Given the current social and economic changes, American education must change in order to connect students to the future. This book is comprised of a collection of essays on the topic of systemic change in education. The book focuses on reform for the future by bringing together systems theory with detailed examples of strategies and cases that illustrate the power of the concept. The articles present a rationale for systemic change, explain how it differs from previous reform efforts, and introduce schools to practical ideas that enable them to begin the process of systemic change. Following the foreword by Michael Fullan and the introduction by Patrick M. Jenlink, section 1, entitled "Designing Education for the Future," includes: (1) "A Systems View and Systems Design in Education" (Bela H. Banathy); (2) "Systems Theory: An Approach to Redesigning Education" (Joe B. Hansen); and (3) "Educational Change Systems: A Systems Design Process for Systemic Change" (Patrick M. Jenlink). Articles in section 2, "Empowering Schools for Systemic Change," include: (4) "Stakeholder Participation in Systemic Change: Cornerstones to Continuous School Improvement" (Alison A. Carr); (5) "Empowerment Evaluation: A Learning Tool for Systemic Change in Education" (David M. Fetterman); (6) "Professional Development in Systemic Educational Change" (Laurie Miller Nelson and Charles M. Reigeluth); and (7) "Instructional Information Management Systems and Systemic Change" (Michael L. Burger). The five articles in section 3, "Enabling Schools for Self-Renewal," include: (8)"Systemic Change to Transform Education" (Patricia Cloud Duttweiler); (9) "The Role of Evaluation in Schools as Learning Organizations" (Patrick M. Jenlink and Rosalie T. Torres); (10) "Collaboration, Team Building, and Total Quality Philosophy for Systemic Change in Education" (Edward W. Chance); (11) "The Role of Assessment in Education Systems" (Joe B. Hansen); and (12) "Managing Improvement Projects" (Robert O. Brinkerhoff and Alison A. Carr). Section 4, "Transforming Schools for the Future," includes the following six case studies: (13) "Schooling Success and Personal Change; Some Lessons Learned" (D. Thomas King); (14) "Systemic Change and Staff Development" (Ray Williams); (15) "Total Quality Management Philosophy and an RJR-Nabisco Next Century School" (Robert Chappell and David Gangel); (16) "Riding the Roller Coaster of Educational Change: Evaluation and the Learning Organization" (Hallie Preskill); (17) "Where Systemic Change in Education Begins: Leadership Systems Management" (Carol Gabor and Greg Meunier); and (18) "South Dakota's Process of Systemic Change: A National Science Foundation Statewide Systemic Initiative" (David Anderson, Robert Caldwell, Molly Linstrom, David Makings, and Katherine Pedersen). References accompany each chapter; an index is included. (LMI)