Managing Reform: Lessons from Urban High Schools

Abstract

American high schools present an extremely difficult, nearly intractable setting for serious educational reform efforts. Yet such efforts can succeed. This article reports results from a survey of 179 urban comprehensive high schools that were successfully implementing change programs based on effective schools principles. All schools encountered problems of implementation. Larger‐scale, instructionally‐oriented, and longer‐lasting programs induced more problems. Problems were only moderated, not eliminated, by good‐quality planning. Given the problem‐richness of change efforts, the major determinant of successful implementation was good problem‐coping. It was made more likely by the presence of consensus (shared vision), support of key stakeholders in and out of the school, planning quality, external assistance, and administrative time spent. Case studies showed that the presence of an empowered change management group aided all these critical factors. Schools with the most impact (defined as student outcomes, teacher improvement, and organizational improvement) had focused on teacher or organizational changes to begin with, coped with the inevitable problems well, had internal and external constituencies supporting the change effort, and sustained the work for a longer period of time (typically 4‐5 years). The key variables appear to form a coherent causal network. Implications for change management are drawn.

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