The Developmental Evaluation of School Improvement Networks
Item
Title
The Developmental Evaluation of School Improvement Networks
Abstract/Description
The national education reform agenda has rapidly expanded to include attention to continuous improvement research in education. The purpose of this analysis is to propose a new approach to “developmental evaluation” aimed at building a foundation for continuous improvement in large-scale school improvement networks, on the argument that doing so is essential to producing the intellectual capital needed to replicate effective practices and desired outcomes throughout these networks. We begin by developing a rationale for developmental evaluation, both to illuminate the need and to discuss its coordination with other forms of evaluation. We continue by proposing a logic of developmental evaluation to support analyzing networks as learning systems. We then use that logic to structure a framework for developmental evaluation to support evaluators, network executives, and other stakeholders in analyzing and strengthening the foundation for continuous improvement in a given network. Our analysis suggests that building a foundation for continuous improvement among a large number of networks is an educational reform agenda unto itself, one that must be supported and sustained if these networks are to succeed at the level expected under current accountability regimes.
Author/creator
Date
In publication
Volume
30
Issue
4
Pages
606-648
Resource type
Research/Scholarly Media
Research/Scholarly Media
Resource status/form
Published Text
Scholarship genre
Methodological
Empirical
Keywords
IRE Approach/Concept
Open access/full-text available
No
Peer reviewed
Yes
ISSN
0895-9048
Citation
Peurach, D. J., Glazer, J. L., & Winchell Lenhoff, S. (2016). The Developmental Evaluation of School Improvement Networks. Educational Policy, 30(4), 606–648. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904814557592
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