Educational Innovation; The Impact of Organizational and Community Variables on Performance Contract

In astrology this is the age of Aquarius. In education this is the age of accountability and innovation. At the most general level, the principal concern of this paper is to identify those organizational, teacher and community characteristics which are associated with varying levels of student achievement growth—one measure of success for a performance contract.

Social systems analysis suggests that the most general hypothesis of this study is: there will be a direct relationship between the ability of the innovation to satisfy the input supplying and output accepting dependencies and the success of the innovation. Based on prior research, four specific dependencies were examined in this study: Expectations concerning decisional participation levels in the school held by parents, [Belasco, James, Joseph Alutto, Alan Glassman. Differing perceptions of authority structures held by teachers and community members. Education and Urban Society (forthcoming).] teachers, [Morphet, Edgar, Roe Johns, Theodore Reller. 1967. Educational Organization and Administration, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs.] personal predispositions of teachers to accept change, [Rokeach, Milton. 1960. The Open and Closed Mind. Basic Books, New York.] and the maintenance of manageable tension levels and high commitment levels [Miles, Matthew. 1965. Planned changes and organization health. Change Processes in the Public School. Center for the Advanced Study of Educational Administration, Oregon University.].