Using Continuous Improvement Approaches to Achieve Scale: Implications for Depth, Spread, Ownership, and Sustainability

• In Event: 18.035 - Managing Complex Systems for Implementation and Scale

Abstract

Recent history of school reform has numerous examples of promising programs that are developed and shown to have a positive impact on student outcomes, but encounter significant challenges regarding scale and sustainability. These challenges include building teacher buy-in, attending to the organizational context in which innovations are enacted, and aligning new practices with the broader array of programs that exist in schools. This paper is situated within the broader context of identifying how to more effectively scale and sustain effective practices. By both enacting a new approach to scale and studying how key principles of the approach contribute to scale, this paper provides crucial knowledge about how improvement science and design-based implementation research may lead to meaningful changes in schools.

Authors

• Marisa A. Cannata, Vanderbilt University

• Stacey A. Rutledge, Florida State University

• Mollie Rubin, Vanderbilt University

• Christopher Redding, University of Florida