Signifying Improvement

Reform Symbols as Discursive Practice in School Improvement Plans

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21313635
AutoresMadhu Narayanan (0000-0002-6175-6421, Portland State University, autor correspondente), Matthew S McCluskey (0000-0002-2911-7849, University of Vermont)
Ano2025
Volume61
Fascículo5
Páginas781-808
Data de publicação2025-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEducational Administration Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0013-161X • E-ISSN: 1552-3519
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0013161x251319215
OpenAlexW4408591429
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9
Referências citadas56

School Improvement Plans (SIPs) have been shown to be generally of poor quality and written more as acts of compliance than efforts at genuine reform. This raises the question: if SIPs are ineffective at improving schools, what is their larger purpose? In this conceptual paper, we argue that SIPs are discursive sites where schools can signal their adherence to ostensibly proven and acceptable models of reform. They do so through the use of reform symbols, discursive markers that signal legitimized organizational change through the adoption of accepted modes of improvement. We illustrate this concept by showing how a variety of SIPs use reform symbols that point to the work of no-excuses Charter Management Organizations. Such organizations, emblems of an era of accountability and narrow models of school improvement, are used as symbols of legitimacy that help schools secure their survival without engaging in the difficult work of change. The examples we use show clearly how reform symbols might take a variety of forms, appearing as important signifiers in a range of policy artifacts across the landscape of school improvement. We further argue that such reform symbols reduce the complexities of educational change, thus reinforcing an ideological field that constructs underperformance as normative and “school improvement” as both urgent and possible

Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Educational Assessment and Improvement · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · Psychology · Public Administration · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies