INSTITUTIONALIZATION AND THE REFORM PROCESS - A SYSTEM DYNAMICS PERSPECTIVE

This article examines educational reform as a function of a systemic p rocess. School districts are viewed as dynamic systems that use reform s to reinforce their equilibrium as institutionalized organizations. I t is argued that institutionalization effectively blocks formal feedba ck to decision makers and that educational reforms exhibit an alternat ing pattern resulting from the operation of a default feedback process based on reaction to undesirable side effects generated by those refo rms. Reform is seen not as a vehicle of improvement but as a means of perpetuating the condition of institutionalization. System dynamics is suggested as a perspective and methodology for effecting systemic cha nge.