Drawing on the success of Ontario’ schools, this book will make for interesting reading for school leaders and policy workers looking at system improvement.
How to change 5000 schools: a practical and positive approach for leading change at every level
Synopsis
In How to Change 5000 Schools, Ben Levin, former deputy minister of education for the province of Ontario, draws on his experience overseeing major system wide education reforms in Canada and England to set forth a pragmatic and optimistic approach to leading educational change.
Until 2003 public education in Ontario, Canada, had been poor, with low public satisfaction and pupil outcomes. The new provincial government initiated a series of reforms that saw pupil outcomes and teacher morale improve. Levin believes that the key to Ontario’s success lay in a strategy that aimed to make a difference for pupils by changing school and classroom practices, while generating public support and engaging teachers and other education staff in a positive way, instead of simply focusing on the system’s structures.
Levin contends that large-scale, sustained improvement in pupil outcomes requires a sustained effort to change school and classroom practices, not just structures such as governance and accountability.