The goal of this dissertation is twofold: 1) To develop a framework and method for simultaneously examining many different school organizations and their relation to patterns of school change and 2) To utilize that framework to obtain a district-wide understanding of the organizational functioning and change patterns of Chicago Public School (CPS) elementary schools over the past decade. Accomplishing these items is important for scaling school reforms in general and for Chicago in particular. Additionally, developing a rigorous approach to studying organizational diversity and change, while remaining connected to the work inside organizations, is an important contribution to research in organizational sociology. A configurational framework for specifying types of schools structures the analyses. The elements of a configuration correspond to a school's system of instructional coordination, control, and improvement. Research from the organizational and educational literatures provide the conceptual foundation for this framework. Survey data from the Consortium on Chicago School Research is then used to conduct a cross-sectional analysis (2007) and longitudinal HLM analysis (1997-2005) of the organizational configurations across CPS elementary schools and their relationships to school-wide instructional patterns. Case studies of two CPS schools are also conducted to illuminate the specific processes through which instruction is coordinated, controlled, and improved. Consistent with recent educational work, the findings indicate that schools with more communal elements are more organizationally-integrated, have more coherent instruction, and perform at higher academic levels. However, bureaucratic elements also promote instructional coherence, provided there is a communal base. Anomic schools with little coordination and control are the most instructionally-fragmented and lowest performing. Different dynamics also appear to dominate in schools at different performance levels. Over time, schools with more meta-routines (routines for changing instructional routines) are able to improve instructional consistency, and schools that changed configurations tend to exhibit instructional trajectories corresponding to the direction of their configurational change. Teacher retention rates are an important factor mediating the relationship between student body demographics and configurational trajectories. In addition to illuminating specific processes in schools, the case studies also reveal that traditional CPS elementary schools (represented by case study 1) are far from their organizational potential for coordinating, controlling, and improving instruction (represented by case study 2). [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]