Collective Trust: Why Schools Can't Improve without It

The culmination of nearly three decades of research, "Collective Trust" offers new insight and practical knowledge on the social construction of trust for school improvement. The authors argue that "collective trust" is not merely an average trust score for a group, but rather an independent concept with distinctive origins and consequences. The book demonstrates that schools are organizations that require environments characterized by high levels of collective trust to be effective. Including an historical overview, an exhaustive review of the empirical research, and implications for school reform policy and leadership, this is the most comprehensive resource to date on the issue of collective trust. Essential reading for anyone wishing to plan and implement long-term plans for school improvement, this book: (1) Presents a theoretical framework and a set of reliable and valid measures to study collective trust; (2) Offers important guidelines for education policy and leadership practice; (3) Advances a social and capacity-based approach to school improvement; and (4) Provides practitioners with a set of tools to evaluate the trust culture of their schools. [Foreword by Barbara Schneider.]