Adaptive Integration in the Building a Teaching Effectiveness Network

• In Event: Improving "Go to Scale" Efforts Through Adaptive Integration: Lessons From Carnegie's Networked Improvement Communities

Abstract

Objectives or purposes. Rapid turnover and attrition of novice teachers is one of the most stubborn challenges plaguing schools across the country. More than 42% of teachers leave within their first five years of teaching, and the past twenty years have witnessed a steady increase in teacher attrition (Ingersoll, Merrill, & May, 2014). The field has come to consensus about key elements of novice teacher support, such as regularly observing their classrooms and providing feedback, which are associated with lower attrition rates (Guarino et al., 2006; Kardos & Johnson, 2010). However, translating this knowledge into practice remains a challenge.

In response to the complex problem of beginning teacher attrition, the Carnegie Foundation launched the Building a Teaching Effectiveness Network (BTEN) in collaboration with the AFT, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Aspen Institute, and three urban districts. The network focused on testing and implementing a process for providing beginning teachers regular, constructive feedback and support. This paper examines variation in uptake of improvement work among schools that were members of BTEN, focusing on how schools attempted to adaptively integrate the feedback process, into their local context and systems.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework. BTEN was launched in line with an emerging theory about the power of networked communities grounded in the improvement science tradition to support practical improvement (Bryk, Gomez, Grunow & LeMahieu, 2015). Our investigation was framed by theory on networked improvement communities and the improvement science perspective, an emerging approach to addressing complex problems in education (Bryk, et al., 2015; Lewis, 2015).

Methods and Data Sources. We utilized an exploratory, comparative case study approach to examine adaptive integration in the BTEN network. We selected ten schools from the network for in-depth study, which included interviewing principals and improvement facilitators and gathering artifacts generated from the ongoing improvement work in each school. Our analyses included creating site summaries for each school that integrated data sources, systematic coding of interviews employing an emergent coding scheme, and analysis of artifacts to triangulate themes emerging from the interviews.

Results. Each school was charged with establishing and adapting a routine for providing frequent, manageable, and actionable feedback to beginning teachers. The integration of the feedback process into existing school systems was supported by a set of tools and routines such as, conversation guides, coordination meetings, an online tracking tool that helped coordinate and monitor feedback and support, and a measurement system for determining whether the routine was improving support for teachers. Our case studies illustrate how adaptive integration is a critical step in the spread of change ideas. Uptake of the process with fidelity was not enough to ensure quality performance. Without rich learning framed by the systematic disciplined inquiry, schools lacked crucial knowledge of their system that enabled adaptive integration.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work. Understanding what adaptive integration looked like in BTEN contributes to our learning about NIC initiation and improvement science uptake in educational contexts. The process of adaptive integration is critical for learning how to scale improvements.

Authors

• Jennifer L. Russell, University of Pittsburgh

• Margaret Quinn Hannan, University of Pittsburgh