Drawing on concepts from an institutional theory of organizations, this study describes policy, teacher union, and academic actors who shaped and promoted school-based management in the national arena, their interests, and the network that linked them. School-based management was at least partially the product of institutional environment. (SLD)

This article explores the possibility that state educational policies, involving accountability and instructional reform, and local district and school conditions interact with teachers' personal and professional backgrounds to shape two tracks of new teachers that reinforce existing educational inequities. The present 2-year study incorporated…

Examined one school district's efforts to develop and implement a standards-based curriculum using rational and institutional perspectives. Findings show that the district took an expressly rationalistic approach in using standards, but lacking a clear instructional philosophy, the district also took an institutional approach. (SLD)