Chapter 7: Culture and Process in Effective School Districts

Using recent case study research, this chapter presents a conceptual framework for understanding how school districts contribute to school improvement and student learning. I develop three ideal type districts—the loosely coupled, the accountability, and the student-learning districts—to illustrate how they deal with the processes of data use, curriculum, and professional development, and to suggest how these processes influence school-level processes and student learning. The chapter suggests that accountability districts contribute more to educational outcomes than do loosely coupled ones, and that student-learning districts make the greatest contribution. It also presents an explanation for this pattern that focuses on shared assumptions about students and social relationships among adults.