Publications
School Administrator: “Reinventing Decision-Making”
This article discusses 3 superintendents’ experiences resolving different challenging issues: a major budget cut, redistricting, and a bond referendum. The article describes how each district used analytic process to surface issues, address conflict, build commitment, and develop a high-quality end result.
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Educational Leadership: “Helping Students Ask the Right Questions”
The overarching goals of constructivism are helping students: become autonomous learners and thinkers, explore important questions, and build and integrate deeper understandings of knowledge. Underlying the theory and goals is a recognition of the value of the student as thinker. The ability to think—to be a lifelong seeker and integrator of new knowledge—is based on the ability to ask and consider important questions. This article demonstrates the alignment of analytic process with constructivist teaching.
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Ed Week: “Greening the Next Generation of Principals”
The nation’s reservoir of principals is becoming seriously depleted, leaving reform to the rookies. A growing number of districts report the number of qualified candidates is dangerously low. The “greening” process for developing the skills of our nation’s rookie principals must be rethought. They need process skills to prepare them to confront and address the problems, decisions, and issues they will face.
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MWorld: “The Principles of Decision-making: In 7th Grade and Beyond”
This article was published in the May 2003 issue to provide the MWord business audience with a unique perspective on what students can teach managers about effective decision-making. It describes what 7th graders learned about decision-making while completing a classroom project. The lessons have applicability to us all.
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QED News, newsletter of the American Society for Quality Education: “Rational Thinking Tools for Education Leadership”
This article discusses the role of continuous improvement in education systems and some of the challenges inherent with its implementation. Of particular focus is the need for collaboration and systematic problem–solving methods.
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QED News, newsletter of the American Society for Quality Education: “Easing the Pain of Organizational Change”
This article focuses on the challenges of affecting substantive and meaningful change within an organization. Systemic change is particularly difficult. Involving people in shaping and designing that change is critical to its success. One critical element for successful collaboration is having systematic problem–solving and decision–making approaches which help people better resolve important issues by working more effectively together.
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Analytic Processes for School Leaders
Published by ASCD, this book shows how educators can use the four analytic processes to handle four common types of situations. Throughout the book, the authors explain how breaking the thinking process down into steps helps us reach better conclusions because we can understand, fine-tune, and improve our own approaches; communicate our rationale to others; more effectively involve others in solving problems; and teach these skills to others.
This book may be ordered through ASCD or Amazon.com