| This study is one in a series of studies describing and evaluating a school district’s systemic change effort, as guided by the School System Transformation Protocol. In this installment of that series, I examine two specific tasks in that protocol: (1)Sub-task 2.2.1.1 – The District Facilitation Team capacitates a cluster design team (2)Task 2.2.9 – The cluster design team creates a strategy for transforming its schools To do this, I employ formative research methodology – which is a methodology designed to improve a prescriptive theory based on a case or series of cases of its implementation – in the hopes of suggesting improvements to the SST Protocol.;Unfortunately, no improvements could be made to the existing guidelines the protocol offers based on the findings of this study, as the case under investigation was found to be poorly aligned with those guidelines. Nonetheless, interesting findings emerged from the case. The team under investigation was redesigning K-6 schools in a cluster where the upper grades had already been redesigned. It also attempted to merge the resolution of certain immediate problems into its systemic change effort. Additionally, the team expressed a sentiment that it was prepared to bring about this transformation despite the fact that very little preparation activity was observed. The case has particular implications for the field of systemic change when contrasted with another case from the same school district that was completed a year prior. These findings, along with others, are presented and discussed in the dissertation. |
