This article examines the educational systems and the complex of its stable elements, which enter into interaction and interdependence, defining the field of research and design of systems serving as an indicative basis for the choice of strategy and organization of project thinking and project activity. It is defined that under the system is usually understood the integrity, consisting of components, the interaction of which generates new properties (systemic, integrative), requiring study of the conditions and mechanisms of their occurrence and influence on the "inputs" and "exits" of the system. Systemic properties of the system are singled out: dynamics of formation, survival, functioning, development; adaptability; subjectivity; activity; individuality.