Cultural Matters: Lessons Learned from Field Studies of Several Leading School Reform Strategies (Understanding Education and Policy)

In this book the authors explore the position that systematic reform requires addressing the culture of individual school culture in different ways. The chapters advocate that the key to success is the match between the strategy in use and the setting. In the chapters, reforms and their interactions with particular school cultures are explores through fieldwork. They clearly illustrate that when accountability policy has run its course, there is a need to re-engage systematic reform. Such dramatic change requires schools to be both restructured and recultures. The reader can learn from the cases what it takes to mount and sustain a systematic reform initiative at the school level. The book is intended for teachers, principals, parents, and others as a window into how to think about reform in schools, even as they must comply with the demands of accountability policy.