Moving Upward Together: Creating Strategic Alignment to Sustain Systemic School Improvement

If school districts want to maintain a high level of performance and sustain improvements that have been achieved during this period of large-scale, whole-district transformation, district leaders need to align their district, both vertically and horizontally. Alignment assures that the work of individuals supports their team goals, the work of teams supports their school’s goals, the work of schools supports their clusters, and the work of clusters supports the district’s grand vision and strategic direction. This groudbreaking work presents qualitative information about the nature of strategic alignment in school systems and how to create and sustain it. Duffy combines this knowledge with information about how school districts function as systems, about the requirements of strategic planning, and presents a structured, experience-based methodology for transforming school systems. Any and all change-leaders in school districts will benefit from the information Duffy presents. Additionally, school board members and policymakers should be interested. Graduate students taking courses on systemic change in school districts ought to find the book helpful. The book is particularly useful for those change-leaders and policymakers who either want to transform their districts to meet the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence or to satisfy the requirements of No Child Left Behind.