Teachers and administrators who understand the "politics" in schools can operate more successfully to facilitate change. This book teaches educators to identify and influence common social patterns that affect their work in school organizations. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the concept of organizational literacy and an overview of several social patterns common to schools in the United States. Chapter 2 discusses bureaucratic social patterns, which are characterized by a fixed division of labor, hierarchy of offices, explicit rules, and specialized job training. Chapter 3 emphasizes political and social patterns in schools. Chapter 4 describes communal social patterns. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 focus on patterns of inequality based on social class, race, and gender. Each of these chapters describes a variety of often unexamined social patterns that affect how students experience the practices of schooling. Chapter 8 provides some concluding thoughts focused on the complexity of school change and how the ideas in this book can help others to create school organizations of promise and optimism. Finally, additional practice cases that can further improve organizational literacy are provided in chapter 9. These cases are designed for use in class discussions or as analysis cases for students to examine as final, ongoing, individual, or group projects. (Contains 251 references.) (RT)