Change and Effectiveness in Schools

The quest for more effective schools has perhaps never been more challenging than it is today. Here, the authors consider and investigate that challenge from the cultural perspective.Rossman, Corbett, and Firestone examined three high schools in the midst of change. Teachers and administrators consented to grant the authors a year in each of their respective settings in order to understand better their unique system of norms, beliefs, and values as well as to track their reactions to events. The ensuing observations and interviews reveal a rich and detailed picture of the efforts to accommodate new policies and practices as well as some of the sources of resistance to change in the schools. The record of the authors' journeys with these schools provides educators, policy makers, and researchers—all those interested in school change and renewal as well as staff development in the schools—with a better understanding of the complex texture and meaning of educational refor