Far-reaching changes need to be made to the educational system in order to achieve smart schools. Smart schools are educational institutions that excel in meeting the diverse needs of both students' and teachers' learning and growth. There are many places outside of the educational system to blame for the shortcomings of schools; yet, there are possibilities for educational reform by examining the basis of teaching and learning.

All of the challenges for developing a smart school need to be examined and implemented for change to happen. Three areas are presented below.

1. Facing the necessities of scale. What may work for one school, may not at another. Thus, innovation needs to be directed at the school and fit the school's teachers, objectives, students, materials, and costs. Also, teachers cannot be asked to increase their workload, but need to be allowed time and support to make changes.

2. Making change work. To make change successful, the school needs to have complete support from the principal and some of the staff. In addition, the goals that are going to be met need to be made clear to all staff members with a clear plan that includes making the time to implement the changes in steps. Also, expertise on the school's vision needs to be developed by several people who can help guide the process.

3. Advancing thoughtful professionalism. Teachers need to have time and support to develop their minds through formal education and sharing ideas with colleagues. This kind of development will elicit understanding and knowledge from students and staff in the areas of teaching and learning.

This chapter is helpful in addressing the challenges for developing smart schools. The idea of smart schools could be beneficial to the whole educational system if it were possible to implement the changes on a wide scale. Students and staff would benefit from the increase in learning that would take place. Yet, for smart schools to exist, there would have to be support in time, money, and staff to implement this change. This would have to be supported from district to district, which is not usually done in the educational system with much success. If the benefits of smart schools are made apparent to the community, and the community decides to support such an effort, teachers could finally have the support they need to implement innovations for the improvement of education.