This paper develops a new, broader, and more realistic lens to study (lacking) linkages between government policy and school practices. Drawing on recent work in organization theory, we advance notions on cluster of organization routines and the logic of complementarities underlying organizational change. This lens allows looking at how schools do…

The Netherlands' New Basic School was implemented in the mid-1980s to increase individualized instruction and curriculum differentiation in the earliest grades and to improve schools' capacity to serve students with varying learning needs and ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Under the plan, preschools and primary schools were brought…