Mustafa TOPRAK, A. Cezmi SAVAÅ
At schools where most students cannot learn much and where most students learn less than they can (Schlecty, 2005), starting reforms with the active participation of all stakeholders is of unique importance in terms of finding solutions to problems Turkey has suffered. Various reform efforts have been exerted since republic was extablished in Turkey such as Tevhid-Tedrisat (Unification of education), public education reforms, different primary school reforms (initiation of 8-year compulsory education, more recently 4+4+4 reforms) and also higher education reforms (Malche report and afterwards). One of those reforms is the curriculum-based one initiated in 2003 that aims to prepare youth for a more realistic life. This reform taking structural approach as its basis (Gültekin, 2010) was revised in 2005 and started to be implemented in all schools nation-wide. “The other reform initiative is structural reform with the aim of creating a school-based system in Turkey which has not still been implemented fully. Changes projected within that framework have resulted in a great deal of discussion leading to no results” (Ak?it, 2007). There are some other school change efforts and projects, which show that policy makers have some awareness towards problems deeply rooted in Turkish education system. However, it could be noted that these reform efforts have not been successful in bringing about changes in teaching behaviors and have not contributed to students’ success as described by (Desimone, 2000; Elmore, 2002). This failure has come to fore in Turkey’s rank in PISA test scores. It can, thus, be observed that there were problems with planning, piloting and implementing change at schools. Memphis Restructuring Initiative started in 1995 in 161 schools is worth exploring in terms of specifying the direction of reform efforts, steps to be taken and situations to be avoided during the process. This study aims to analyze this MRI(Memphis Restructuring Initiative) in full details, provide lessons to be taken from this initiative and also to provide tips and pitfalls of educational restructuring process
