Organizational Change in Schools: Bedford-Stuyvesant

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Abstract
This article reports on the failure of a university-based educational change project which sought to change one junior high school in BedfordStuyvesant "into a school of unusual merit in the education of disadvantaged children." In their efforts at improving teaching-learning from 1966-68, the New York University Clinic for Learning planners relied on two generally accepted theories of planned organizational change: subordinate participation in relevant decision-making processes and the importance of leadership behavior as exhibited by the change agent; and two widely regarded objectives for educational reform: namely, increasing total community involvement and effecting broad social change. The author uses data from personal interviews and project literature to evaluate the ways in which the Clinic applied (and failed to apply) these theories, and uses the data further to clarify the theoretical bases of the propositions themselves in relation to OD in schools. The study concludes that organizational change theories-if used wisely-would be suitable for reaching the goals of improved teaching-learning sought for the schools, but would not be useful in fundamentally increasing community participation or using schools to effect social change-goals that are obstructed by a larger political reality.

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