Summary

Virtually everyone -- parents, teachers, administrators, school boards, and students -- believes that schools must change for the 21st century. But which changes should occur, and whose values should be reflected? Many change initiatives have foundered on questions like these. Values-Based Strategic Planning: A Dynamic Approach for Schools offers a complete guide to rethinking the purpose of schools, involving every constituency, achieving real consensus, and planning for change that really happens. The tools and techniques in this book work not only in schools, but in any organization that must change, but isn't sure how.

Unlike other planning schemes, Values Based Strategic Planning involves everyone in the school, accounts for their fundamental beliefs about education, and is delightfully simple to operate. The entire process can be completed in one day, and the result is a strategic plan that reflects the school's priorities and has the wholehearted commitment of those who must put it into operation. You'll walk step-by-step through the process, start to finish. Learn how to solicit value statements and distill them into school-wide values that can be shared and acted upon; identify critical issues and draft a preliminary mission statement; discover the aspects of a school -- and each individual's role -- that should kept, changed, or innovated; prioritize the results, and build a plan specific enough to succeed. Values Based Strategic Planning has been