Theoretical and Policy Implications of Case Study Findings about Federal Efforts to Improve Public Schools

Abstract

The billions of dollars appropriated by Congress to promote equality of educational opportunity and to facilitate educational reforms in recent years have stimu lated thousands of school districts to introduce major innova tions into their curricula, modes of operation and organiza tional arrangements. The benefits derived from these change efforts, however, have generally been disappointing. The poor record of educational innovations has stimulated in quiries designed to determine conditions that serve to facili tate and block planned organizational change in schools. Major impediments to eductional change, largely overlooked in conceptualizations of the process of organizational change were identified in six longitudinal case studies of efforts to institute major innovations in school systems. Their theo retical and policy implications are examined. The findings of the studies press for a major reformulation of the theoretical scheme most frequently used to account for the fate of or ganizational innovations—overcoming resistance to change (ORC). The studies indicate that ORC is truncated and simplistic because it ignores important stages in organiza tional change, and overlooks conditions internal and external to the organization that can have an important impact on the fate of innovations. Seven policy implications of the case studies are specified, including the need for Congress to abandon the categorical aid approach to educational problems in favor of more functional tailor-made solutions, and to insti tute procedures to assure that those who administer educa tional policies will facilitate, not inhibit, the accomplishment of its objectives.