clarity,
complexity, quality and practicality of the program. Few changes survive the
planning stage if the participants realize that a perceived need is not in
alignment with school goals or objectives. Additionally, lack of a clear vision

7. or a vision that is too complex may hinder its implementation. Furthermore,
some programs may look good but have little significant impact on the quality
of the school or prove to be impractical due to great cost in time or other
resources. Each of these characteristics combines in unique combinations
depending on the individual situation and may vary from issue to issue within
the same district or school.
Recent research on the role of organizations within the community has
indicated that, “planned change has become a matter of both motivating from
without and orchestrating from within” (Firestone & Corbett, 1987). Local
factors often result in the failure of one innovation that was extremely
successful in another. Some communities have a reputation for innovation and
view change as a good thing that is good for the students, while other districts
view change as a means of coercion in which change is used to keep people off
balance and vulnerable. These factors include the school district, the school
board and community characteristics, the principal, and the role of the teachers
as viewed from the organizational theory standpoint.

8. The Implementation Process
Several key themes dominate the implementation process and must be
considered carefully and adapted to fit local considerations for any change in
education to be successful. Vision-building among and between key people
involved in the change process is critical to the start of any change process.
The clear establishment of the desired end result of the change must be
effectively communicated so that the participants will focus their energy and
effort toward a common goal.
Once the move towards change has been implemented, evolutionary
planning becomes critical to further success. The planning that is done by the
leaders and the staff must begin to reflect on the immediate success and areas
that need improvement. Actions develop and evolve to meet unforeseen
problems and take advantage of unforeseen opportunities as well.
Initiative-taking and empowerment is the next phase in the educational
change process. Teachers must be actively encouraged to take responsibility
for the success of the changes and use their own experiences and creativity to
implement changes or make suggestions to help the process. The involvement
of the teachers in the process will foster a healthy feeling of empowerment that
will cause the teachers to feel that their input is important and wanted.

9. Staff development is one of the most important aspects of change
initiation, yet is usually misunderstood and, as a result, in-effective.
Traditionally, educators have viewed staff development as a series of unrelated
workshops that are attended, but never applied in the classroom. Staff
development can be a powerful tool for implementing change because, well
thought out and continuous training can have the effect of reinforcing previous
goals and regaining a sense of purpose and focus when energy to continue may
be waning. Many new programs that seemed like a good idea at the start of the
school year fizzle out after the first 6 weeks of school when the stress builds
and teachers lose their initial enthusiasm. Effective staff development at these
critical low points can re-energize and rejuvenate the staff to continue the
change process and see it through to a successful completion.
Monitoring and problem-coping becomes the next important phase in the
change process. Once the staff and teachers know what they are supposed to do
and the goals of the change, the educational leader must be prepared to sustain
the changes through maintaining awareness of problems or concerns that may
arise. Whenever anything new is attempted, problems will naturally occur as a
result. Effective agents of change faced problems as a challenge to be
overcome, instead of being afraid and avoiding the issue. Leaders must be

10. prepared to be supportive of their staffs and realize that they will be looked
upon as a source of strength and understanding.
We live in a society that is in a constant state of change. In order to give
students the academic skills that they will need to take them into the next
century, we as educators must be ready and willing to accept change as a
natural part of the educational process. Change may be welcomed by some, yet
feared by others. Educational leaders must be at the forefront of the efforts for
change because the very reason for our existence is the preparation of our youth
to function as productive members of our society and community. As these
needs change, so too should the schools methods and curriculum change to
meet these needs directly. We can no longer afford to view change with dread
and fear. We must embrace change and take control of the process to insure
success because our failure will only serve to harm our nations greatest
resource, our children.
Key Terms and Definitions
Initiation- The process leading up to and including the decision to proceed with
implementation. It may take many forms, ranging from a single decision by a
single authority to a broad-based mandate. Also known as mobilization or
adoption.

11. Implementation- Involves the first experiences of attempting to put an idea or
reform into practice, usually the first two or three years. Also known as initial
use
Continuation- Refers to whether the change gets built in as an ongoing part of
the system or disappears by way of a decision to discard or through attrition.
Also referred to as incorporation, routinization, or institutionalization.
External change agents- Facilitators outside of the district, that is at the state,
regional or national level. Many of these entities are formally charged with the
responsibility of stimulating and supporting change.
3 Considerations in Planning for Adoption
Relevance- Includes the interaction of need, clarity of the innovation (and the
practitioner’s understanding of it), and the utility, or what it really has to offer
the teachers and students
Readiness- Involves the school’s practical and conceptual capacity to initiate,
develop, or adopt a given innovation. May be approached in terms of individual
and organizational factors.

12. Resources- Concern the accumulation of and provision of support as a part of
the change process.
Web Links
The following is a set of linked articles that will be useful for those seeking
further information on school change.
School Change Models and Processes: A Review of Research and Practice.
http://www.goodschools.gwu.edu/cgi-bin/bibliography.cgi?sr=SR000156
School Change Models and Processes: A Review and Synthesis of Research
and Practice. Draft.
http://www.goodschools.gwu.edu/cgi-bin/bibliography.cgi?sr=SR000156
Parent Consultants for Whole-School Change
http://www.goodschools.gwu.edu/cgi-bin/bibliography.cgi?sr=SR000156