Thinking and Acting Systemically: Improving School Districts Under Pressure

The editors argue that it is time to pay greater attention to building the capacity of leaders within districts given the shifting instructional, curricular, and socio-emotional needs in our school systems. Policies that focus on skill development, recognize and support performance, create opportunities for collaboration, build leader capacity, and create networks of knowledge sharing hold great potential for improving districts but it will require a paradigm shift in the way we view our public school system and those who work within it - away from blame and toward complex systems change.