Accommodating Change: Relating Fidelity of Implementation to Program Fit in Educational Reforms

Abstract

Asking practitioners to make larger changes to their practice is often thought to lead to lower fidelity of implementation. However, salient differences between ambitious new reforms and teachers’ existing practices may also facilitate processes of conceptual change and correspondingly increase fidelity of implementation. I use survey data on the implementation of two Comprehensive School Reform programs to investigate this puzzle, presenting a series of descriptive multivariate regressions that—contrary to conventional wisdom—predominantly support a positive association between larger changes and higher fidelity. I also address alternative explanations for this finding and discuss the conceptual and empirical strengths and weaknesses, implications for future research, and potential utility for practice of each interpretation.

Packaging the Promise: Money, Messaging, and Misalignment

“…At its most basic level, policy is used to encourage future outcomes by promoting changes in behavior. Recent scholarship in the implementation literature has highlighted the importance of contrasting the magnitude of a policy "ask" to existing educator practice (Anderson, 2017;Coburn, 2001Coburn, , 2004Spillane et al, 2002). Some changes are small and ask for incremental changes in practice, while others are large and ask for significant growth (Spillane et al, 2002).…”

“…Some changes are small and ask for incremental changes in practice, while others are large and ask for significant growth (Spillane et al, 2002). This magnitude of change represents the fit, or congruence (Coburn, 2004), of new policy or intervention requirements with existing practice (Anderson, 2017).…”

“…Small "asks" represent incremental or mechanical changes in practice that are simply folded into existing cognitive frameworks and represent a high degree of "fit" with current ways of operating (Anderson, 2017;Piaget, 1977;Strike & Posner, 1992). For example, if high school counselors are already coaching students on college access and success, asking them to remind students about one additional scholarship aligns with their existing understanding of their position and is easily absorbed into their current practice.…”

Teaching Research and Data Use in the Education Doctorate

“…The readings assigned to EdD students across the four institutions included a mix of categories. Some are clearly article- or book-length empirical studies such as Anderson (2017).…”

Jumping through Hoops: Troubling Music Teacher Dilemmas in the New Era of Accountability

“…31 Complicating this, however, is that teachers may respond with more fidelity to ambitious reforms that aim to alter significantly their practice than to reforms that present only small changes. 32 Finally, some researchers have suggested that novice teachers, who have entered teaching during the present period of performativity, may be the most likely to respond with positivity. 33…”