Tj in the Massachusetts Public Schools
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Organizational Sense Making: Responses to the MCAS Reform : t j in the Massachusetts Public Schools by Janice J. Goldman B.A., Urban Studies and Planning B.A., Education University of Massachusetts, Amherst SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN URBAN AND REGIONAL STUDIES AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY February, 2005 C2005 Janice J. Goldman. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis documetinho3.r in part. I Martin Rein of Urban Studies and Planning Thesis Supervisor lf'rank Levy Daniel Rose Professor of Urban Economics Chairman, Committee for Ph.D. Students Organizational Sense Making: Responses to the MCAS Reform in the Massachusetts Public Schools Janice J. Goldman Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning on January 10, 2005 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies and Planning ABSTRACT Educational reform has become a central concern of public policy debates at both the state and federal level. The policy trend both nationally and locally is towards uniform standards in education, with testing as the single metric of assessment of public school performance. But can a one size fits all reform really fit all? This dissertation addresses this question through a study of the organizational responses of two public high schools to the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) a system of standards and accountability passed by the Massachusetts state legislature as part of the Education Reform Act, 1993. Conceptually the dissertation draws from foundational studies of public schooling which establish education as a social institution, illustrated in historical and contemporary case studies in the education literature. It builds links from this literature to the field of institutionalism and organizational studies. To understand the divergent responses of the schools to the MCAS reform, two theoretical concepts, that of organizationalidentity and sense making are fused to create the concept of organizationalsense making. Organizationalsense making is comprised of three inter-related activities in which the schools engage: discernment, enactment and strategizing. My theoretical finding is that each school's response reflects a unique process of sense making which is driven by its organizational identity. This comparative case study finds that Lowell High School, a low income, ethnically diverse urban high school adopts a strategy of 'Compliant Engagement' and draws upon its bureaucratic strengths to meet the reform's mandate. The MCAS reform and test become mistaken for classroom pedagogy, which derails the school's efforts to shift away from a transmission model of education. Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, a wealthy, suburban school renowned for its capacity to deliver good education, adopts a strategy of 'Antagonistic Compliance', engaging in actions of resistance. The school perceives the MCAS reform to be a threat to its identity: its social values, academic programs as well as the professional autonomy of its teachers. The findings of this dissertation challenge the efficacy of uniform, centralized policies to achieve public school reform. Thesis Supervisor: Martin Rein Title: Professor of Urban Studies and Planning 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE Introduction ......................................................................................... CHAPTER TWO A Conceptual Framework for Understanding the Organizational Response of Schools to the MCAS Reform .................................................. 14 Literature on School Reform: Three Strands of Inquiry ................................. 14 Useful Concepts in Organizational Studies ................................................ 22 Case Based Research and Theory of the Middle Range ......... ..................... 24 Comparative Case Study .............................................................. 29 A Conceptual Framework of Organizational Identity and Sense Making ..............34 Research Design and the Process of Inquiry ................................................ 41 Structure and Design of Qualitative Interviews ......................................43 Primary and Secondary Sources ........................................ 45 What I Expected to Find ............................................................ 46 What I Found ............................................................ 48 CHAPTER Three: Political Background to the MCAS Reform .......................... 52 Introduction ............................................................ 54. The Evolution of Standards Based Reform ................................................. 54 The Politics Leading to the Passage of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System: MCAS ............................................................ 61 The MCAS Reform: Reformers' Ideals and the Reform's Political Realities ......... 67 A New Federalism: The No Child Left Behind Act ............................ .......75 CHAPTER Four: The Case Studies: Schools as Historical and Cultural Institutions..78 Three Dimensions of Historical Patterning: Class Position, Insularity/Openness ansd Access to Resources ............................................................ 78 An Historical Account of the City of Lowell, its Economy and Institutions ......... 81 The Founding and Evolution of Lowell High School .................................... 86 An Historical Account of the Towns of Lincoln and Sudbury and their Ties to the Emergent High Tech Economy the High Tech Economy .......................... 88 The Founding and Evolution of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School ............ 90 3 CHAPTER Five: A Story of Antagonistic Compliance: The History and Social Sciences Department at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Makes Sense of the MCAS Reform ....................................................................... 95 Introduction ......... ........... ......... ............................ 95 Governance Structure at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School .................. 96 Organizational Structure at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School .............. 100 The Teachers' Association and Union Issues ........................................ 101 Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Educational Philosophy and Mission... 102 The School's Response to the MCAS Reform ......................................... 109 The Department of History and Social Sciences as Protagonist ..................... I111 Department Profile .... ...... ............................................... 111 Teaching History ..................................... ..................... 114 The Structure and Content of the MCAS H/SS Framework ....................... 117 The Critique . .... ... ................ .................................. 119 Impact of the MCAS H/SS Curriculum Framework ................................ 122 Organizing the School, Faculty and Administration and the Public against the History/SS Frameworks .......................................................... 127 Letter to the Editor .................................................... ...... 127 Mobilizing Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Teachers .................... 128 The Boycott ................... .................... 1300.......... Journal Entry to Students ........................ 132 Mixed Responses ................. ..... .......... 133 The Waiver Campaign ...................................... 136 Reaching the Point of Compliance: Accountability to Parents .................. 138 Other Voices ................. 139........................................... Conclusion ................................................... 1............................140. CHAPTER Six: A Story of Compliant Engagement: The Call for Systemic Change at Lowell High School .......................................... 150 Introduction ................. .......... 150.................................. Governance Structure at Lowell High School .......................................... 150 Organizational Structure at Lowell High School . ...................................... 154 Educational Programs at Lowell High School ......... ............................... 156 The United Teachers of Lowell (UTL) . ............................................... 157 Lowell High School's Educational Philosophy and Mission ............................ 159 The School's Response to the MCAS Reform ............................................. 163 Sense Making at Lowell High School .................................. 165. The Call for Systemic Change ......................................................... 169 Conclusion ........... ... ..... 190 4 CHAPTER Seven: Measuring Up: Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School and Lowell High School and the MCAS Test Scores ............................................ 195 Introduction .................................................................................... 195 Question One: Did Students Skills Improve as Reflected in the MCAS Scores? ...... 197 Comparison of MCAS Test Scores Between Lowell High School and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School ......... ......... .............................. 202 Question Two: What are the Reservations with Respect to the Test Scores? ...........203 Standardized Tests as Technology and as Cultural Myth .............................