Post 11: John W. Kingdon's "Three Streams" for School Leaders

In John W. Kingdon’s “Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies,” he gives politicians advice for approaching problems and changes.  These suggestions apply perfectly well to principals trying to motivate teachers and influence change in schools as well.  He points out that there are 3 factors (or "streams") to consider when implementing change.  If any of the three streams is either low or highly negative, then willingness to change will suffer and the costs of implementing the change might outweigh the benefits.  School leaders should consider the three streams and work on boosting any that are low before attempting to implement change.

The three streams are Problems, Policies, and Politics.  There are several questions that a school leader should ask about each stream before moving forward with change.

Some examples of questions that a school leader might ask about “Problems” are:
 - Is there a sense of urgency regarding this problem?
 - Is there wide-spread awareness of the problem?
 - Does the problem affect a large number of people?
 - Is the problem one that we have control over?

Some questions that a school leader might ask about “Policies” are:
 - Are there already policies in place regarding this problem?
 - Are changes needed to existing policies?
 - Will new policies be needed to address this problem?
 - Who has the power to make the changes to these problems?

Four questions that school leaders might ask about “Politics” are:
 - Does this change affect a “sacred cow” or long-held practice?
 - Will this change step on anyone’s toes?
 - Who will have to approve this change?
 - Is the leader strong enough and influential enough to see the change through?

Finally, a school leader needs to assess the strength of each of the 3 streams and boost those that are weak before attempting to implement the change.  Moving forward while any of the streams are weak will jeopardize the success of the project.

Let’s look at a current event through the three-streams lens.  We’ll analyze the recent idea of arming teachers and administrators with guns in schools.

Problem- The problem of violence in schools is an extremely emotionally charged problem.  Although the loss of one child’s life is unacceptable, statistically, this problem is not very likely to happen at any particular school.  A child is 100 times more likely to die in a swimming pool than to die of any form of gun violence.  But because this problem is so incredibly emotional, this problem would rank as moderate to high because of the reaction that it causes.

Policies- There are existing and powerful policies already in place related to a person’s right to bear arms, laws about concealed weapons, and education code around guns on school campuses.  Most of the policies regarding guns on campus are far beyond the control of a school leader.  As such, the Policies Stream regarding guns on campus would rank as highly negative because the leader will have little influence over them.

Politics- The political ramifications of school violence mixed with the strong emotion around guns make the politics of any conversation around gun violence very negative.  There are huge disparities around both of these issues and tension will be very high regardless of the direction that the decision goes.  The politics around this issue are highly negative.

This pattern of moderate/highly negative/highly negative suggest that guns on campus might not be an issue that a school leader wants to tackle.  Because the stakes are so high, it might be worth risking the highly negative politics and policies, but a better idea would be to try to find a solution to the problem that doesn’t involve guns on campus.  Stronger penalties for gun-related crimes, limiting access to guns for children, metal detectors, counselors, mental health services, parenting classes, and other options can be considered that don’t carry the same baggage as guns on campus.  As you can see, each one of those options has a different mixture of Policies and Politics to consider.  School leaders have little control over the penalties for crimes, counselors and metal detectors cost money, and it’s difficult to get parents to attend classes.  An analysis of each of these options considering Kingdon’s streams can tell the principal which has the highest probability of solving the problem while causing the least friction.

You’ll find that when you begin considering the three streams, some problems will be highly important and extremely political while others will require difficult policy changes but greatly impact an important problem.  The combination of the three will help you determine the best approach and how much preparation work will need to be done before making the change initiative public.

Please share in the comments section a change that you are facing right now and how the three streams might influence your approach.