A Comparative Study of the Correlation between Social Capitals and Academic Achievements in Public Schools in the United States and Japan

这个为期三年的研究项目旨在分析美国和日本学校中社会资本与学业成绩之间的相关性。研究结果如下：(1)六所学校访谈和三篇研究论文：我访问了六所特许学校，主要在加利福尼亚州和马萨诸塞州。我可以采访学校校长、校长和老师。然后我发表了三篇研究论文，其中包括三所特许学校的案例研究。这三所学校分别是旧金山的生命学习学院（Life Learning Academy）、洛杉矶的卡米诺新特许学院（Camino Nuevo Charter Academy）和马萨诸塞州德文斯的弗朗西斯·帕克基础学校（Francis W. Parker elementary School）。(2)理论发现：哈佛大学教授Richard F. Elmore通过对公立学校的案例研究，提出了“内部问责制”的概念。我在建构主义理论的基础上重构了他的概念，提出了学校多方利益相关者界定问责的新权利。其次，前芝加哥大学教授Anthony S. Bryk等人对社会资本的关键要素信任进行了实证分析。他们将信任分为有机信任、契约信任和关系信任三种类型。在我的案例研究中，我还发现，拥有高学术成就的有效特许学校，在学校内部会相当充满关系信任。最后，我想提到两种进一步的研究。一种是对我国（日本）有效学校的案例研究，另一种是对社会资本与学校学业成绩相关性的定量分析。

This three-years-research project has aimed to analyze the correlation between social capital and academic achievement within the schools in the United States and Japan.The research results as follows ;(1) Six school interviews and three research papers : I have visited six charter schools mainly in California and Massachusetts. I could have interviewed with school presidents, principals and teachers. Then I published three research papers, which included the case studies of three charter schools. Those are Life Learning Academy in San Francisco, Camino Nuevo Charter Academy in Los Angeles, and Francis W. Parker Essential School in Devens, Massachusetts.(2) Theoretical findings : Richard F. Elmore, Professor of Harvard University, proposed the concept of'internal accountability'through their case studies of public schools. I reconstructed his concept on the basis of the constructivism theory, and I proposed a new right of defining accountability by the school multi-stakeholders. Secondly, Anthony S. Bryk, former Professor of University of Chicago, and his research associates have empirically analyzed the trust which is a crucial element of social capitals. They categorized it into three types, that is, organic trust, contractual trust and relational trust. I also found in my case studies that effective charter schools with high academic achievements would be considerably full of relational trust within schools.Finally, I would like to mention two kinds of further researches. One is case studies of our(Japanese) effective schools, another is quantitative analysis of the correlation between social capital and school academic achievement.