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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2001
Bobbie D'Alessandro and the Redesign of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School
by
Linda A. Hill, Kristin Doughty and Ellen Pruyne
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Abstract
Bobbi D'Alessandro, the superintendent of the school system in Cambridge, MA, has just hired a new principal to lead a major redesign effort in the city's only high school. The need for reform had been evident since the late 1980s when school statistics highlighted substantial disparities in academic achievement rates across race and income level. Reform efforts over the past decade have met with little success. One of the most significant challenges in undertaking school redesign is managing the complex constituencies involved with the Cambridge school system, including students, parents, teachers, the teachers' union, and the school committee. D'Alessandro has been in the superintendent role less than two years and wonders how she can best create the conditions under which the new principal and the redesign effort will achieve success.
Keywords: Problems and Challenges;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Performance Improvement;
Change Management;
Secondary Education;
Selection and Staffing;
Leading Change;
Education Industry;
Cambridge;