University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1975 An organizational analysis of three advocacy groups : generalizing methodological techniques and an application to change in urban educational institutions. William Edward Miller University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Miller, William Edward, "An organizational analysis of three advocacy groups : generalizing methodological techniques and an application to change in urban educational institutions." (1975). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 3074. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/3074 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AN ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THREE ADVOCACY GROUPS: GENERALIZING METHODOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES AND AN APPLICATION TO CHANGE IN URBAN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS A Dissertation Presented By WILLIAM EDWARD MILLER Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION December 1975 Urban Education (c) William Edward Miller 1975 All Rights Reserved AN ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THREE ADVOCACY GROUPS; GENERALIZING METHODOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES AND AI^ APPLICATION TO CHANGE IN URBAN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS A Dissertation By WILLIAM EDWARD MILLER Approved as to style and content by; ( / / Barbara J. Love, Chairperson of Cominittee December, 1975 DEDICATION To Eileen, my wife, who owns full share in the credit for this work because she made full Investment in its sacrifices. Her patience, love, support, and the stalling of many of her own career plans, are the sole reason this program was possible. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For all those whose skill, cooperation, and support went into this work, acknowledgement of their efforts is small return but a gratifying personal labor. I am in the debt of: Dr. Barbara J. Love, dissertation committee chairperson, my mentor for two years, whose friendship and skill were both catalyst and supportive; Dr. Harvey Scribner, whose experience and insights were availed with encouragement and friendship; Dr. Robert Cooper, for his interest and enthusiasm throughout my program; Dr. Byrd Jones, whose counsel and insights have left their mark on the work's message; Betty Meunier, whose friendship and expertise as typist and proofreader helped to transform my ideas into print; Leonard Stevens, whose friendship and help represent the major force behind the shaping of the conceptual base in this study; James Alglna, for his valued assistance in the preparation of the research design; My colleagues at the Center for Urban Education for their assistance- and support; V William and Helen Miller, my parents, and my brothers and sisters Joan, Matt, Donald, Lee, Maryellen, Stephen, Patricia, and Barbara for their encouragement, prayers, and moral support; Charles and Alice Diller, who made their home my home and offered solace and peace when I needed it most; Barbara Lazzara, my mother-in-law, and Neil Lazzara, my brother- in-law, for their love and help offered in more ways than could be counted or thanked; they have been my family for four years; The late Raymond P. Lazzara, my father-in-law, who gave me more than any other individual. His example taught me that while life is pain, life’s beauty is in accepting its pain. His memory continues to inspire. vi An Organizational Analysis of Three Advocacy Groups: Generalizing Methodological Techniques And an Application to Change In Urban Educational Institutions William E. Miller, B.A., Providence College M.Ed. , University of Massachusetts Directed by: Dr. Barbara J. Love This endeavor addresses a simple yet disturbing problem: The American public has lost control over many of its governance systems. While the American Democracy designed for an agrarian society 200 years ago was consistent with current economic and demographic peculiarities, that same governance system does not meet the needs of a substantially different American society. This does not mean to imply that American democracy was designed to discriminate. It does mean that the American democratic system has not sufficiently evolved to effectively serve a technocratic urban society. The result has been a widening gap between the public mass and the governing few, between the theoretical decision- makers and the real decision-making process. Within this the widest gap sees the most powerless constituency to be the poor and minority population of our nation’s cities. offers corro- As a government endeavor, control of public education from their borating testimony to the state of public disenfranchisement bureaucracies from own social systems. The insulation of urban educational vii their public stands in stark contrast to the democratic ideal of partici- pation in decision-making. Public schools have long been viewed by re- formers as potential instruments of social change. Especially in urban areas, this hope has been consistently false. Public schools have become, in fact, preservers of the status quo. The citizens of our country's large cities have been faced with myriad problems that their educational systems have failed to help them meet. Poverty, racism, unemployment, and inadequate housing are only some of the barriers faced by millions of urban Americans. Not only has inadequate education help cause the economic powerlessness of poor and minority people, it contributes to their further political impotence. The reason for an urban focus in addressing the public role in education is simple yet compelling. As will be documented in the study, the most dramatic example of citizen alienation in the nation today can be seen in our cities, where three out of every four Americans live. Further, of all the public institutions that have entrenched themselves systems into a state of bureaucratic unresponsiveness, urban educational educational are clearly among the most insulated. In the past ten years, failure of urban edu- researchers have been prolific in substantiating the people. Despite the contro cation to meet the needs of poor and minority studies continue to show the versy that much of the data have generated, programs in public schools to func- inability of the traditional learning Although the cities' citizens have tion successfully in urban areas. their dissatisfaction repeatedly long been aware of this reality, and have not responded with any real supported by research, urban educators viii change. The deficiencies of public education have been most glaring in the failure to provide successful socio-economic mobility for the poor and minority students who comprise a substantial portion of its membership. The state is initially the responsible one for the delivery of educational services to the citizenry. What it has offered and provided to the urban public is most unsatisfactory. The focus of the study is on change— its needs and one strategy. Fundamental change is necessary for urban education to be viable. An important question is how to achieve changes which reflect the needs and wishes of urban Americans. The research to follow is geared to the develop- ment of a mechanism designed to effect such change. Group advocacy as a change mechanism offers a provocative concept to the urban reformer. This study will design such a strategy useful to an urban public in need of initiating educational change. The independent advocacy group is a mechanism that focuses on the most basic of problems — the exclusion of people from decision-making pro- cesses. The advocacy group proposal adds a new element to the organiza- tional strategies designed and pursued in the urban communities in the 1960’s. This new tactic for political mobilization is presented as a unique formula for initiating educational change grounded in real needs of an identified urban constituency. analyze The study has three basic objectives. The first is to organizational components, their three functioning advocacy groups, their catalysts. Secondly, operating methodologies, and their efficacy as change ix the study will generalize a technology of group advocacy as an institutional change strategy as extracted from the analyzed advocacy organizations. Finally, the study will develop an application of this advocacy group or- ganizational technique to change for urban education. The hard work of urban reformers over the last fifteen years has laid the groundwork which makes this research possible. By coordinating and analyzing the data generated by community organizers, urban education reformers-, and other urban researchers, the present undertaking hopes to produce a coherent and usable mechanism for the improvement of urban education systems. X TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V ABSTRACT •••••••• vii LIST OF TABLES ^ xiii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiv Chapter I. AN OVERVIEW OF ADVOCACY GROUP PURPOSE AND GROWTH 1 The Need for Urban Public Participation Developing Participation in Urban Areas Statement of the Problem Purpose of the Study Methodology of Research Limitations of the Study Outline of Chapters II. PUBLIC EXCLUSION FROM DECISION-MAKING IN URBAN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS . 18 The Growth of Institutional Isolation