| This dissertation is a case study of two urban small high schools in their first year after conversion from a large comprehensive high school. The study focuses on how the schools use the resources of people, time, and money and finds that the schools may need to invest their resources differently at the beginning of the improvement process, with particular attention to vision, hope, trust, ideas, and energy. Even when principals know how to use resources well, the work of improvement is difficult because they are trying to convert not a building, but beliefs and practices. Drawing on research-based notions of effective resource use can help, but leaders also have to mobilize resources to work together, have to expand their notion of "resources," and have to constantly make decisions and assess whether those decisions are working. The study also examines the role of the school district in both helping and hindering the school leaders. |
