From Pilot to Scale-Up: The Challenges of Take-Up in a State's Rollout of a New Initiative

• In Event: 68.034 - Encouraging Compliance Without Mandates: The Challenge of Take-Up in a New State-Sponsored Education Initiative

Abstract

Many state-wide initiatives begin with a pilot phase, wherein a small set of schools work closely with program developers to implement a new program. After an opportunity for analysis, program redesign, and subsequent evidence of positive outcomes, the program is then rolled out to the rest of the schools in the state. This process is typically associated with externally-developed and evidence-based school improvement programs. Research has documented that many initiatives thrive on a small scale but success cannot be replicated when the program is scaled-up to a larger number of schools (Berends, Bodilly, & Kirby, 2002; Borman, 2005; Datnow, Hubbard, & Mehan, 2002; Shear et al., 2008). Much has been written about these challenges of scaling up (Coburn, 2003; Klingner, Boardman, & McMaster, 2013).

However, an important aspect of program scale-up is the notion of program take-up. Program take-up refers to the decision to participate in a program when participation is voluntary. In the context of state-wide education policy, an important aspect of program implementation is the decision of principals to participate in a new initiative or program when it is not mandated Most of the research on program take-up emerges from the study of individual eligibility for social programs or parents who are eligible for school vouchers. This review primarily rests on understanding factors that explain “incomplete take-up,” when eligible individuals decide not to participate in a program that they have been targeted for (Kleven & Kopczuk, 2011). The theories emphasize the importance of social networks, transaction costs (ease of participation), and timing as important factors in take-up (Currie, 2004). The paper first reviews the literature on program take-up to outline theories explaining why individuals do or do not participate in voluntary programs, and then develops a framework to apply to principals’ decision-making regarding take-up of new programs.

The framework is applied to the case of the state rollout of the Instructional Partnership Initiative (IPI). The analysis relies on data from the first year of the program’s rollout, including actual participation statistics, documentation of state efforts to encourage program participation, notes from meetings of the IPI implementation team, and interviews of take-up and non-take-up principals.

We find that in the initial stages of program rollout, only 68 principals, or 13 percent of eligible principals, agreed to take up the initiative. We describe the state actions to encourage principal take-up, and evaluate the state actions in relation to the theoretical model. We find that principals were largely isolated from others in their school districts in deciding to participate so had no access to networks, signing up for the program was often technologically challenging which increased transaction costs, and the program was rolled out late in the school year. We end with a set of recommendations for policymakers to consider when addressing program take-up, emphasizing the importance of principals’ roles in take-up as a first step before considering program implementation and fidelity.

Authors

• Ellen B. Goldring, Vanderbilt University

• Susan Kemper Patrick, Vanderbilt University