Anthony S. Bryk and Barbara Schneider
2002
Anyone who has ever been in a failed relationship or a failed business knows the importance of trust, and the problems that arise when it is broken. University of Chicago scholars Bryk and Schneider write here about the key role trust plays in effective school reform. They note that "a broad base of trust across a school community lubricates much of a school's day-to-day functioning and is a critical resource as local leaders embark on ambitious improvement plans." This focus on trust in effective school reform is something Bryk and Schneider grew interested in over the years as they observed the workings of several Chicago elementary schools struggling to implement the city's decentralization reform effort. Building on the work of Robert Putnam, Francis Fukuyama and the late James Coleman, they have constructed a theory of social trust in school communities. To build and maintain trust in a complex organization like a school requires four key criteria: respect, competence, personal regard for others and integrity. If there is a breakdown in one of these areas, there will be a collapse of trust across the organization. For example, "Gross incompetence is corrosive to trust relations. Allowed to persist in a school community, incompetence will undermine collective efforts toward improvement." This is a fascinating book, to be taken seriously even by hard-nosed types preoccupied with student achievement. According to Bryk and Schneider, schools high in trust show far greater levels of improvement on reading and math test. In fact, schools weak in trust "had virtually no chance of showing improvement in either reading or mathematics." These data, argue the authors, is the "first evidence directly linking the development of relational trust in a school community and long-term improvements in academic productivity." More information can be found at http://www.russellsage.org/publications/titles/trustschools.htm.
