The ways in which a paradigm of empowerment can be adopted in schools are explored in this book. The book is divided into two sections--the importance of being a paradigm pioneer and the Future Empowerment Paradigm--and focuses on four points: (1) The systemic inertia that keeps schools tied to a familiar, comfortable, unproductive, and self-reinforcing legacy of old practices and structures; (2) the history and defining elements of the Future Empowerment Paradigm of educational reform that was driven underground in the early 1990s; (3) the major losses educators have suffered as individuals, as a profession, and as an institution because of the lost paradigm; and (4) what local educational leaders can do to establish the learning success and life performance elements of the Future Empowerment Paradigm. The chapters focus on the power of paradigms, the lost ideal of education, how to establish an empowering learning community, how to design student empowerment outcomes, and how to chart a course toward future empowerment. (Contains 34 references.) (RJM)