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Guiding Change in Special Education
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Guiding Change in Special Education
How to Help Schools With New Ideas and Practices

Foreword by Maurice McInerney


November 2003 | 296 pages | Corwin
Create a new reality by guiding your team to successful changes in special education!

Meeting the challenge of teaching a child with a disability…optimizing the potential of a classroom of troubled students...seeing the look of understanding on a child's face—these are the ideals of special education.

Making these ideals reality often requires change. As an educator, you realize this, and you would like to make a difference in your school. But how? Guiding Change in Special Education illustrates the seven stages of school change then, stage by stage, Havelock and Hamilton provide explanations and advice for incorporating each stage into your change process. At the core of the process are these change agents:

  • Local educators trying to ensure that no child with a disability is left behind
  • Parents advocating change because they care deeply about the cause
  • Consultants available to help people act more effectively as a team
  • Academics able to efficiently pinpoint needs within special education
  • Experts with specialized knowledge to offer solutions to problems
  • Informal marketing and sales people to help get the word out The "Linker"—an important player who connects people and resources, finds support, and helps organize the group
Making changes can turn ideals into reality—applying the right process and building a team of dedicated people will yield success.

Maurice McInerney
Foreword
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
Introduction
 
Case Study
 
Stage 1. Care: Establishing the Need for Action
Someone Must Care Enough to Make It All Worthwhile

 
A Three-Step Model of Change: Unfreeze-Move-Refreeze

 
How School Systems Show (and Don't Show) That They Are in Trouble

 
Inside Versus Outside Forces

 
Linking Agent as Connector and Orchestrator of Forces

 
Whose Responsibility? The Value Issues in Helping

 
Care: Summary

 
 
Stage 2. Relate: Building a Relationship
Build a Good Relationship With the People You Are Trying to Help

 
Diagram Your School or School District as a Social Network

 
Linker Configurations

 
How to Size Up Your Relationship

 
Final Word on Relationship Building

 
Relate: Summary

 
 
Stage 3. Examine: Understanding the Problem
Turn Cares Into Problems You Can Solve

 
Making a Good Diagnosis

 
The Data Collection Phase

 
The Analytic Phase

 
Making a Diagnostic Inventory

 
Systemic Analysis: Understanding the System

 
A Data Collection Process

 
A Set of Rating Dimensions

 
Creating a Diagnostic Matrix/Checklist That Points to Solutions

 
Integrating Diagnosis With the Other Stages

 
Examine: Summary

 
 
Stage 4. Acquire: Seeking and Finding Relevant Resources
The Money Theory of Change

 
The People Theory of Change

 
The Knowledge Theory of Change

 
Acquiring Materials (= Packaged Knowledge)

 
Acquire: Summary

 
 
Stage 5. Try: Moving From Knowledge to Action
Giving a Fair Trial to a Well-Considered Solution

 
Pretrial Feasibility Testing: Comparing and Selecting the Best

 
Plan the Implementation

 
What Is the Process?

 
How Can You Evaluate Process?

 
What Are the Outcomes?

 
Can You Measure Outcomes?

 
Cautions on Evaluation

 
Using the Results

 
Sharing With Your Team

 
Try: Summary

 
 
Stage 6. Extend: Gaining Deeper and Wider Acceptance
Issues About Adoption and Diffusion

 
Solidifying Adoption at the Trial Site (Keeping Going)

 
Expanding Change at the Trial Site

 
Extending the Trial to Proximate Sites (Follow-On Adoption)

 
Extending Adoption to the Larger System

 
Variations of the Adoption Curve

 
Going Wider: Strategies and Tactics (The Second Stage of Diffusion)

 
Extend: Summary

 
 
Stage 7. Renew: Encouraging Ongoing Change
How Do Systems Absorb Changes?

 
Improve the Process

 
Keep the Change Fresh

 
Create a Self-Renewal Capacity

 
From Item Change to System Change

 
Installing the Change Function

 
Terminating and Moving On

 
Renew: Summary

 
 
Summary and Synthesis
 
References
 
Index

For instructors

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