An inquiry into Scott's instituional theory

This dissertation evaluates the veracity of Richard Scott’s three pillars of
institutionalization: regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive. The test of his theory is
whether the processes and practices within the environments of the three pillars can
account for differences between academic performance and athletic performance in
Miami-Dade County, Florida public schools. Scott’s model of institutionalization works
better in predicting academic success than it does athletic success in the context of this
study as evidenced by the majority of the findings coming from the scholastic realm.
The primary methodological approach was to obtain publicly available measures
of academic performance and resources for 31 high schools in Miami-Dade County, FL,
and then evaluate relationships between these academic indicators and measures of 􀀃
􀀃school athletic performance. Pearson (parametric) and Spearman (non-parametric)
correlation coefficients were calculated to estimate the strength of association between
school characteristics and measures of academic and athletic performance. These
analyses further informed the construction of stepwise multiple linear regression models
that regressed the dependent variable (a measure of academic or athletic performance)
with a range of possible independent variables all related to individual school
characteristics.
Improvement in the academic categories included in this dissertation (math,
science, reading, and writing) has been the goal of a great deal of legislation that deals
with education at the federal, state, and local level. The top indicator of a school’s
academic performance was the number of highly qualified teachers within a school.
Cultural-cognitive pillar indicators of socioeconomic status, including minority rate and
percentage of students in a school who are eligible for free lunch, were negatively
associated with academic performance. Thus, normative and cultural-cognitive processes
can have a significant impact on whether laws and legislation have their intended effect.
In the end, it is reasonable to conclude that all three pillars complement each other in
interdependent ways within Scott’s institutional framework with different pillars taking
prominence as time and circumstances change.