The Four "I's" of School Reform: How Interests, Ideology, Information, and Institution Affect Teachers and Principals

Abstract

A popular strategy of school reform over the past two decades has involved shifting decisionmaking authority from one level to another: from the district to the state to the school. This venue-changing approach assumes that actors working within a different forum will make different and better decisions about schooling that will ultimately lead to improved teaching and learning. In this article, Carol Weiss zeroes in on shared decisionmaking (SDM), one such reform initiative. Using what she refers to as the "4-I" analysis, Weiss explains how interests, ideology, information, and the institution affect teacher and principal responses to shared decisionmaking, and discusses their unsettling implications for school reform.