Kensington School is an elementary school in Milford (Missouri) School District built in 1966 with open classrooms and designed for team teaching and other innovative practices. A visit 15 years later reveals that the physical plant has deteriorated somewhat, most classrooms are walled off from each other, and innovative structures are not now used for their original purposes. Current staff members are humorous and stable and interact a great deal, but they are more rural and local than the original staff and are more oriented toward a traditional, back-to-basics educational philosophy. The curriculum too is more concerned with order, structured activities, and basic skills. The present principal is also a traditionalist, unlike the school's first principal. Changes in Kensington's social environment have contributed to the movement away from nontraditional approaches. Demographic shifts led to an increase in lower-achieving, inner-city children and an increase in disciplinary problems. These problems in turn contributed to the emphasis on order and basic skills. Further district problems over racial bias allegations and declining enrollments also strengthened the traditionalist turn. Educational policy-making results from complex influences, but the complexity of education's environments and problems needs to be addressed directly. (RW)