ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes three clusters of factors that influence the preservation of the results of intervention projects. Sustaining the outcomes of an intervention project is considered by Van Velzen to be the weakest link in the process of change in schools. The absence of sufficient knowledge of the necessary conditions for sustaining achieved outcomes burdens policymakers in their task of improving educational systems. The study sponsored by the Rand Corporation in the mid-1970, investigated projects which sustained their outcomes with varying degrees of success or failure. The Rand Study, as well as other sources, offers numerous proposed strategies for school improvement. On a simplicity-complexity continuum, schools tend to simplify their actions to such an extent that they lose their efficacy. The processes of cultural change in the context of intercultural encounter may provide a helpful conceptual framework and contribute to a better understanding of the processes involved in changing schools and making them more effective.
