Overview

Reimagine your school district as a thriving ecosystem where young people flourish Middle and high schools are in crisis. Many educators sense that the traditional factory-model approach to secondary education is failing to meet the developmental needs of adolescents, leading to widespread disengagement and exacerbating a growing mental health crisis. Yet, it often feels like we’re all trapped in a game that nobody wants to play. This book offers a powerful counter-narrative, showing how districts can move beyond compliance and fragmentation toward a new paradigm for secondary education built for deep learning, belonging, and real-world purpose. Rooted in groundbreaking research and drawing on vivid, story-rich case studies from six diverse school districts in California, Whole Learners, Whole Systems provides a compelling and practical roadmap for transforming secondary schools. It introduces a powerful framework for change built on four key pillars: Shared Vision: Develop a compelling, co-created, and coherent vision for schools that embraces a ""whole learner"" view of success. Steady Work: Learn to focus on long-term improvement over quick-fix reforms, building the trust and coherence needed for deep, sustainable change. Symmetry: Model the collaborative, inquiry-rich culture you want to see in classrooms by embedding it in your leadership practice and professional learning. Systemness: Foster collective responsibility and interdependence across classrooms, schools, and the central office to break down silos and build a true learning ecosystem. Whole Learners, Whole Systems provides hopeful, solutions-oriented insights and actionable strategies education leaders need to redesign their systems. It’s time to create whole systems where all adolescents can connect, contribute, and thrive as whole learners.

Full Product Details

Author:   Sarah Fine (High Tech High Graduate School of Education) ,  Santiago Rincon-Gallardo (Liberating Learning Inc) ,  Michael Fullan (Michael Fullan Enterprises Inc.)
Publisher:   SAGE Publications Inc
Imprint:   Corwin Press Inc
Weight:   0.510kg
ISBN:  

9798348831257

Pages:   248
Publication Date:   14 June 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHORS INTRODUCTION PART I: THE CASE FOR WHOLE LEARNERS, WHOLE SYSTEMS CHAPTER 1: WHY WHOLE ADOLESCENT LEARNERS CHAPTER 2: WHY WHOLE SECONDARY EDUCATION SYSTEMS PART II: WHOLE LEARNERS, WHOLE SYSTEMS IN ACTION INTRODUCTION TO PART II CHAPTER 3: LINDSAY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: COMPETENCY-BASED SYSTEMS WITH LEARNERS AT THE CENTER CHAPTER 4: OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: LEARNING LINKED TO PURPOSE AND COMMUNITY CHAPTER 5: FRESNO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: BUILDING A CAREER TECHNICAL EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM CHAPTER 6: SHASTA COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION: A SYSTEM OF CARE, CONNECTION, AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT CHAPTER 7: MONTEREY PENINSULA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: AN ECOSYSTEM FOR ADOLESCENT LEARNING AND WELL-BEING CHAPTER 8: ANAHEIM UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT: WEAVING THE PIECES TOGETHER COHERENTLY PART III: THE FOUR “S”s OF WHOLE LEARNER, WHOLE SYSTEM CHANGE INTRODUCTION TO PART III CHAPTER 9: SHARED VISION CHAPTER 10: STEADY WORK CHAPTER 11: SYMMETRY CHAPTER 12: SYSTEMNESS CONCLUSION: THE ROAD AHEAD CHAPTER 13: CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR “WHOLE LEARNER, WHOLE SYSTEM” TRANSFORMATION APPENDIX: A NOTE ON METHODOLOGY REFERENCES INDEX

Reviews

Once again, Michael Fullan and his colleagues Sarah Fine and Santiago Rincon-Gallardo have written a book for educators that addresses a critical and timely topic.  We have known for many years that the social, emotional, and psychological needs of kids affect how they perform academically.  Yet, for too long, these issues have been approached separately, and more often than not, in a fragmented manner.  This book shows how schools can address these needs in a coherent, thoughtful, and compassionate manner.  Based on case studies of school districts where such an approach has been successfully implemented, the new vision they provide is one that all schools can and should embrace. -- Pedro A. Noguera * University of Southern California * It is high time to leave behind the outdated factory-model approach to secondary education. Grounded in rich case studies and focused on coherence, purpose, and equity, this book provides system and school leaders with a path forward.  Fine, Rincon-Gallardo, and Fullan offer a roadmap for how to build whole systems where adolescents can thrive as whole learners. -- Linda Darling-Hammond * Stanford, California * Beautifully written, imminently practical, and realistic yet hopeful, this book is a captivating must-read on how systems can support high school transformation. Highlighting places where adolescents are thriving, the authors share rich cases of pioneering systems that integrate student learning and wellbeing. -- Amanda Datnow * La Jolla, California * Fine, Rincon-Gallardo, and Fullan share how six districts have made a real impact by focusing on students, prioritizing relationships, reimagining traditional structures, and recognizing the essential role of the system in sustaining change. This book will inspire and guide any district ready to truly transform their students’ high school learning experience. -- John Malloy * Fort Lauderdale, Florida * This book is for any education leader who is looking for a clear path towards high school transformation. Based on rigorous research and full of stories as well as tangible guidance, Whole Learners, Whole Systems shows how to shift teaching and learning so our nation′s adolescents can learn, lead, and contribute. It charts a vision for how to avoid the tired duality of academic learning versus wellbeing, and powerfully shows how children engaged and thrive when we marry both. -- Rebecca Winthrop * Washington DC * What happens when high schools shift their focus from compliance and standardized achievement to each students and their agency, authentic work, connectedness, and joy? Whole Learners, Whole Systems provides detailed, real-world examples that ignite imagination and inspire! It shows that when leaders support the right sparks to fly, students and schools thrive. -- Meredith I. Honig * Seattle, Washington * The authors have masterfully articulated through research and case studies a compelling call to reimagine how systems can move beyond disengagement to truly honor adolescents as whole learners, destined to thrive within learning and life. A must-read for leaders committed to helping youth succeed and in need of inspiration to make this happen. -- David Keohane * Edmonton, Alberta, Canada * This timely book highlights what’s possible in public education when districts shift from control to coherence, and from compliance to learner agency. The real stories of transformation offer critical hope and practical pathways for leaders ready to reimagine learning and wellbeing. A must-read for anyone who believes adolescents deserve schools that allow them to choose, connect, and contribute as whole learners. -- Tom D′Amico * Ottawa, Ontario, Canada * Whole Learners, Whole Systems offers six vivid case studies of districts pursuing whole system transformation. Written in compelling prose by three pre-eminent educational scholars, this book is an indispensable text for anyone seeking to move school systems into the 21st century. -- Jal Mehta * Cambridge, Massachusetts * Fine, Rincon-Gallardo, and Fullan offer a clear-eyed and sober assessment of the current state of school in the U.S. and beyond. Through their engaging description of emerging and promising work in diverse school systems in California, they offer something else: hope. -- Ben Daley * San Diego, California * This book highlights the importance of engaging adolescents through a relevant and innovative curriculum, presenting fresh approaches to long-standing challenges in secondary education. Especially vital as young people navigate an increasingly complex world. -- Laurence Findlay * Scotland *

Author Information

Sarah Fine is an Assistant Professor of Education Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Her teaching, research, and leadership are rooted in the goal of transforming PK-12 schools into humanizing and intellectually vital places to teach and learn. Dr. Fine began her career as an English teacher at a public high school in southeast Washington, D.C. After completing her doctoral work at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Dr. Fine served as the founding director of the San Diego Teacher Residency, a project-based-learning and justice-focused educator preparation program. Her first book, coauthored with Jal Mehta, is In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Transform the American High School. In 2021, the book won the Grawemeyer Award in Education. Santiago Rincón-Gallardo′s purpose is to help young people and adults rediscover and ignite the power to learn. He is an education consultant and a key member of Michael Fullan′s international team. Through his work, he supports leaders and educators to liberate learning in education systems in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Australia.  Santiago worked for over a decade promoting grassroots pedagogical innovations in Mexican public schools located in historically marginalized communities. This work ignited a movement of pedagogical renewal across thousands of schools in Mexico and beyond that continues to spread at this day. He is the author of Liberating Learning: Educational Change as a Social Movement. Santiago holds a doctorate in Educational Policy, Leadership, and Instructional Practice from Harvard University. He completed post-doctoral studies and was a visiting scholar and professor at the University of Toronto. He resides in Toronto with his wife and two children. Michael Fullan, Order of Canada, is the former Dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and Professor Emeritus of the University of Toronto. He is co-leader of the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning global initiative. Michael served as Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Special Policy Adviser in Ontario from 2003-2013. He received the Order of Canada (OC) in December 2012 and holds five honorary doctorates from universities around the world. His ‘interim autobiography,’ Surreal Change, covers his pre-Covid-19 era to 2018. Michael and his colleagues are now working diligently on field-based comprehensive system change in several countries. Under the umbrella of what they call the ‘humanity paradigm’ —equitable-equal deep change that integrates local (school and community), middle (district/regional), and centre (policy) entities. Michael’s latest books are: Spirit Work and the Science of Collaboration (with Mark Edwards, 2022), The Principal 2.0 (2023), The Drivers (with Joanne Quinn, 2023), and The New Meaning of Educational Change, 6th Edition (2025). For more information on books, articles, videos, podcasts please go to: www.michaelfullan.ca

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