This site is designed for anyone undertaking a school improvement effort.

Over the years, we've found that changing one part of a school system can have complex and unforeseen effects in other parts of the system. Because people fail to maintain a "systems view" when engaging in school change, these efforts often falter. Thus, the purpose of this site is to help you maintain a "systems view" while undertaking school change.

The site provides information about systems theory and describes an effective way to view school systems - by looking at them as consisting of three domains. Using this perspective can help you simplify the complexity of school systems, adopt multiple ways of viewing them, and better understand the interconnectivity of their various parts.

In short, this site is intended to help you step away from the action in order to see the big picture of what's happening in your school system. We refer to this as taking a "balcony view." To help you take this "balcony view," this site encourages you to use needs assessment and evaluation processes to engage in reflective inquiry. It also provides guidance about which issues you might choose to focus on first when initiating a new systemic reform effort. This guidance is offered in view of the school factors that have been shown to have the biggest impact on student outcomes.

Getting Around

There are three main paths you can follow on this site:

1. Understanding Systems provides information about systems in general, the three domains of a system, the interactions among them, and what it means to take a "balcony view."
2. Resources provides an index of all the terms highlighted on this site. When you select a term, you'll be linked to a brief explanation of that term and links to related resources.
3. Process provides information and questions to ask during four predictable phases of school improvement efforts. It also provides three sample scenarios of schools undertaking improvement efforts and the implications these efforts have for other parts of the system.

Please send us an e-mail to tell us what you like, don't like, or would like to see on this site.

The compilation and dissemination of this resource is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, under contract number ED-01-CO-0006. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of any individual laboratory, the Department of Education, or any other agency of the U.S. Government.