District Strategic Teaming: Leadership for Systemic and Sustainable Reform

Year 2018, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 139 - 177, 15.12.2018

Thomas L. Alsbury Margaret R. Blanchard Kristie S. Gutierrez Chris M. Allred A. Dell Tolin

https://doi.org/10.30828/real/2018.2.2

Abstract

Reform efforts in schools have become increasingly
focused on the nature and direction of teamwork in efforts to achieve sustained
and systemic districtwide capacity for innovation and needed change. The
six-year study reported in this article involved development, implementation,
and assessment of a unique collaborative process for districtwide reform in
some of the most challenging and fluid educational settings in the United
States of America. This reform process, called District Strategic Teaming, involved
a representative vertical cross-section of members from the district office to
school-based support staff. 
Participating schools are located in isolated, rural communities in the south-eastern
region of the United States of America that experience high rates of teacher
turnover and serve student populations living in abject poverty. Despite these
challenges, the longitudinal study revealed substantive improvement in
organizational culture and reduction of systemic barriers for innovation through the
process described in this article.

Keywords

District Strategic Teaming, Educational Reform and Innovation, Rural Schools

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