Teachers College Press The Learning Hive: Leading Collective Innovation to Transform Education Systems

Why do some school systems and organizations outperform their peers despite using similar strategies and materials? Look to leadership, system design, and implementation, not policies and rules, and the answer begins to take shape. This book offers a new vision of leadership and education system design organized around dynamic “learning hives,” collections of people working together to treat daily operations as ongoing opportunities for collaborative learning and improvement. Grounded in the Center for Public Research and Leadership’s Leading Through Learning framework, the book helps cultivate education systems where dynamic governance and democratic participation enable the creation and ongoing improvement of educational strategies tailored to the unique needs of every student and community. The Learning Hive is a must-read for leaders in education dedicated to creating adaptive, equitable, and high-performing systems. Filled with helpful case studies, practical tools, and real-life examples, this resource will help leaders transform organizations and systems into thriving ecosystems of learning and growth where every student can succeed. Book Features: Supports leaders in applying leadership- and system-design–oriented approaches to continuous learning that go beyond the often siloed, problem-oriented applications of improvement science. Provides case studies showing systems and leaders enacting the book’s principles. Offers assessments to evaluate measurement systems, culture and shared vision, governance structure, and knowledge management, as well as numerous mapping exercises to visualize and revise key improvement factors. Includes access to a companion online playbook for the Leading Through Learning framework that includes video explainers, interviews, and additional tools (leadingthroughlearning.org).