Once changes or innovations reach the tipping point, they spread throughout an organization and become entrenched as part of the culture, becoming "just the way we do things around here." These authors see the tipping point at play with systemic improvement in two urban school districts with which they have worked. Here, they describe…

A learning technologies director explains lessons gleaned from his school's strategic efforts to create a districtwide technology plan. The plan required an upfront vision, creative teamwork, facilitative leadership, instructional support, and patience. A sidebar details plans for incorporating assistive technologies for special-needs learners.…

Consolidations come in all shapes and sizes, including mergers, annexations and dissolutions. They do not all take place under state mandate, however. A handful of districts consolidate every year in some states like Illinois that have large numbers of small districts, many of them dual districts that serve K-8 or 9-12 in the same geographic area.…