Network Designs for Instructional Reform: Building Systems for Large-Scale School Improvement
Increasingly, educational networks are regarded as unique organizational arrangements capable of supporting large-scale instructional improvement. While a portion of the existing research on educational networks takes on matters of efficacy to improve outcomes, there is more limited research focused on understanding the core work of running educational networks. As activity around educational networks proliferates to include many types of networks existing in and around schools, there is a need to establish analytic frameworks that help researchers to 1) understand and reason about the core work of educational networks and 2) compare across different network types. This study moves on this agenda by 1) developing an analytic framework for understanding educational networks and 2) empirically testing that framework using a cross-case analysis of two networks positioned in different market sectors. This study finds fundamental distinctions in the networks’ designs for instructional improvement: one leveraging a highly-specified, fidelity-based approach; the other leveraging a less-specified, adaptive approach. This study also finds that four key network dimensions--structure, governance, composition, and purpose, help to explain the networks’ designs for improvement. The key lesson of this study underscores the inherent complexity and interdependent nature of designing, managing, and studying educational networks.
School Improvement Networks/Networks for School Improvement (NSI)
Official Dissertation Webpage (via Deep Blue Repository)
Open Access Dissertation PDF (via Deep Blue Repository)
Lyle, A. G. (2019). Network Designs for Instructional Reform: Building Systems for Large-Scale School Improvement [Ph.D., University of Michigan]. https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/151640