Preconditions for Whole-District Ecological Systemic Change

It is well documented that piecemeal changes in education have little or no impact to improving schools; ecological systemic changes are needed. Ecological systemic change recognizes the importance of interrelationships between all relevant stakeholders and their environment. However, systemic changes in education do not come overnight, and before one can even begin to think about whole-district systemic change, research shows that three prerequisites must be present: core and supporting work, social architecture, and the district's relationship with the external environment (Reiser and Dempsey, 211). In this blog we will discuss the existence of the foregoing prerequisites in a rural school district which we will call David.
The first prerequisite for ecological systemic change is the core and supporting work. This is focused on the existence of a core group of school and community leaders with a common vision. David has in place a core group of leaders with a common vision for the district, as the district has a good reputation because of past successes. This core group is made of the superintendent, principal, school board president, and an active PTA. However, a recent shift in leadership has weakened the core group leading to inconsistencies which may make ecological systemic change more difficult.
The second prerequisite is the internal social architecture. This refers to the power and political relationships, communication, and incentives within the school district. David's strength in this area is the good communication between the administration and staff. We have a open door policy, where teachers are encouraged to speak with administrators regarding new ideas or expressing concerns. On the negative side, David does not have consistent set of curriculum standards, we are required to follow state standards but up until this coming year have all been teaching from various math, spelling, and science textbooks. There has been difficulty mandating away from this hodgepodge approach for fear of lower morale among the staff.
The final prerequisite is the district's relationship with its external environment. This is the district's attention to the ever changing community needs, and its ability to build and evolve around these needs. David's strength in this area is providing frequent family nights, where parents are given the opportunity to come and learn how to enrich their child's learning. Reading tips, math games, and other creative teaching strategies are also provided. David's biggest weakness in this area is its inability to meet the needs of a growing lower income population.
Overall, David has many of the necessary conditions in place for ecological systemic change to occur.