The paper explores the link between the capacity of a school for organizational learning and the use of extended scope of action within the frame of school autonomy. The granting of extended scope of action for quality enhancement is based on the concept of autonomy (cf. Rolff, H.-G. , 1993; Rolff, H.-G., 1995). According to this concept, educational processes can only be partly organized on a purposive-rational basis and can only be technologized to a limited extent (cf. Rolff, H.-G., 1995). This is the reason why schools can best be described as loosely coupled systems (cf. Weick, 1976). From this perspective, the individual school would appear to be “the basic design unit for school reforms“ (Rolff, 1995, p 36), which to this end, however, requires a corresponding level of autonomy to be able to develop itself. In order to use this autonomy, the schools need a certain degree of self-regulation potential which can only be achieved through organizational learning measures (cf. Marks, Louis & Printy, 2000). In the pilot project “Selbstständige Schule NRW” (“Autonomous Schools North Rhine-Westphalia”) (from 2002 to 2008) the participating schools were, first, given scope of action to enable their further development on a self-regulation basis. Furthermore, the development of the self-regulation potential of these schools was supported by the introduction of school steering groups and targeted further-training and consultancy services. This paper examines the extent to which the scope of action created by the project was actually used by the schools and how significant a role was played by organizational learning capacities within this process.

In order to empirically examine the link between the use of this scope of action and the organizational learning capacities, an index for the capacity of organizational learning was developed as part of the scientific research accompanying the pilot project. The studies by Marks and Louis (1999) and Marks, Louis and Printy (2000) on organizational learning in schools provided the theoretical basis for the index. The index was scaled with the help of IRT models based on data provided by school principals (n = 79), steering group members (n = 1,188) and teachers (n = 1,829) from 79 schools. The evaluations were carried out with the help of bivariate and multivariate analysis processes.

The extent to which a link exists between the use of the scope of action provided by the project and the capacity for organizational learning is demonstrated on the basis of the available data. In addition, the influence the capacity of organizational learning on characteristics of school organization is also shown (e.g. professionalization of teachers, anchorage and sustainability of projects, work satisfaction, work environment, loading of teachers) and on the characteristics of the instruction (e.g. class management, individualization, time on task). The study is able to identify key conditions for successful programs of school development and strategies of widening the autonomy of school with goals on school improvement. The results are ready for transfer of knowledge for extern school support systems and school counseling. At last recommends are focused on innovation on the school level (development and improvement) and the level of system steering.