International Comparisons: District Consolidation, Corporate Mergers, Institutional Reform

• In Event: System Reform at the Intermediate Level of Public Education in Chile: Year 1 Implementation

Abstract

Our initial literature view did not identify comparable system-wide reforms internationally, but did identify organizational changes that resembled that part of the NEP that involved creating the 70 new Local Education Services (SLEP). One component of this review examined the North American literature on school district consolidation (e.g., Rooney & Augenblick 2009; Howley et al 2011). That literature focuses on the pros and cons of district consolidation in terms of operational costs and education opportunities for students (e.g., access to wider scope of academic programs and extra-curricular activities), not necessarily improved education outcomes). There is little research on organizational processes associated with the consolidation of larger school districts. We turned to the implementation of corporate mergers for which there is a long history of research on the organizational processes that occur when previously independent corporations join to form a new merged organization (e.g., Cartwright & Schoenberg 2006; Haleblian et al 2009). The findings from this review were useful in framing and interpreting the findings from our study of the SLEPs. However, those comparisons only partially fit what we learned about implementation of the SLEPs. For example, school district consolidation in North America occurs as a structural change, without altering the fundamental form of governance at the local level, nor professional capacity (more professional staff, but little change in supervisory or support roles). Research on corporate mergers helped inform the analysis of findings related to the process of creating the new SLEPs out of separate municipal education authorities, such as the importance of vision building and the creation of a new organizational identity, stakeholder communication, and human resource capacity building associated with new types of positions and roles. That literature, however, did not speak to the challenges of linking the new organization to the broader political, organizational and community contexts in which corporate mergers take place. Some key challenges to early implementation of the SLEPs concerned the failure of policy planners to adequately anticipate how the DEP and the SLEPs would interact with the broader system of education and the governance and financing of non-municipal civil services in Chile. This led us to question what type of “change” the NEP represents--more fundamental than school district consolidation, and more systemic than a corporate merger? This prompted us to explore the literature on public sector institutional reform. Joshi and Carter (2015) for example, define institutions as the formal and informal rules that organize social, political and economic relations that provide certainty and predictability in everyday interactions shaping both behavior and outcomes. They note that organizations are shaped by institutions and in turn institutions shape organizational change. Our analysis of findings from the first year implementation of NEP and the SLEPs suggests that this system-wide reform represents an organizational change at the intermediate level of the public school sector with the intent to provoke institutional change in the governance, delivery, and system support for primary and secondary education in the public school sector of Chile.

Authors

• Stephen E. Anderson, University of Toronto

• Gisele Cuglievan Mindreau, University of Toronto