The Impact of Sector on School Organizations: Institutional and Market Logics

Drawing on new institutional and market theories, this article derives three hypotheses for the effects of markets on educational organizations: They (1) weaken formal structures, (2) reverse tendencies toward isomorphism, and (3) force schools to recouple and compete via performance indicators. These ideas are investigated with data on private and public schools in Toronto, which, the authors argue, is a strategic research site. The findings …