GEARS: Creating an Approach to Support Education and Systemic Change

Gears are a series of policy supplements which focus on creating an approach to support education and systemic change. The four Gears documents include:

• Gears 1: Choosing a Systems Approach (2,297K)
• Gears 2: Developing the Systems Model (2,231K)
• Gears 3: Undertaking Policy Planning (2,192K)
• Gears 4: Implementing Policy Options (2,204K)

 

These policy supplements are based on the experiences, questions, and recommendations of state and local educators, education policy- and decision makers who are advisory members of SEDL's technology and policy networks in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The systems design approach described here is a means of framing their issues, concerns, observations, and recommendations. By putting their collective wisdom into a systems design framework, we have done more than record their work. We have developed an example of a systems-oriented, problem-solving approach. This report gives state and local decision makers a tool for thinking about complex and interrelated educational and societal concerns. It also demonstrates how other state or local decision makers might use such a tool to address complex policy problems.