Change in Schools: Facilitating the Process

Any school leader serious about change should have this book at his side. Several decades of research on the messy process of bringing change to the classroom led to the development of Hall and Hord's Concerns-based Adoption Model. I have used the CBAM model to bring about and monitor change in classrooms, schools, and school districts over the past 15 years. When one wants to bring about long-lasting change, the process that Hall and Hord so clearly present in this text can be an invaluable tool. We all know that too often the very best ideas for improving student learning and teacher performance are diluted as time passes. The reason is simple: we fail to put in place a valid monitoring process to help us understand to what degree teachers are actually using (and how they are using) the new programs we train them to implement. Using the CBAM model, especially its criteria for Levels of Use and Stages of Concern, can provide educational leaders with a research-based tool to ensure that the time and money spent to bring change to classrooms is well-spent. This book is too often relegated to the category of graduate school text. It deserves to be front and center in any change initiative at the school and district level. If you believe the cliche, "Change is a process, not an event" is true, no book will help you more in your efforts to bring much needed change to our classrooms.