Challenges of Governance in Complex Adaptive Systems: A Case Study of U.S. Public Education

Many argue that U.S. public education suffers from inadequacies. Over the years, the U.S. public education enterprise has implemented various response efforts with no major improvements. Approaching U.S. public education as a complex adaptive system, we argue that an accurate characterization of its operation and performance requires holistic assessment of its underlying structures. We identify stakeholders, issues, processes and relationships of this system. We also identify governance practices to explore if they are positioned to manage performance effectively. We map out the dynamics of U.S. public education and link its performance problems to structural properties (particularly governance practices) designed into this system. We conclude that although U.S. public education is a complex adaptive system, it is not governed as such. We discuss how structural properties of this system limit its adaptive capacity and alignment of governance practices with complex system requirements.