Scale and Sustainability of Education Innovation and Improvement
The feasibility of scaling up and sustaining educational innovations and efforts at improvement has been a subject of scholarly investigation for decades. Many scholars, as well as policymakers and educational leaders, seek to develop educational innovations that can improve schooling not only in a single setting but across multiple schools, districts, or even nationwide. Likewise, reformers typically intend for the improvements they facilitate to last well beyond the duration of a short-term grant or research program. Research has consistently revealed, however, that both scale and sustainability are highly challenging to achieve. While scaling and sustainability are joint goals, often linked empirically, they draw on distinct analytic constructs and pose different methodological challenges. We therefore divide our survey of the research base into separate sections for Scale and Sustainability, although we note the (many) points of overlap and alignment. Both scaling and sustainability have been the subject of theoretical debate as well as empirical investigation. Therefore, we begin our treatment of each topic with a section reviewing varying theoretical treatments of the construct: Theorizing Scale and Theorizing Sustainability. Following this conceptual introduction, each section includes discussion of two subsets of literature. The first concerns the dynamics of externally developed, evidence-based programs and innovations. With respect to scaling, the section Scale: Adoption and Replication addresses the spreading of an innovation developed in one place to other places, with attention to breadth and fidelity. With respect to sustainability, Sustaining Externally Developed Interventions concerns what happens to reform over time, especially after specialized funding or research ends. The second category we consider with regard both to scale and sustainability concerns the more recent turn toward ongoing local improvement efforts rooted in processes of inquiry. With regard to scaling, these studies focus on local variation, design, and adaptation, as explored in Scale: Adaptation and Continuous Improvement. With regard to sustainability, this concerns the ways in which schools and districts can build systems to support continuous improvement in the long term (Sustaining Continuous Improvement). We end with a section on Factors Enabling and Constraining Scaling and Sustainability, which addresses research both on scale-up and sustainability that draws attention to empirical factors that matter for both goals.
Oxford Bibliographies [Special Series]: Continuous Improvement in Education
Bush-Mecenas, S., & Anderson, E. (2020). Scale and Sustainability of Education Innovation and Improvement. In Oxford Bibliographies. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0240
Oxford Bibliographies: Continuous Improvement in Education [Special Series]
OB Citations - Scale and Sustainability of Education Innovation and Improvement
Federal Programs Supporting Educational Change: Vol. I, A Model of Educational Change
Educational Innovation and the Problem of Scale
Getting to Scale with Good Educational Practice
“Getting to Scale…” It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
The Multiple Meanings of Scale: Implications for Researchers and Practitioners
Getting to Scale: Ideas, Opportunities, and Resources in the Early Diffusion of the Charter Management Organization, 1999–2006
Extending Educational Reform: From One School to Many
Scaling Up Success: Lessons from Technology-Based Educational Improvement
Metaphor and Theory for Scale-up Research: Eagles in the Anacostia and Activity Systems
Improving Literacy and Math Instruction at Scale in India’s Primary Schools: The Case of Pratham’s Read India Program
Bringing a Student-Centered Participatory Pedagogy to Scale in Colombia
Front Row Seats: What We've Learned from the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies in England
System-Wide Improvement at the Instructional Core: Changing Reading Teaching in South Africa
Achieving Excellence: Bringing Effective Literacy Pedagogy to Scale in Ontario’s Publicly-Funded Education System
What Does it Take to Scale up and Sustain Evidence-Based Practices?
Large Scale Pedagogical Transformation as Widespread Cultural Change in Mexican Public Schools
Bringing Effective Instructional Practice to Scale: An Introduction
Introduction: Scaling Up School Restructuring Designs in Urban Schools
Adapting Innovations to Particular Contexts of Use: A Collaborative Framework
Designing for Scalable Educational Improvement: Processes of Inquiry in Practice
Scaffolding Fidelity and Adaptation in Educational Program Implementation: Experimental Evidence From a Literacy Intervention
Cultivating Safe and Supportive Schools: The Implementation and Institutionalization of Restorative Justice Practices
Sustainability of Educational Change: The Role of Social Geographies
Theory-based Change and Change-based Theory: Going Deeper, Going Broader
The Role of Innovation in Scaling Up Educational Innovations
Constancy and Change in Work Practice in Schools: The Role of Organizational Routines
Teacher Professional Learning and Development: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration (BES)
The Sustainability of a National Reading Reform Initiative in Two States
Federal Programs Supporting Educational Change: Vol. VIII, Implementing and Sustaining Innovations
Comprehensive School Reform and Achievement: A Meta-Analysis
The Sustainability of Comprehensive School Reform Models in Changing District and State Contexts
Educational Change Over Time? The Sustainability and Nonsustainability of Three Decades of Secondary School Change and Continuity
Factors Contributing to Teachers’ Sustained Use of Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies
The Sustainability of Inclusive School Reform
Research–Practice Partnerships in Education: Outcomes, Dynamics, and Open Questions
Sustaining Research–Practice Partnerships: Benefits and Challenges of a Long-Term Research and Development Agenda
Understanding Teachers’ Self-Sustaining, Generative Change in the Context of Professional Development
Moving the Learning of Teaching Closer to Practice: Teacher Education Implications of School‐Based Inquiry Teams
Sustaining School–University Partnerships: Threats, Challenges and Critical Success Factors
Sustaining continued acceleration in reading comprehension achievement following an intervention
Is Sustainability of Schooling Improvement an Article of Faith, or Can It Be Deliberately Crafted?
Capacity Building for School Improvement or Creating Capacity for Learning? A Changing Landscape
Lessons From New American Schools' Scale-Up Phase: Prospects for Bringing Designs to Multiple Schools
Success for all: Improving the Quality of Implementation of Whole-School Change Through the Use of a National Reform Network
Implementation Theory and Practice: Toward a Third Generation
School System (re)design: Developing Educational Infrastructures to Support School Leadership and Teaching Practice
Teachers’ Professional Development in a Climate of Educational Reform
The Rand Change Agent Study Revisited: Macro Perspectives and Micro Realities
Reform Ideology and the Locus of Development Problem in Educational Restructuring: Enduring Lessons from Studies of Educational Innovation
The Memphis Restructuring Initiative: Analysis of Activities and Outcomes that Affect Implementation Success
Rallying the Whole Village: The Comer Process for Reforming Education
Socio-Cultural and Within-School Factors That Affect the Quality of Implementation of School-Wide Programs
Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform
Accelerated Schools: A Decade of Evolution
Improving the Urban High School: What Works and Why
Reform and Resistance in Schools and Classrooms: An Ethnographic View of the Coalition of Essential Schools
External Reform Initiatives and Teachers' Efforts to Reconstruct Their Practice: The Mediating Role of Teachers' Zones of Enactment
Implementing Educational Innovations at Scale: Transforming Researchers Into Continuous Improvement Scientists
The Developmental Evaluation of School Improvement Networks
Supporting Sustainability: Teachers’ Advice Networks and Ambitious Instructional Reform
Expanding the Reach of Education Reforms: Perspectives from Leaders in the Scale-Up of Educational Interventions
Improvement by Design: The Promise of Better Schools
Facing the Challenges of Whole-School Reform: New American Schools After a Decade
A Model of Continuous Improvement in High Schools: A Process for Research, Innovation Design, Implementation, and Scale
Partnering for Improvement: Improvement Communities and Their Role in Scale Up
With Scale in Mind: A Continuous Improvement Model for Implementation
Policy Implementation and Cognition: Reframing and Refocusing Implementation Research
Reconsidering Replication: New Perspectives on Large-Scale School Improvement
Why Reform Sometimes Succeeds: Understanding the Conditions That Produce Reforms That Last
Design for Scalability: A Case Study of the River City Curriculum
Rethinking Scale: Moving Beyond Numbers to Deep and Lasting Change
Bringing Effective Instructional Practice to Scale in American Schools: Lessons from the Long Beach Unified School District
The Challenge of Systemic Change in Complex Educational Systems: A District Model to Scale Up Reform 1
Getting to Scale with Innovations that Deeply Restructure How Students Come to Know Mathematics
Scale-up in Education: Volume 1, Ideas in Principle
Scale-Up in Education: Volume 2, Issues in Practice
Researching the Sustainability of Reform