TAAS at the crossroads
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TAAS at the Crossroads of Organizational Change: Inoculating
Against Institutional De-legitimization.
Abstract
Education systems lie at a crossroads between organizational and institutional existence, causing
change within these systems to be highly contested and frustrating processes. As technical
organizations, schools are accountable to both internal and external constituencies. As
institutions, they rely on the public’s support of the system for legitimizing their existence. This
paper examines that conflict. Following an application of institutional change principles laid out
by Meyer and Rowan (1983), this study examines the implementation of the TAAS test in the
Texas education system. From a review of public information from the TEA and news reports
from the initial year of testing in 1990 up to 1999, public communication in the popular press is
examined as it serves as the border between resistance and legitimization. A model is developed
to explain the pattern that emerges from this review, and a metaphor of inoculation is proposed
to explain the model more fully.