Central office practices and organizational learning : a case study
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Urban school districts are often tasked with turning around poor school performance. Research, however, tends to focus on the school's role in reform and sustaining change, rather than the role of the school district, particularly the central office. This study of a mid-sized Midwestern urban K-12 school district attempts to address the gap in the literature regarding the role of the central office in district reform through a lens of organizational learning. Organizational learning theory addresses the social and technical components of learning that are required for an organization to effectively adapt and sustain change. Using interviews and focus groups with central office administrators and principals as well as observations of three system-wide meetings, this study attempted to understand the systems and central office practices that contributed to organizational learning and therefore the district's capacity to sustain change and reform. Findings indicated that organizational learning was hampered by a lack of accountability, disconnect between schools and central office, lack of learning practices and organizational culture. These findings indicate the need for and support previous research on the importance of social networks as well as internal systems and procedures to support organizational learning, while also identifying promising practices.
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Ed. D.