On the other hand it is not unusual for a school to be real community in its own right while the surrounding area is just a place where the people sleep between carrying on their lives elsewhere. A mass of houses does not make a community. Applying quality in schools changes a it from a factory processing children to a genuine community in its own right. To introduce quality into the community first one must know where the community is. To get the right answers we need to ask the right questions.
Quality is an entirely different paradigm.
Quality has to compete with the prevailing paradigm which has enormous power and momentum. For example, educational outcomes are the major focus at this time. It is not about ensuring that the school's performance statistics are above the national average, although that may not be far away. Top down initiatives work well because quality is a different paradigm. People at the top can make it safe for the people in classrooms to act on the basis of the quality paradigm.