Section I : Size generates shoals that can wreck us
Size really matters : a sea of troubles (Why do we have problems making large schools work?) Comparing and contrasting large and small schools
Our assumptions and beliefs drive us : we hardly realize what they are - and that they do
Section II: How organizations (read schools) work
How to make sure we stay afloat (How to work with the dynamics of the school, so we don't screw up too badly) and how to create a healthy subculture in the process
Hidden eddies that can drive us off course : metaphors and images of organizations that often dominate our thinking - and a curriculum-steering task force that generates controlled change as a routine
Five hidden whirlpools (pulls, or centers of influence) that the five parts of the organization inevitably generate
Adrift, out of control, plunging over the waterfall? (OK, once we get our schools productive, how do we keep them there?)
Power and its uses : sink or swim
Leadership - the impact of the Honcho (If we find a honcho to diagnose and to steer us through the shoals)
Section III : Strategies on how to get there
Paddling into the current : top-down change strategies, and this one - how to pull it off : making plans work by finessing resistance
Section IV : Three case studies to demonstrate how to pull off improving schools by decentralizing
Example 1 : Beliefs, myths, and realities : decentralizing a rogue Junior High into a model middle school (despite the riptides)
Example 2 : Moving a large elementary school into a decentralized constructivist model (and the scores jumped up)
Example 2, continued : Success! Three (and, postscript, now five) years of constructivism : spectacular changes - and the scores jumped up (still perking, but needing to replan)
Example 3: Making a large inner-city high school work by decentralizing it - steering it through the currents
Section V: What did we do? Why did it work? How can I do it? By building an infrastructure and culture to make it work
Summing up very briefly : size really matters - decentralization works - seawalls revisited : four infrastructures to keep the renewal process surging.
