At least one state in the U.S. is making an effort to move in a more effective direction. After a decade of NCLB and a few years of RTTT's increased accountability and mandates, California is beginning to look in a brighter direction. That direction is toward Dr. Michael Fullan. 

In a recent article, John Fensterwald wrote, "The man credited with transforming the Canadian province of Ontario into one of the world's most effective school systems is ready to help California do the same. Fullan, though, would lead the state in a sharply different direction from the forced march that federal officials in Washington, D.C., have led over the past decade."

That forced march has been toward a more punitive system; one that stifles creativity and creates fear in order to drive educators to change. Fullan has long held the belief that educational reform is led by "Drivers." "'Whole system reform' is the name of the game and 'drivers' are those policy and strategy levers that have the least and best chance of driving successful reform." Fullan has long believed that the public education system in the U.S. is being steered in the wrong direction, through the use of the wrong drivers.

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