Fred N. Finley

The View from the Top of the Plateau

The School of Environmental Studies is at the top of the plateau. It is known to be innovative and successful. The intent of our inquiry was to learn what circumstances and factors led to the school climbing to the top and what the view from the top looked like to the teachers. We expected to see that, over the years, the school might have largely given up its initial vision. Another possibility was that the school had stagnated and was no longer engaging students as it once had. We also expected that the school might be isolated and not looking toward climbing to the next plateau. We made these less-than-optimistic assumptions because sustaining successful innovations is known to be incredibly difficult. What we found is a school that is still innovative and looking forward to finding more and better ways to serve its students. What we found was a complex of highly interdependent factors that mattered: context, time and resources for study and planning, a network of mid-level goals, research, people, freedom, flexibility, community connections, and respect for diversity. The network of goals was especially important in that the past, present, and future plans and decisions are grounded in that network.