This paper describes findings from a study of school capacity, defined as the ability of schools to improve their practices and to sustain those improvements over time. Two schools in the San Francisco Bay Area (California) that have sustained success with distinct, though opposite, pedagogical approaches were examined to determine what makes a…

Formulates theoretical model of four binding forces in school organizations--bureaucratic linkage, cultural linkage, tight coupling, and loose coupling--and examines their effects on teachers' feelings about school life. Finds, for example, that loose coupling had a positive effect on teachers' sense of community, job satisfaction, and commitment.…

The theory-driven Organizational Health Inventory was compared to the empirically derived Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire in predicting student achievement and teachers' commitment to the school. After controlling for the socioeconomic status of the sampled 58 schools, only academic emphasis contributed significantly to student…

Reviews research on the effectiveness of supportive leadership, teacher participation in decision making, and staff collaboration. Investigates conditions that promote or impede the implementation of these practices by using a multilevel statistical model. Finds significant variance between public and Catholic schools, as well as within-school…

Attempts to reconcile two theoretically opposing perspectives of bureaucracy (as either alienating or facilitative) by creating and testing a new construct called "enabling bureaucracy." Empirical results are encouraging. Schools can be designed with formalized procedures and hierarchical structures that help rather than hinder teaching and…

Educational opportunity in the United States and Mexico is an important factor in the process of expanding social and economic opportunities, as well as political and civil rights in both countries. Yet, by national and international indicators, many Mexican American and Mexican children are underserved by public schools in both countries; and…

This book examines long-term changes in the form and function of schooling. The work falls into three sections: an introductory chapter; five historical essays; and a concluding chapter. Chapter 1 unfolds the theoretical and practical considerations that governed the selection and organization of the historical essays. The historical essays in…

This paper, written from an organizational perspective, begins with an examination of the deficiencies of knowledge utilization and educational change literature. It suggests the explication of descriptive and heuristic conceptual dimensions as one approach for facilitating a descriptive perspective of knowldge utilization. The efficacy of three…

A survey of 150 elementary schools was conducted to examine the organizational characteristics, not the characteristics of individual teachers, that facilitate or impede mainstreaming implementation. Individual variables were grouped into three categories--communication/information variables, administrator variables, and demographic variables. (SB)

Presents the results of a longitudinal study that identified changes in the organization of British secondary schools from 1969-1979. There were changes in grouping practices, grading frequency, the prefectorial system, sex differentiation, and activities. The results are explained in terms of an action approach derived from Weber. (AM)

Develops a theoretical model of the salient organizational variables related to mathematics achievement in high school. The model is composed of three variables: socioeconomic status, academic press, and collective efficacy. Finds, for example, that collective efficacy is the significant variable in the model in influencing mathematics…

Based on a long-term public school system study, the paper examines the sociopsychological process through which conflicts move around in organizations and are transported from one place to another. The conceptualization draws on "triangulation" from social psychology and family therapy and "splitting," developed in…

A recent organizational study examined the different cultural worlds of senior members of the academic staff at the University of Melbourne. Outlines a new culture perspective that is applied to academic organization and emphasizes the utility and value of a cultural view. (53 references) (SI)

Identifies a set of considerations for school systems and policy makers contemplating the development or improvement of alternative schools, including whether systems need more than one alternative school, how their effect should be judged, organization for instruction and for staffing, and how the learning environment should be arranged. (SR)

Conceptualizes faculty loyalty as a multidimensional construct with at least four levels of loyalty, to the district, principal, colleagues, and the association. Discusses a New Jersey study probing organizational factors that facilitate development of faculty loyalty in urban elementary schools. School properties predicting one aspect of loyalty…