Institutional v. Technical Environments: Reconciling the Goals of Decentralization in an Evolving Charter School Organization

This article analyzes how macrolevel institutional forces persist and limit the expansion of decentralized schools that attempt to challenge normative definitions and practices of traditional school organizations. Using qualitative case study methodology, the analysis focuses on how one decentralized charter school navigated and reconciled its internal objectives linked to meeting the needs of a Latino, inner-city student population, with the institutional pressures and demands external to the organization. The findings suggest that decentralized school choice options which promise community-based participation and control are constrained by institutionalized rule-based demands that limit the expansion of alternative schooling models which may hold potential for promoting access, voice and equity for parents, students, and teachers.