Shortcuts, School Reform and Private Foundations
Author Bob Sutton recently wrote about a report commissioned by the Annie Casey Foundation that examined one of its major funding initiatives related to school reform (the report is titled The Path of Most Resistance).
Here is an excerpt from Mr. Sutton's post:
This weekend, I read an old (1993) but excellent study commissioned by the Casey foundation on what it takes comprehensive school reform in large school systems. I was taken with its counter-intuitive title "The Path of Most Resistance"....[the authors] argued that taking the easy way out -- expecting instant results; not taking the time to engage with parents, students, administrators, local politicians and other key crucial actors; doing it on the cheap; expecting everything to go smoothly-- and a host other "easy solutions" -- simply weren't realistic or wise for would-be change agents. The examples of successful large scale change they examined all took pretty