Leadership Lessons from Comprehensive School Reforms

School Administrator, Oct, 2004 by Susan C. Philhower

Leadership Lessons from Comprehensive School Reforms provides a blend of scholarly thought and practical anecdotes on the role of leadership in school reform. While the book's editors include comments about the district-level politics, policies and practices that promote or undermine site-level transformation, it is the role of the principal in school reform that dominates the text.

Each of the 10 chapters on comprehensive school reform models is a snapshot taken from one of three perspectives--inside out, outside in or alongside. The reader will enjoy the intimate view of authors who are also implementers, the objectivity of external reviewers and the balance of those who develop and implement. They draw the reader through each story, describing the context, the dilemmas of the key players and the drama of introducing change.

Each chapter stands alone as a powerful example of the vision, planning and commitment of the reform effort.

The strength of the book is the framework that editors Joseph Murphy and Amanda Datnow describe in the first chapter, "Setting the Stage," and conclude in the final chapter, "Leadership Lessons from Comprehensive School Reform Designs." They identify and characterize mechanisms for reform and describe how the models have evolved since the early 1980s. They expect that the comprehensive school reform movement will continue to thrive, though it will be interesting to observe how the impact of the scientifically based research requirement of No Child Left Behind plays out in this scenario.

(Leadership Lessons from Comprehensive School Reforms edited by Joseph Murphy and Amanda Datnow, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, Calif., 2003, 289 pp., $34.95 softcover)

Susan C. Philhower Assistant Professor of Educational Administration and Supervision, Western Illinois University, Macomb, Ill.