SCHOOL CLOSURE IN SEATTLE: A CASE STUDY OF EDUCATIONAL DECISIONMAKING (WASHINGTON)

This study examines how and why the Seattle superintendents and members of the Seattle School Board responded to declining enrollment in a period of severe retrenchment by analyzing the strategies and decisionmaking processes adopted by these school officials and the turbulent context in which the case was embedded.;Analysis of the case is based on the discussion and application of three analytic perspectives: the transition of leadership and governance of public education; Resource Dependence (the external control of organizations); and the ambiguity of administrative choice (combining organizational and behavioral decision theory).;Findings show that school closure decisionmaking was a highly ambiguous process, delayed by internal political changes and external factors. Retrenchment policymaking in Seattle was also an emergent process in which the definition of the problem and its solution changed over time, as did the forms of systematic planning. Because preferences are discovered over time and strategies are formulated through trial and error, rational planning is best regarded as a goal than a necessary pre-condition for policymaking. Conflict may be necessary for the exploration of values and choices for citizens and school officials alike. Compromise and cooptation of citizens, rather than strict control of policymaking by school officials, were the dynamic political factors underlying final resolution of the school closure controversy.;A single case study was conducted. Data was collected from written planning documents, newspaper accounts, School Board minutes, and structured interviews with forty key participants.