Building Trust for Better Schools : Research-Based Practices

"While trust has been shown as a key mechanism for facilitating school improvement, how that can be accomplished is not altogether clear. In this excellent book, Kochanek, through in-depth case studies and sophisticated quantitative analyses of data from a large urban school system, convincingly demonstrates how principal leadership can promote and sustain trust among administrators, teachers, and parents."
-Barbara Schneider, Professor of Sociology
University of Chicago

"Kochanek′s book not only clearly explains the theoretical underpinnings of trust development in schools, but also provides rich case studies that explore this theory in action."
-Carmen Manning, Assistant Professor of English Education
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Why is trust in schools so important? What does trust mean to a school′s productivity?

Relationships between principals, teachers, and parents cannot be ignored when attempting school reform. No matter how innovative the changes or ideas, reform is unlikely to succeed unless the adults work together to implement it. Building Trust for Better Schools answers the question of how to build trust within the school community.

Parents are dependent on teachers to educate their children. Teachers are dependent on principals to create school conditions that are conducive to helping children learn. This excellent new resource identifies links between the growth of trust and positive organizational outcomes that benefit school improvement efforts.

But how do we build trust? Kochanek offers an innovative process model of trust building. Increased trust in schools:

• Fosters participation among faculty in school reform efforts
• Creates a greater openness to innovation among teachers
• Increases outreach to parents
• Produces even higher academic productivity in schools

There is a need for efficient sharing of information in schools across role relationships. This can be done with the building of trust between principals, teachers, and parents as they work together toward a common goal!

Julie Reed Kochanek received her Ph.D from the University of Chicago in 2003. She is currently an assistant professor of sociology at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon.