About the Book
Guiding educators to navigate a clear and coherent path of progress for sustainable improvement
Schools are the unit of change for district-wide, systemic improvement. Creating a coherent system of equitable, continuous improvement at each school site requires constructing shared depth of understanding and precision of practices among educators. But how? Schools on the Move provides a roadmap for reducing the variances in climate, culture, capacity, and coherence that impede a school—and all its students—from realizing growth in learning. It applies the transformational wisdom of Districts on the Move at the building level to guide school staff in creating an environment that makes continuous improvement not only possible, but inevitable. Grounded in Visible Learning research and brought to life through case studies of impactful practices in action, it asserts a simplified and focused process for driving school improvement in four key areas
Clarity of focus—creating a shared, strategic focus driven by equitable student growth.
Shared leadership—cultivating a culture of co-leading and co-learning among school staff.
Collective expertise—developing instructional coherence and precision of pedagogy.
Continuous improvement—maintaining progress through evidence-based feedback loops.
Full of practical tools and resources, including templates for analyzing student learning and rubrics for each of the four key drivers of school improvement, leaders will find the support they need in the transformational process of becoming a School on the Move.
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Michael Fullan
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Pursuit of Equitable Growth in Student Learning
Chapter 2: Creating Clarity of Focus
Chapter 3: Cultivating Shared Leadership
Chapter 4: Developing Collective Expertise
Chapter 5: Guiding Continuous Improvement
Chapter 6: Taking Action
Acknowledgements
About the Authors
References
About the Author :
Jay Westover has provided leadership training and school improvement consulting in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education, state departments of education, colleges, educational service centers, and school districts across North America. Over the past fifteen years, his work has focused on developing capacity of school district systems to close the gaps of college and career readiness. Creating coherent systems of continuous improvement has been a central aspect of state-wide, regional, and local partnerships including the Association of California School Administrators, more than a dozen County Offices of Education, and over 100 school districts.
Jay’s role at InnovateEd is lead advisor for state-level, county-wide, and local school district partnerships, client executive leadership coaching, and guiding the expansion of consulting services. His passion is working alongside leaders to simplify the complexities of developing school district capacity and coherence for sustainable improvement.
Christopher J. Steinhauser served as superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District from 2002 to 2020; the fourth largest school district in California serving approximately 70,000 students. With more than 39 years of experience in the diverse Long Beach school system, Chris has earned a national reputation for improving student achievement and closing achievement and opportunity gaps. To ensure that there were equitable outcomes for all students in the school system, Chris implemented a continuous improvement process known as The Collaborative Inquiry Process/Quarterly Visits where teams of educators from different schools would visit each other’s sites to review student outcome data and observe teaching and learning. The purpose of this process was to make real-time changes based on formative assessment data to better meet the diverse academic and social/emotional needs of the students in the system. These site visits would occur three to four times per year. Under his leadership, Long Beach earned the national Broad Prize for Urban Education and qualified as a finalist for the award five times. In a 2010 report by McKinsey & Company named Long Beach as one of the world′s 20 leading school systems -- and one of the top three in the United States in terms of sustained and significant improvements. The school district was later listed among the world′s top five school systems by the nonprofit Battelle for Kids organization.
Long Beach students, 70 percent of whom receive free and reduced-price lunches, annually earn more than $100 million in college scholarships. Thirteen Long Beach high schools were named in 2020 to be among the top 12 percent in the United States by U.S. News and World Report. Under Chris’s leadership, the Long Beach College Promise was developed which became a model for the State of California and the nation on providing two years of free college to every student that enrolled in a community college upon graduating from high school. Since the implementation of the Long Beach College Promise, the college going rate for students in the Long Beach USD has been consistently higher than the State of California and the nation. To ensure that all students were college and career ready upon graduation from high school, Chris implemented industry based pathways system-wide through the Linked Learning approach to ensure equitable outcomes for all high school students.
Review :
Schools on the Move details how leaders can create clarity, develop collective expertise, and promote continuous improvement, all aimed at taking action to achieve equitable growth in student learning. You feel the momentum, you want to get on board, and the examples show how to get schools moving.
Schools on the Move provides a clear and compelling portrait of what it takes to move schools toward continuous improvement. Westover and Steinhauser offer insights into how to overcome problems of practice that too often thwart improvement efforts. This will be an invaluable resource for how to bring about genuine and sustainable change.
I was not surprised to see Jay Westover and Chris Steinhauser collaborating. Jay’s ‘On the Move’ work has been utilized by superintendents across the country to focus on key drivers and to intentionally improve their districts. Steinhauser had historic tenure and influence at one of the largest school districts in the country in the battle against systemic inequities and the liberation of students. This is a necessary resource for site, district, and county educators."
Equity and justice are long overdue in school systems. Westover and Steinhauser have provided a roadmap based on the idea of eliminating the variances between classrooms, schools, and districts so that every student, no matter where they are located, will get whatever they need to be successful.
When Chris Steinhauser, one of the most successful and respected urban superintendents, joins forces with Jay Westover, a highly experienced and impactful education consultant, the result is a book worth reading by all education leaders. Our students deserve an education that reduces inequities and accelerates learning for all, and Schools on the Move is an invaluable resource for making this promise a reality.
Steinhauser and Westover offer an approach for improvement based on factors that educators can control – climate, culture, capacity, and coherence. They put the educators in the driver’s seat and give them a roadmap for continuous improvement that ensures all students receive high-quality educational opportunities.
Chris Steinhauser has long been considered a maven among his peers and a stalwart advocate for urban education. This insightful compilation of strategies is a must-read for school and district leaders. We must not miss this opportunity to reimagine public education.
This is the right book at the right time. Westover and Steinhauser brilliantly adapted Schools on the Move for this moment in time as we attempt to fight a global pandemic and the devastating impact it’s having on our students, schools, and districts. I found dozens of ideas that I’ll immediately be using because of this important work.
Merging Westover’s transformational work over the past 20 years helping school and district teams achieve equitable growth in student learning with Steinhauser’s leadership and lessons learned in Long Beach USD, education leaders are provided clear and specific examples with tools, resources, and vignettes grounded in collective efficacy and continuous improvement.
We all need this book to understand the complexities of transforming climate, developing culture, building capacity, and creating coherence in our schools. Jay Westover and Chris Steinhauser show us how to recognize the potential in people and ideas and shape a common mindset. Schools on the Move is a pragmatic and reflective leadership guide using collaborative inquiry as a process to develop collective teacher efficacy. Being part of Schools on the Move has uniquely positioned our district during this time of rapid change to address and advance student learning.
Schools on the Move is a practical road map for school and district leaders to create cycles of collective inquiry, allowing for coherent improvement of student learning experiences. The storytelling is very effective, allowing us to see our own schools, districts, and leadership through this model.
A must-read for all those interested in transforming our systems to benefit all students and help them reach their fullest potential. Jay Westover and Chris Steinhauser use case studies to get to the heart of how to create coherent systems of continuous improvement focused on equitable growth in student learning. The attention to student learning variability and what to do with data shows us how these transformations are achievable."
Jay Westover and Chris Steinhauser identify and prioritize action steps to positively impact student outcomes. The combination of research studies, theory, practical applications, and success stories makes this book a must-read for all educational leaders!
This timely book is filled with proven organizational principles, intentional practices, and frameworks for school leaders who are serious about building long-lasting sustainable success, and a culture of championship behaviors. Jay Westover and Chris Steinhauser share personal insights and examples from successful leaders, schools, and districts which continually seek clarity, collective inquiry, and build capacity to tackle the complex issues we face in our schools.
School improvement is the most critical factor for student equity, access, and achievement. Jay Westover and Chris Steinhauser provide great examples of how this is successfully being done within various schools. This is a must-read for any educational leader who is serious about school improvement that leads to focused, continuous, and long-term growth in student learning.
Jay Westover and Chris Steinhauser outline how to leverage climate and culture to build shared leadership resulting in stronger collective teacher efficacy, increased student achievement, and greater equity. This isn’t about a program or a silver bullet, it’s about robust collaborative inquiry and dialogue system-wide that centers on evidence of impact for all students; it’s about creating a true professional learning organization."
The thoughtfulness of this text is a refreshing approach. Schools on the Move reinforces the importance of taking time to see and analyze the problem and the associated systems prior to implementing a change idea. I have great appreciation for the strategy of inclusivity among those closest to the work.
