Creating a Container: Strategies for Implementing Contemporary Improvement Methods Within the Politics of K–12 Education

• In Event: Considering Diverse Stakeholders in Large-Scale Education Reform

Abstract

In K-12 schools and districts, there has been increased interest in contemporary improvement methods, including design-based approaches (Penuel et al, 2011) and improvement science (Bryk et al., 2015). While these methods have demonstrated success, they are not immune to the competing and often conflicting imperatives of our current educational governance (Cohen & Spillane, 1992; Chubb & Moe, 1990). Drawing on data from a longitudinal study of improvement methods in North America, we conceptualized three types of challenges – high demand, turbulence, and incoherence – arising from the politics of education and found that methods have limited built-in strategies to manage these. Some implementations therefore only add to these challenges. We specify strategies where methods mitigated these political challenges.

Authors

• Kim Frumin, Harvard University

• Amelia Peterson, Harvard University

• James Jack, Harvard University

• Maxwell Yurkofsky, Radford University

• Jal David Mehta, Harvard University

• Rebecca Horwitz-Willis, Harvard University