Often resistant to change, schools are also complex organizations, with dynamics that make it hard to embrace innovation. But creating the conditions that will allow schools to evolve and adapt — with a focus on improving learning — is hard to achieve with top-down managerial leadership, requiring skilled adaptive leadership instead. But what is adaptive leadership — beyond a fuzzy theory? And how can leaders translate this kind of leadership into effective organizational change without strong top-down governance? Great questions like these are addressed head on in the book The Practice of Adaptive Leadership ((Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky. Published in well over a decade ago, the book provides a uniquely authoritative, accessible, and highly pragramatic expose and field guide for transforming professional culture in complex organizations, like K12 schools and school districts.

Despite decades of so-called reform, most K-12 classrooms remain remarkably unchanged. This post examines some of the many underlying factors that make schools resistant to change, and highlights well-established but too often overlooked roadmaps for leading meaningful and powerful system-wide improvement.

The AI wave is here, but beneath the hype, will students measurably benefit? Past lessons about EdTech adoption tell us the opportunities are there, but so are the roadblocks. Will innovators in the K-12 sector be able to navigate school setting complexities and cultures? Will educators be nimble and agile, adopting an innovation mindset?

This post explores the complex realities of school systems, the cultural and organizational forces that shape adoption, and how educators and ed-tech innovators can move beyond the “us vs. them” mindset to co-design technology that truly advances teaching, learning, and equity.