Scope
To undertake the change to PCBE, you should begin by deciding on the scope of your change: one school, one school district, or one state. Our book provides guidance for this.
One School
If your school is independent (not part of a district or a centralized network of schools),
this is the obvious choice of scope. Otherwise, there are only a few rare conditions under which
you should make one school the scope of your change effort:
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The changes in that school are supported by the superintendent and school board as the first step for the whole district to transform.
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There is a district commitment to have other schools follow suit, including a plan and schedule for expansion and new administrative structures.
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There are arrangements for extra resources to support the change in that school and the schools to follow.
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There are provisions to waive certain district and even state requirements.
One District
If the school is in a district, we recommend this scope for your change effort. It does not require changing the whole district at once, but this process addresses systemic interdependencies that entail making changes on the district level to support changes on the school level. Without district-level changes, a school-level effort is not sustainable.
One State
The only people who can make the state level the scope of change are state leaders. However, changing the paradigm of education to PCBE takes longer than any one political cycle. Therefore, any effort on this level must entail building a shared vision that is owned by public and private stakeholders.
Education leaders in Delaware, for example, have created and sustained a collaboration of public and private leaders called the Vision Coalition, which produced an education plan for Delaware called Student Success 2025. Chapter 8 of our book identifies more resources for state-level change, but we do not offer detailed guidance for this scope of change.