| Education reform efforts abound in the United States. Typically, these reform efforts are undertaken to improve the quality of public education. A substantial body of evidence indicates, however, that these efforts result, predictably, in minimal success. The limited success of education reform has been attributed to a deep, systemic incapacity of education reformers to extend new ideas about teaching and learning in anything but a small fraction of American schools and classrooms. Calls for improving the efficacy of education reform efforts challenge reformers to rethink their approach to the management of their initiatives.;The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility that marketing technology may be relevant and applicable to the management of education reform efforts, and the possibility that marketing technology may serve the purposes of: (1) increasing the strategic capabilities of education reformers; (2) addressing concerns that have been raised about the inadequacies of education reformers traditional approaches; and (3) reducing education reformers' susceptibility of the kinds of failures they have experienced in the past.;The research consisted of a qualitative analysis of the content of news articles, university documents and other materials reflecting expressions of needs, wants, desires, attitudes, values or beliefs among education stakeholders that could be significant to the success or failure of a given education reform effort. The stakeholder groups referenced in the sampling of documents included: the General American Public; Parents; Elite Parents; Teachers; School Officials; Education Administrators; Education Policymakers; College/University Administrators; Education Reformers; and Students.;The data collected for this study were analyzed in two ways, using the problem-detection and issue-identification methodologies. The findings of this study are that the reported patterns of failures of education reform efforts can be explained as marketing failures. The conclusions are that marketing technology may be relevant and applicable to the management of education reform efforts, and that proponents of a given education reform initiative could reduce their risk of failure by adopting a marketing approach to their work. |
