| Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, Vol. 20, Iss. 3, Jul, 2016, pp. 401-422 @2016 Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences Addressing the Policy Churn in Public Education in the United States Abstract: Educational organizations, public schools in particular, are seen as
being notoriously inert and resistant to change. While school reform efforts are widespread,
educational outcomes such as high school graduation rates and achievement in
reading and math continue to show disparity between socio-economic groups.
Why is educational change so hard to accomplish? This article approaches
the question from two perspectives: the school reform literature that
identifies the factors inhibiting change in school systems, and the
literature on complex dynamical systems (CDS), which
facilitates understanding of the dynamics underlying inertia and transformation.
The need is articulated for empirical research that focuses on reform as an
implementation process, to provide further insight in what we know about its
impact on educational outcomes. Keywords: complexity, emergence, school reform, nonlinear change |