What this means

"The whole school – all individuals – must get into the change business" Michael Fullan

"Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least" Goethe

Some school ‘improvement’ efforts may focus more on partial or piecemeal changes within the existing system rather than on designing a new P-12 or K-20 education system.

Yet for educational change to lead to significant improvements in learning outcomes for students, change is ideally comprehensive or 'systemic'. Patrick Jenlink and others observe that a systemic approach to educational change means linking changes:

• Among the parts of a school or education system (such as a cluster of primary and secondary schools working together to develop a P-12 schooling system)
• Between a school (or cluster of schools) and the wider community, including parents, health agencies, workplaces and community organisations.

Desired changes in one part must be accompanied by changes in other parts. Systemic change is obviously easier said that done!

Although a lot of educational change is not systemic because it focuses on a single school or a part of a school as the unit of change, schools have a long history of:

• Working closely with families and building home-school links
• Working closely with health services and local workplaces
• Sharing good practice in clusters and regional networks
• Developing primary-secondary links via middle years work
• Partnerships with kindergartens and universities and colleges
• Sharing resources such as sport and performing arts facilities.

There is thus rich experience and many partnerships in place - supporting a systemic approach. As well, of importance, Victoria’s Blueprint for Education and Early Childhood Development proposes a coherent birth-to-adulthood learning and development system.

A continuum of learning and development from kindergarten through to university and college, or a K-20 system of education, is the next big thing. What exactly, then, is K-20? Based on the research and good practice of educators, K-20 education is:

At least one secondary school, a primary school, if not several feeder primary schools, and a university/college along with a kindergarten working together. A K-20 partnership may obviously begin with any combination of these. What matters is that the partners not only ‘work together’ but begin to establish shared goals and use their resources to achieve them. Further, with ‘system’ leadership and governance, K-20 partnership working may culminate in a seamless education system.

case study

To be developed.

ACTION CHECKLIST

To be developed.