Abstract
Educators, researchers, politicians, and the media have committed considerable time, attention, and effort to chronically low-performing schools. Although many have chided the schools for their unacceptable performance or designed strategies to improve them, few have sought to understand how these schools became chronically low-performing in the first place. Better knowledge of how schools decline into chronic low-performance will allow interested stakeholders to potentially prevent and turnaround chronically low-performing schools. However, before understanding the factors and processes associated with or contributing to school decline, researchers must first properly define and identify the process. This paper offers four operational definitions of school decline, applies those definitions to a population of schools, and evaluates the utility of each definition.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andrews, R., Boyne, G. A., & Enticott, G. (2006). Performance failure in the public sector: Misfortune or mismanagement. Public Management Review, 8(2), 273–296.
Brockner, J., Davy, J., & Carter, C. (1985). Layoffs, self-esteem, and survivor guilt: Motivational, affective, and attitudinal consequences. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 36(2), 229–244.
Brookover, W. B., & Lezotte, L. W. (1979). Changes in school characteristics coincident with changes in student achievement. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, Institute for Research on Teaching.
Cameron, K. S., Kim, M. U., & Whetten, D. A. (1987a). Organizational effects of decline and turbulence. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32(2), 222–240.
Cameron, K. S., Whetten, D. A., & Kim, M. U. (1987b). Organizational dysfunctions of decline. The Academy of Management Journal, 30(1), 126–138.
Cameron, K. S., Sutton, R. I., & Whetten, D. A. (Eds.). (1988). Readings in organizational decline. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Company.
Comer, J. P. (2004). Leave no child behind: Preparing today’s youth for tomorrow’s world. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Commission on No Child Left Behind. (2007). Beyond NCLB. Washington, DC: Aspen Institute.
D’Aveni, R. A. (1989). The aftermath of organizational decline: A longitudinal study of the strategic and managerial characteristics of declining firms. The Academy of Management Journal, 32(3), 577–605.
Dillon, S. (2008, October 13). Under ‘No Child’ law, even solid schools falter. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
Duke, D. L. (1995). The school that refused to die. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Duke, D. L. (2007). Keys to sustaining successful school turnaround. Unpublished manuscript, Darden-Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education, Charlottesville, VA.
Duke, D. L. (2008). Understanding school decline. International Studies in Educational Administration, 36(2), 46–65.
Duke, D. L., & Cohen, J. S. (1983). Do public schools have a future? A case study of retrenchment and its implications. The Urban Review, 15(2), 89–105.
Duke, D. L., & Hochbein, C. D. (2008). Rising to the challenges of studying school decline. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 7(4), 358–379.
Frangos, S. J., & Bennett, S. J. (1993). Team zebra: How 1500 partners revitalized Eastman Kodak’s black and white film-making flow. Essex Junction, VT: Oliver Wight Publications, Inc.
Gebeloff, R. (2008, September 28). An F school? Depends on how it’s judged. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
Grant, G. (1988). The world we created at Hamilton High. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Guy, M. E. (1989). From organizational decline to organizational renewal: The phoenix syndrome. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Inc.
Hall, R. I. (1976). A system pathology of an organization: The rise and fall of the old Saturday Evening Post. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21(2), 185–211.
Hambrick, D. C., & D’Aveni, R. A. (1988). Large corporate failures as downward spirals. Administrative Science Quarterly, 33(1), 1–23.
Hannan, M. T., & Freeman, J. (1977). The population ecology of organizations. The American Journal of Sociology, 82(5), 929–964.
Herman, R., Dawson, P., Dee, T., Greene, J., Maynard, R., & Redding, S. (2008). Turning around chronically low-performing schools. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
Kanter, R. M. (2003). Leadership and the psychology of turnarounds. Harvard Business Review, 81(6), 58–67.
Kanter, R. M. (2004). Confidence. New York: Crown Business.
Lewis, M. (2003). Moneyball: The art of winning an unfair game. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Lorange, P., & Nelson, R. T. (1987). How to recognize—and avoid—organizational decline. Sloan Management Review, 28(3), 41–48.
Lubienski, C., Crane, C., & Lubienski, S. T. (2008). What do we know about school effectiveness? Academic gains in public and private schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 89(9), 689–695.
McKelvey, B. (1988). Organizational decline from the population perspective. In K. S. Cameron, R. I. Sutton, & D. A. Whetten (Eds.), Readings in organizational decline (pp. 399–410). Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Company.
Meyer, A. D. (1982). Adapting to environmental jolts. Administrative Science Quarterly, 27(4), 515–537.
Meyer, A. D. (1988). Organizational decline from the organizational perspective. In K. S. Cameron, R. I. Sutton, & D. A. Whetten (Eds.), Readings in organizational decline (pp. 411–416). Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Company.
Meyer, M. W., & Zucker, L. G. (1989). Permanently failing organizations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Murphy, J., & Meyers, C. V. (2008). Turning around failing schools: Leadership lessons from the organizational sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Ogbu, J. U. (2003). Black American students in an affluent suburb: A study of academic disengagement. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Inc.
Porter, M. E. (1979). How competitive forces shape strategy. Harvard Business Review, 57(2), 137–145.
Porter, M. E. (1996). What is strategy? Harvard Business Review, 74(6), 61–80.
Purkey, S. C., & Smith, M. S. (1983). Effective schools: A review. The Elementary School Journal, 83(4), 426–452.
Rosenblatt, Z., & Sheaffer, Z. (2001). Brain drain in declining organizations: Toward a research agenda. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22, 409–424.
Rowan, B., Bossert, S. T., & Dwyer, D. C. (1983). Research on effective schools: A cautionary note. Educational Researcher, 12(4), 24–31.
Ryan, W. P. (1999). The new landscape for nonprofits. Harvard Business Review, 77(1), 127–136.
Staw, B. M., Sandelands, L. E., & Dutton, J. E. (1981). Threat-rigidity effects in organizational behavior: A multilevel analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 26(4), 501–524.
Stone, D. A. (2002). Policy paradox: The art of political decision making (Rev. ed.). New York: Norton.
Tyack, D., & Hansot, E. (1990). Learning together: A history of coeducation in American public schools. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Weitzel, W., & Jonsson, E. (1989). Decline in organizations: A literature integration and extension. Administrative Science Quarterly, 34(1), 91–109.
Whetten, D. A. (1987). Organizational growth and decline processes. Annual Review of Sociology, 13, 335–358.
Wimpelberg, R. K., Teddlie, C., & Stringfield, S. (1989). Sensitivity to context: The past and future of effective schools research. Educational Administration Quarterly, 25(1), 82–107.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hochbein, C. Overlooking the descent: Operational definition, identification, and description of school decline. J Educ Change 12, 281–300 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-010-9135-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-010-9135-9