Discusses several studies that attempted to employ a Lawrence and Lorsch theory of organization in school settings. The theory relates organizational differentiation and integration to environmental demands. (Author/JF)

Models of organizational structures developed through the study of commercial organizations are not necessarily applicable to educational organizations. Technical organizations such as factories act to regulate the flow of their processes and products and, thus, to buffer them from external forces. Institutional organizations such as schools or…

The model presented describes, in terms of communications networks, a school of architecture working within a university and in contact with the world of practice. For use in solving pedagogical and administrative problems, the model is based on an interactive situation, feeding back from new knowledge to experience and back again. (JT)

Business and industry have exerted a strong influence on public schools and school administration, especially on assumptions about the school setting and its implications for administrator behavior. Schools have been assumed to be bureaucratic organizations in a stable environment, which implies that administrators should be leaders in…

Mathematics education is different in rural schools than in non-rural schools. An explanation for this can be found in an open social systems model of schools, in which schools are comprised of interdependent subsystems that function together to transform inputs into outcomes. These are open systems in that external forces in the environment…