TAAS at the crossroads
1
TAAS at the Crossroads of Organizational Change: Inoculating
Against Institutional De-legitimization.
Introduction
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.
Peter Ewell(2001), in his article Statewide Testing in Higher Education, suggests that the
issues surrounding the implementation of a statewide test are both organizational and technical
(p.1). While the technical issues are substantial, it is the organizational issues that this study
addresses. Specifically, how does the implementation of a testing program affect the institution
which is undergoing the change? According to Ewell (2001), “the actual levels of achievement
reported are of less concern than their ability to drive the state-level reward system equitably and
to focus internal institutional attention on things that might be done better (p.3).” This does
appear to hold true in this case, and it draws attention to the concern of every reformist; How do
we get people to change? The conclusions of Firestone & Mayrowetz (2000) give us one
possible answer. They determine that certain kinds of external pressure, including media reports
Convention