The influence of local, state, and federal policies on one California elementary school from 1971--2001: A historical case study

Utilizing Sarason's (1972) work on the creation of settings as the conceptual framework, this historical case study examines how the teaching staff of Taft Elementary, under the guidance of the school's first principal, collaborated in the creation of the school's original curriculum and governance structure. The study then traces the evolution of this school in Santa Ana, California from 1971 to the present. Of particular interest to this study was how teachers at this school resisted outside political forces to implement bilingual education, and ultimately constructed their own English-immersion approach for teaching language minority students.; This investigation found that collaborative governance, which was established in the formative years, worked as a major or mechanism for sustaining the school's curriculum and culture over its thirty-year history. Reliance on this collaborative approach led Taft Elementary School to develop an English-immersion strategy that eventually served as a model for the electoral initiative known as Proposition 227: “English for the Children” which was passed by 61% of California voters in 1998.