Educational Systems Theory

Property: Stability

Definition:

"Educational system stability is no change with respect to conditions." (p. 64)

Comments:

That is, if the components and properties of a system remain the same from one time to another, the system may be regarded as stable. There are degrees of stability: the more the system's conditions remain the same from one time (Time 1) to the next (Time 2), the greater the system's stability. As the following illustration shows, the set of conditions that are shared, or form the intersection, between the system at Time 1 and at Time 2 represent a measure of stability.

Illustration:

Illustration under construction.

Examples:

Ohio's largest school district, Cleveland public schools, was recently put under state control after the departure of the Cleveland superintendent (The Indianapolis Star, March 4, 1995). With this change, all administration will be handled by the state superintendent's office. This change results in a lessening of stability for the Cleveland public school system. The reduced stability is not a property shared uniformly by all the educational system's subsystems, however. For example, press releases state that the change will not affect students and classes. At this time, then, there will likely be less stability within the context and teacher subsystems than within the student and content subsystems.

Related Terms:

Educational System State Steadiness

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Hypotheses Containing the Property: Stability

# 32. If educational system environmental change is greater than some value and feedthrough is greater than some value, then stability is greater than some value.

# 145. If educational system filtration is greater than some value, then stability is greater than some value.

# 146. If educational system adaptability is greater than some value, then stability decreases.

# 148. If educational system environmental change is greater than some value, and it is not the case that feedthrough is greater than some value, and feedback is greater than some value, then stability is less than some value.

# 159. If educational system environmental change is greater than some value and compatibility is greater than some value and stability is greater than some value, then storeput is greater than some value or filtration is greater than some value or spillage is greater than some value.

# 162. If educational system toput is less than some value and feedin increases and stability is less than some value, then stability increases.

# 163. If educational system toput is greater than some value and feedin decreases and stability is less than some value, then stability increases.

# 164. If educational system independence increases, then stability is less than some value.

# 186. If educational system centrality increases and stress is greater than some value, then stability decreases.

# 187. If educational system stress is equal to zero and centrality increases, then stability increases.

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