corporation with headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, the Schlechty Center, as it is now named, works with public school districts and their leaders to transform the existing system of rules, roles, and relationships that govern the way resources are used in schools to a system that is focused on the quality of work provided to students.

The Schlechty Center for Leadership in School Reform engages education leaders at the district, school, and classroom levels to:

• Enhance the capacity of the district to support and sustain reform at the building and classroom levels.
• Redesign schools so that they are more clearly focused on providing quality work for children and so that students become the true focus of all decisions made in schools.
• Help teachers, parents, and others who work in schools and classrooms to better understand the characteristics of quality work for students, and ensuring that teachers have the tools and support they need to design and deliver the highest-quality work for students.

In doing so, the Schlechty Center provides strategic consultation and targeted advice to district leaders, technical assistance and training to school boards and educators at all levels, and tools to assist educators in transforming their environment to focus on better outcomes for students. The Schlechty Center continually draws on what it learns from its hands-on experience to invigorate its practice and inform the field of education reform.

Two theories undergird the activities of the Schlechty Center

• The Theory of Change focuses on transforming schools from organizations based on the assumption that the core business of schools has to do with producing compliance and attendance to organizations where the core business focuses on nurturing attention and commitment. The Theory of Change (PDF, 38K) is the basis for the Schlechty Center's 10 District Standards <10standards.asp>.
• The Theory of Engagement focuses attention on student motivation and the strategies needed to increase the prospect that schools and teachers will be positioned to increase the presence of engaging tasks and activities in the routine life of the school. The Theory of Engagement (PDF, 46K) is the basis of the Working on the Work (PDF, 106K) framework.

Basic Assumptions Regarding School Reform
The Schlechty Center for Leadership in School Reform allows five basic assumptions to guide all of our work and creates partnerships with school district leaders that share these beliefs.

There is an urgent need for dramatic improvement in the performance of America's public schools.

The key to improving the schools is the quality of the work students are provided. To improve the quality of the work students are provided, schools must be organized around students and the work provided to students rather than around adults and the work of teachers.

Students are volunteers. Their attendance can be commanded, but their attention must be earned.

The changes required to organize schools around students and student work cannot occur unless school districts and communities have or develop the capacities needed to support change-capacities that are now too often lacking in even the best run school districts.

Leadership and leadership development are key components to the creation of district-level capacity to support building-level reform.

Systemic Approach to School Reform
The Schlechty Center for Leadership in School Reform's uniqueness stems from its comprehensive and systemic approach to school reform. Everything we do, every activity we create, every relationship we build, every Network we support is aimed at improving the capacity of schools to provide a quality education to children. At the Schlechty Center, two separate but complimentary frameworks provide the foundation for working with school districts and schools. The first offers 10 District Standards for leaders to assess and build system capacity so that the entire district is aligned and focused on the core purpose of schools.

Working on the Work
This leads to the second framework, Working on the Work (PDF, 106K), which calls on everyone to provide high-content, engaging work for students that results in students learning what schools, parents, and the community want them to learn to be considered well-educated. The school districts within the Schlechty Center Networks-urban, suburban, and rural-embrace these frameworks, a major shift in doing the business of schools.

The core business of schools is to provide students with high content engaging school work.

• Work that is challenging to students
• Work with which students persist when they experience difficulty
• Work from which students gain a sense of satisfaction

This results in students learning those things that the schools, parents, and community want them to learn to be considered well-educated. For this to occur, all district activity must be organized around students and the work that students do.

Leadership Development
Since its inception in 1987, the Schlechty Center has developed a track record of working with superintendents, school boards, principals, and other district leaders across the country. The Center's leadership development is based upon a theoretical framework that purports that the core business of schools is providing students with engaging work. Over the years, the Center has learned that leadership development must be linked with system development-not just an independent endeavor. If system and leadership development are not aligned, it is unlikely that the district will develop either leadership or system capacity. It is for this reason that the Schlechty Center's set of Leadership Capabilities (PDF, 52K), which provide leaders with the skills and knowledge necessary to lead change, are directly related to the Distict Standards <10standards.asp>.

Books by Dr. Phil Schlechty
In Creating Great Schools, Phillip C. Schlechty-one of the nation's best-known experts on leadership and change in schools-offers a hands-on primer that will help arm school leaders with the tools they need to buck the system from within. Creating Great Schools shows educational leaders how they can sustain continuous innovation and improvement in order to create truly great schools. Schlechty outlines the six critical systems that define the norms and expressions of the school's organizational culture-recruitment and induction, knowledge transmission, power and authority, evaluation, direction, and boundaries-and shows what it takes to lead effective systemic change in order to sustain new values and direction. The book is filled with effective strategies and offers guidelines for introducing the "disruptive innovations" that are necessary to change the fundamental norms of an educational organization and truly revitalize a school. He offers suggestions for working through the thorny issues that arise from the efforts to introduce new norms and provides school leaders with valuable insights of the critical rules, roles, and relationships in schools.
Click for more details

Working on the Work. If student performance is to be improved, says Phillip Schlechty, there are at least three ways to approach the problem: 1) work on the students, 2) work on the teachers, or 3) work on the work. Unfortunately, the first two have thus far produced unimpressive results. The key to improving education, Schlechty believes, lies in the third alternative: to provide better quality work for students-work that is engaging and that enables students to learn what they need in order to succeed in the world. Click for more details

In this visionary book, renowned educator Phillip Schlechty argues for change-adept school systems. He not only challenges educational administrators, teachers, teacher leaders, legislators, and policymakers to recognize the need for transformation, but also shows how they can grow into skillful leaders of lasting change. Shaking Up the Schoolhouse begins with an incisive discussion of the dangers and opportunities in reworking school systems. Drawing from decades of experience and from actual cases, the author describes the essential characteristics of change-adept organizations. He then presents a practical framework for helping teachers to overcome obstacles in the learning experience, from reviewing the competition to improving student engagement through more effective standards. Click here for more details

Phillip Schlechty argues that schools must change or become obsolete, and that central to this change is a radical rethinking of old rules, roles, and relationships. The author leads parents, teachers, board members, school administrators, and community leaders through the difficult process of improving schools. He shows how to implement reform by developing a mission statement, setting goals, assessing results, and creating the support for change. Defining this work as a process of altering systems of rules, roles, and relationships that govern behavior in groups, Schlechty points out that reinventing schools must be looked on as a continual process. The book draws on Schlechty's experience in boardrooms and legislative halls and from his hands-on work implementing school reform. Included are samples of actual mission statements and strategic plans of successful school districts. Click for more details

Schools for the 21st Century. While the economy and the work force have changed drastically in the last century, public education has lagged far behind. In order to prepare our children for a future of constant change, the structure and fundamental purpose of our schools must be reexamined. Click for more details

Exemplars
http://www.schlechtycenter.org/psc/eleader_exemplars.asp