Table Of ContentEDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
Allen J. Edwards, Series Editor
Department of Psychology
Southwest Missouri State University
Springfield, Missouri
A complete list of titles in this series is available from the publisher.
RESEARCH ON
EXEMPLARY SCHOOLS
Edited by
GILBERT R. AUSTIN
HERBERT GARBER
Center for Educational Research and Development
University of Maryland Baltimore County
Catonsville, Maryland
With a Foreword by Wilbur Brookover
Michigan State University
1985
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
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United Kingdom Edition published by
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Main entry under title:
Research on exemplary schools.
Includes indexes.
1. Education—United States —Evaluation—Addresses,
essays, lectures. 2. Public schools—United States-
Evaluation—Addresses, essays, lectures. 3. Private
schools—United States —Evaluation—Addresses, essays,
lectures. 4. Education and state—United States —
Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Austin, Gilbert R.
II. Garber, Herbert. III. University of Maryland,
Baltimore County. Center for Educational Research
and Development.
LA217.R47 1985 370'.973 85-3966
ISBN 0-12-068590-6 (alk. paper)
ISBN 0-12-068591-4 (paperback)
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
85 86 87 88 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
CONTRIBUTORS
Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which the authors' contributions begin.
Susan Abramowitz (31), Office of Planning, The New York Hospital, New
York, New York 10021
Carolyn S. Anderson (97), Crete-Monee School District, Crete, Illinois
60417
Gilbert R. Austin (65), Center for Educational Research and Develop
ment, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Catonsville, Maryland
21228
David C. Berliner (127), Department of Educational Psychology, College
of Education, University of Arizona, Tuscon, Arizona 85721
Dale C. Carlson (83), California Assessment Program, California Depart
ment of Education, Sacramento, California 95814
John D. Donovan (47), Department of Sociology, Boston College, Chest
nut Hill, Massachusetts 02167
Mark E. Fetler (83), Division of Planning, Evaluation, and Research, Cali
fornia Department of Education, Sacramento, California 95814
Herbert Garber (201), Center for Educational Research and Development,
University of Maryland Baltimore County, Catonsville, Maryland 21228
Jane Hannaway (31), Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International
Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544
Stephen P. Holowenzak (65), University of Maryland, European Division,
APO, New York 09102
Kenneth A. Leithwood (155), Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V6, Canada
George F. Madaus (47), School of Education, Boston College, Chestnut
Hill, Massachusetts 02167
Stephen K. Miller (3), Foundations of Education, University of Louisville,
Louisville, Kentucky 40292
ix
X Contributors
Deborah J. Montgomery (155), Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V6, Canada
Stewart C. Purkey1 (181), Wisconsin Center for Education Research, Uni
versity of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Marshall S. Smith (181), Wisconsin Center for Education Research, Uni
versity of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
1 Present address: Lawrence University, Mursell Center, Appleton, Wisconsin 54912
FOREWORD
I recommend this collection of articles on exemplary schools to all
researchers and practitioners who would improve the outcomes of all
students in our schools. Readers will find no magic formula or specific
recipes for making their schools more effective, but the history of the
effective schools movement and much of the relevant research is re
viewed in this volume. Knowledge of the research and numerous sug
gestions should help facilitate changes in educational practice.
The chapters in this volume reflect a major shift in the areas of
educational research emphasis. Two decades ago, success or failure in
school learning was seldom attributed to the effectiveness or ineffective
ness of the school. There was great emphasis on identifying and analyz
ing a student's abilities and characteristics on the assumption that stu
dent learning was primarily determined by differences in individual
potential and needs. The chapters in this volume all, in one way or
another, derive from the assumption that the characteristics of the
school learning environment may explain the extent to which students
master the outcomes desired from the school teaching-learning experi
ence.
Although there is no comprehensive theoretical statement for the
research in the reviews provided here, a general theoretical frame of
reference characterizes all the chapters. That is a general social-psycho
logical theory that the nature of the school social system, including its
organization and culture or climate, largely determines the learning that
occurs in the school. Thus, contrary to much prior belief, schools can make
a difference. Several of the chapters in various degrees reflect the fact that
schools are complex social systems that involve both the total school
organization and culture, as well as classroom subunits.
xi
xii Foreword
We have only begun to analyze the nature of these school social
systems, so definitive formulas for making schools more effective in
producing both excellent and equitable outcomes for all the students are
not yet available. However, this volume makes a significant contribution
to our knowledge.
WILBUR BROOKOVER
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
PREFACE
America's schools are scapegoats par excellence. When political-
economic crises arise, the nation often turns to its public schools to solve
the problem. When the crisis subsides, the public discovers that the
schools added little to the solution. Moreover, the schools get blamed
periodically for causing such problems as declining Scholastic Aptitude
Test (SAT) scores, illiterate high-school graduates, incompetent begin
ning workers in factories and stores, and inequality of economic out
comes between racial groups.
Researchers and others have tried to understand and to explain the
schools to society for generations. The researchers, unlike public per-
sonalitites, need to work from data and a reasonable research design.
The time-honored techniques they have used come and go, while trou
ble for and from the schools persists. Recently, a new movement has
emerged that intends to use new sets of data in quite different ways. It is
called effective or exemplary schools research.
This book attempts to describe this movement or cause in some
depth. The book is divided into three parts: Scope and Content, Re
search Approaches, and Research Impact on Policy and Practice. In
Chapter 1, the history of the movement receives thorough treatment by
Stephen K. Miller. Chapters 2 and 3 by Jane Hannaway and Susan
Abramowitz, and by John D. Donovan and George F. Madaus, respec
tively, describe and discuss research findings and policy implications
concerning the relationships between private and public education, both
Catholic and nonsectarian.
Part II includes chapters on methods for identifying exemplary
schools (Chapter 4 by Gilbert R. Austin and Stephen P. Holowenzak,
and Chapter 5 by Mark E. Fetler and Dale C. Carlson), the existing
literature on school climate (Chapter 6 by Carolyn S. Anderson), and
research on the roles of the teacher and the school principal (Chapter 7
by David C. Berliner, and Chapter 8 by Kenneth A. Leithwood and
Deborah J. Montgomery).
xiii
xiv Preface
In Part III, Chapter 9 by Stewart C. Purkey and Marshall S. Smith
describes and explores the policy issues emerging from effective schools
research. Finally, Herbert Garber summarizes in Chapter 10 and offers
some critical thoughts on the movement as he sees it from the perspec
tive of an educational psychologist whose specialities are educational
measurement and instructional design.
The contributors come from various disciplines: sociology, political
science, and educational administration, as well as psychology. The
editors know of no other book that addresses the specific issues covered
here. Others deal with policy formation, teacher and administrator
training, and quasi-biographies of individual exemplary schools. This
book, rather, should enable the reader to understand better the pur
poses and aims of the effective-exemplary schools research movement.
It does this by describing at some length the findings from several re
search models on how such schools are identified, how they differ from
ordinary schools, and how this knowledge may or may not be applicable
generally.
The editors acknowledge with gratitude the support they received
from the University of Maryland at Baltimore County and many individ
uals. Special thanks are extended to Richard F. Neville, Hugh D. Gra
ham, and William R. Johnson of that university for their kind support.
Due acknowledgment is made to Shirley Alonso, Eleanor Austin, Jo
anne Calderone, Audrey Mahoney, and Doris Garber for the parts they
played in helping complete this work.
CHAPTER 1
Research on Exemplary Schools:
An Historical Perspective*
Stephen K. Miller
INTRODUCTION
The existence of exemplary schools and their study lies at the heart of
the effective schools research movement. While the movement has now
spawned one of the most productive and commonly used research strat
egies for understanding schools and applying reforms, studies of exem
plary schools were virtually nonexistent until the early 1970s. Why?
As is demonstrated by this book and other research in this field,
considerable knowledge has accrued from investigating exemplary
schools. The clear advantages of studying unusually successful schools
for comparison to schools not so successful are now widely recognized.
But the history of research in American schools suggests that in fact
there was nothing obvious about this strategy.
Why was the concept of exemplary schools so difficult to discover?
Historically, what was the focus of educational research? Is there a con
nection between the focus of early educational research and the appar
ent inability of researchers to discover and use so obvious (to us, today)
* Support for this research came originally from a Title IV-C Grant through the Michi
gan Department of Education. The author acknowledges his debt to Wilbur B. Brookover
throughout the development of this work. Edward Berman provided critical feedback and
Herbert Garber contributed significantly to the current form of the chapter. Any inaccura
cies remain the responsibility of the author.
RESEARCH ON EXEMPLARY SCHOOLS 3 Copyright © 1985 by Academic Press, Inc.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
