Out of the Trenches

Abstract

Boston's public schools have long drawn national attention in educational and political studies and more recently in legal accounts of desegregation. With the rise of remedial law, the maturation of public unions, and the improvement of constituencies--all forces flowering in the 1970s--the traditional concept of organizational rationality has been effectively undermined for professionals in the school system. Problem-solving skills and professional concepts relating to resource allocation and accountability are submerged by the inescapable need for coalition building, negotiation, and compromise. In the process, the critical roles are those of amateurs, neither committed to the organization or program, nor responsible for results.