Stability and Change

1 Introduction.- Why Study Change in Rural Schools?.- The Federal Role in Education.- Basic Premises of the Rural Experimental Schools Program.- The Research Context.- Limitations of the Literature on Educational Change.- The Rural ES Program in the Research Context.- Research Themes and Issues.- Outcomes of the Change Process.- System Linkage.- Overview of this Volume.- 2 The Research Context.- Elements of the Rational Approach to Change: The Stages of Change.- Readiness.- Initiation.- Implementation.- Continuation.- Elements of the Natural-Systems Approach to the Study of Change: The Systems Framework.- Alternative Theories of Organizational Innovation within the Systems Framework.- System Linkage and the Systems Framework.- Definitions of System Linkage.- The Implications of System Linkage for Our Research.- 3 Methodology And Research Procedures.- The Context of the Study.- The Program Design Context.- The Research Project Context.- General Approach to Data Collection.- Structured Data from System Members.- Structured Data from System Observers: On-Site Researcher Questionnaires.- Unstructured Data from System Members: Telephone Interviews.- Unstructured Data from System Observers: The Case Studies.- Strategies for Measurement and Analysis.- 4 On The Brink Of Change: The Federal Level And The Local Level.- Assumptions Underlying the Experimental Schools Program.- Assumptions Concerning the Process of Change.- Assumptions about the Program Design.- Assumptions about the Local School Districts.- The Ten Rural School Districts and Their Readiness for Change.- The Entry of Ten School Districts.- The Ten Selected School Districts.- The Assessment of Readiness.- A Summary of Readiness.- 5 The Beginning Of Change: The Planning Year.- Federal Expectations for the Planning Period.- The Products of the Planning Process: An Overview of the ES Program.- Typical Project Components.- Content of the Ten ES Projects.- The Assessment of Effective Initiation.- A Summary of Initiation Factors.- Whose Plan?.- 6 The Implementation Of Planned Change In Schools.- Measures of Implementation at the School Level.- Quantity.- Quality.- Total Scope Score.- A Descriptive Analysis of the Scope of Implementation in Schools.- Variations in Implementation within Districts.- Social System Characteristics: The Variables and Their Measures.- Structure Variables.- Culture Variables.- Input (Staff Characteristics) Variables.- The Effect of System Characteristics on Implementation.- The Effect of Structure.- The Effect of Culture.- The Effect of Input.- Predicting Implementation: A Summary of Most Important Variables.- Summarizing the Results of the Initial Regressions.- 7 Further Exploration Of Implementation In Schools.- Comparing the Contributions of Structure, Culture, and Input Variables to School Change.- Explaining Joint Contributions of Structure, Culture, and Input.- Interaction Effects between Variable Pairs.- Discussion of Interaction Terms.- How Does the Structuring of Authority Affect Implementation?.- Analysis and Results.- How Does System Linkage Affect School Implementation?.- Structural and Cultural Linkage as Predictors of Implementation.- Physical Linkage: The Rural Factor.- Conclusions.- Alternative Theories of Change.- Participation, Authority, and Implementation of Organizational Change.- Linkage and Implementation.- 8 Comprehensive Change At The District Level.- Measuring Implementation at the District Level.- How Comprehensive Was Implementation?.- Factors Related to Implementation.- Programmatic Features Associated with Implementation.- Contextual Factors Associated with Implementation.- Conclusions.- 9 The Continuation Of Change.- Our Approach to Investigating Continuation.- Measuring Continuation: The Districts' Scores.- Some Observations on Patterns of Continuation.- Factors Affecting the Outcomes of Change.- Process of Change.- Environmental and Organizational Factors.- Perspectives on Factors Explaining Continuation: A Cautionary Ta