The Adaptive School

Reviews / Votes

In this timely Third Edition of their important ground-breaking book on Adaptive Schools, Garmston and Wellman have incorporated new research and recent experience on leadership and organizational development to flesh out with concrete and practical guidance how an adaptive school, teacher, principal and administrator can successfully navigate through the constant, rapid change and future uncertainty which is our new normal. If we are going to prepare young people to be successful in this reality, we ourselves have to learn and practice the skills for acting adaptively and for creating schools, human systems as they are, that can survive and thrive under these conditions. This revised edition is a powerful but not hostile counterweight to the push toward measurement and short-term accountability that threatens to suck the life out of individuals, organizations, communities and, yes, schools where inspiring lifelong learning and capacities for adaptation has to be the most important goal. -- Marty Linsky, co-author, "Leadership on the Line" and "The Practice of Adaptive Leadership" Through The Adaptive Schools Sourcebook, Garmston and Wellman develop the language and structures of the learning organization in a choreography of collaboration, diversity, and energy. The book provides school leaders with tools, strategies and conditions for a responsive mindset, setting the stage for perpetual growth, innovation and a capacity to thrive. This sourcebook makes sense of the ever-changing landscape and complexity of our schools as we work to access the limitless power of learning. -- Michael Webb, elementary principal, Airport Heights, Anchorage Alaska, architecture writer, co-founder Whether or not you've seen or read The Theory of Everything, this is 'The Practice of Everything' in educational change. In this magnum opus, two living legends of coaching, mentoring and consulting show us the bold designs and build the bricks and mortar of adaptive change. Adaptive change, they demonstrate brilliantly, is incremental and disruptive, involves loss and growth, must be viewed from the balcony and on the dance floor - and is remarkably complex and incredibly simple all at the same time. Read. Think. And be inspired to act. -- Andy Hargreaves, Research Professor, Boston College, Director of CHENINE (Change, Engagement & Innovation in Education), University of Ottawa; President & Co-Founder, ARC Education www.atrico.org