School-Based Management

The quest for equality of educational opportunity, which dominated education policy agendas in the U.S. from 1955 to 1980, has now receded in the face of rising national concern for greater school productivity. Early returns from a few states suggest that the recent reform efforts are having a positive effect. Although no dramatic increases in student achievement have been recorded and dropout rates remain unacceptably high, more students are now enrolled in academic courses, pub­lishers are feeling pressure to develop more rigorous textbooks, and many institutions of higher education have raised their admissions standards.

Despite such hopeful signs, it seems unlikely that the reform movement can fulfill the high hopes of its backers unless it first attends to a major source of tension: fundamental components of the reform strategy seem to be painfully at odds with the dynamics of organization­al revitalization. Unless policies are identified that unleash productive local initiatives, the reform movement seems likely to lose its momentum. And the loss of momentum will end virtually all short-term prospects for sustaining citizens' confidence in the schools and for generating additional public re­sources for them.

This article was originally published in The Phi Delta Kappan by Phi Delta Kappa International and Journal Storage (JSTOR).