The Massachusetts Innovation School Policy and the Missed Opportunity for Radical Change

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: Policy and State-Level Improvement Issues

Abstract

The Massachusetts Innovation Schools initiative (2010) authorized the creation of in-district, autonomous schools that implement inventive strategies to increase student achievement and reduce gaps while keeping in-district funding. To date there has been no large-scale study of innovations across the forty schools. This study explores the nature of innovation as reflected in schools’ innovation plans. Radical innovations would disrupt the grammar of schooling, transforming the formal structures that organize the work of teaching and learning. Our analysis suggests that schools adopted new organizational routines, but the performative aspect of the routines maintained the status quo. We argue that the policy itself undermined radical innovation because it tightly coupled instruction with accountability-driven outcomes.

Authors

• Stacy Agee Szczesiul, University of Massachusetts - Lowell

• Megin Charner-Laird, Salem State University