Case Studies for School Administrators. - Review - book review

School Administrator, Dec, 2000 by William J. Leary

Case studies have become accepted methodologies in staff development programs at the K-12 level. Many university programs in business, law and education use case studies and simulations as an integral part of their curriculum.

Maenette K.P. Ah Nee-Benham, a faculty member at Michigan State University, is the case study editor of this book. She has assembled a set of practitioner-developed cases in such areas as strategic planning, curriculum reform, restructuring and block scheduling. A major theme throughout is the complexity of becoming an agent of change.

One unique aspect is that each case study is followed by a reflection offered by the author as to what has been learned about change. Two other commentaries, one by a teacher and another by a researcher, add depth and breadth to the analysis of each case study. From these reflections we learn that not all of the described change efforts succeeded.

Oddly, for whatever reason, more than half of the contributors requested pseudonyms be used in place of the authors' identities. One wonders why.

Practitioners will recognize many of the issues raised in the book as experiences they have encountered, but perhaps from a different perspective. This can be helpful to novice and veteran administrators alike.

(Case Studies for School Administrators: Managing Change in Education, by Maenette K.P. Ah Nee-Benham, Scarecrow Press/Technomic Books, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Md. 20706, 1999, 298 pp., $39.95 hardcover)