Schools That Learn ─ A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, And Everyone Who Cares About Education

"A rich, much-needed remedy for the standardized institutions that comprise too much of our school system today… ideal for teachers and parents intent on resurrecting and fostering students' inherent drive to learn…An essential resource."
-Daniel H. Pink, author of DRIVE and A WHOLE NEW MIND

“Schools that Learn is a magnificent, grand book that pays equal attention to the small and the big picture - and what's more integrates them. There is no book on education change that comes close to Senge et al's sweeping and detailed treatment. Classroom, school, community, systems, citizenry---it's all there. The core message is stirring: what if we viewed schools as a means of shifting society for the better!"
-Michael Fullan, author of Change Leader and Learning Places

A new edition of the groundbreaking book that brings organizational learning and systems thinking into classrooms and schools, showing how to keep our nation’s educational system competitive in today’s world.

Revised and updated - with more than 100 pages of new material – for the first time since its initial publication in 2000 comes a new edition of the seminal work acclaimed as one of the best books ever written about education and schools.

A unique collaboration between the celebrated management thinker and Fifth Discipline author Peter Senge and a team of renowned educators and organizational change leaders, Schools that Learn describes how schools can adapt, grow, and change in the face of the demands and challenges of our society, and provides tools, techniques and references for bringing those aspirations to life.

The new revised and updated edition offers practical advice for overcoming the many challenges that face our communities and educational systems today. It shows teachers, administrators, students, parents and community members how to successfully use principles of organizational learning, including systems thinking and shared vision, to address the challenges that face our nation's schools. In a fast-changing world where school populations are increasingly diverse, children live in ever-more-complex social and media environments, standardized tests are applied as overly simplistic "quick fixes," and advances in science and technology continue to accelerate, the pressures on our educational system are inescapable. Schools That Learn offers a much-needed way to open dialogue about these problems – and provides pragmatic opportunities to transform school systems into learning organizations.

Drawing on observations and advice from more than 70 writers and experts on schools and education, this book features:

-Methods for implementing organizational learning and explanations of why they work
-Compelling stories and anecdotes from the “field” - classrooms, schools, and communities
-Charts, tables and diagrams to illustrate systems thinking and other practices
-Guiding principles for how to apply innovative practices in all types of school systems
-Individual exercises useful for both teachers and students
-Team exercises to foster communication within the classroom, school, or community group
-New essays on topics like educating for sustainability, systems thinking in the classroom, and “the great game of high school.”
-New recommendations for related books, articles, videotapes and web sites
-And more

Schools That Learn is the essential guide for anyone who cares about the future of education and keeping our nation’s schools competitive in our fast-changing world.

PETER SENGE is a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the founding chair of The Society for Organizational Learning. A renowned pioneer, theorist, and writer in the field of management innovation, he is the author of the widely acclaimed book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization.
In 2008 the Wall Street Journal named Dr. Senge among the top 20 most influential business thinkers. The Journal of Business Strategy has named him as one of the 24 people who had the greatest influence on business strategy over the last 100 years. The Financial Times named him as one of the world’s “top management gurus,” and Business Week has rated him as one of The Top (ten) Management Gurus.

BRYAN SMITH is an internationally recognized author, speaker and consultant on leadership development, vision-based planning and organizational learning. Prior to founding Broad Reach Innovations, Bryan was a Senior Partner for eighteen years at Innovation Associates, the firm that pioneered the field of Organizational Learning. He has worked with the UN Foundation, the UN Office of the Secretary-General, and many other education, governmental, non-profit and business organizations worldwide. He is a founding faculty member for the Sustainable Enterprise Academy at York University in Toronto.

NELDA CAMBRON-MCCABE is a professor, Department of Educational Leadership, Miami University (Ohio), and a nationally known expert on school reform and leadership. She is co-author of The Superintendant’s Fieldbook (2005) and co-author of Public School Law: Teachers’ and Students’ Rights 6th ed.(2009). Since 2007, Dr. Cambron-McCabe has worked with the National Superintendents Roundtable as its members initiated educational reform in their school districts. Many of their experiences appear in Schools That Learn.

TIMOTHY LUCAS is a founding member and lead consultant for The Institute for the Future of Learning, a non-profit group focused on creating sustainable 21st century learning environments, and is an adjunct professor at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania. He has been involved with public education for the past 35 years, having taught elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. He has been a middle school vice principal, elementary principal, curriculum director, Assistant Superintendent, and Superintendent of Schools.

JANIS DUTTON is an education writer, consultant, director of a peace and justice center,and community activist. She has used the learning organization principles as an elected official and in a variety of community conversations, and leadership and grass-roots initiatives.

ART KLEINER is the editor-in-chief of strategy+business, the award-winning management magazine published by Booz & Company. Kleiner is also a writer, lecturer and commentator, and author of The Age of Heretics: A History of the Radical Thinkers Who Reinvented Corporate Management and Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege, and Success.

This book is part of the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook series, which also includes The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook and The Dance of Change (coauthored by Senge, Smith, Kleiner, and others.) Senge and Smith are also coauthors of The Necessary Revolution.