Getting to Scale with Good Educational Practice

Abstract

How can good educational practice move beyond pockets of excellence to reach a much greater proportion of students and educators ? While many children and young adults in school districts and communities around the country have long benefited from the tremendous accomplishments of successful teachers, school, and programs, replicating this success on a larger scale has proven to be a difficult and vexing issue. In this article, Richard Elmore addresses this problem b y analyzing the role of school organization and incentive structures in thwarting large-scale adoption of innovative practices close to the "core" of educational practice. Elmore then reviews evidence from two attempts at large-scale school reform in the past-the progressive movement and the National Science Foundation curriculum reform projectsto evaluate his claims that ambitious large-scale school reform efforts, under current conditions, will be ineffective and transient. He concludes with four detailed recommendations for addressing the issue of scale in improving practice in education. The Problem of Scale in Educational Reform Why do good ideas about teaching and learning have so little impact on U.S. educational practice? This question, I argue, raises a central problem of U.S. education: A significant body of circumstantial evidence points to a deep, systemic incapacity of U.S. schools, and the practitioners who work in them, to develop, incorporate, and extend new ideas about teaching and learning in anything but a small fraction of schools and classrooms. This incapacity, I argue, is rooted primarily in the incentive structures in which teachers and administrators work. Therefore, solving the problem of scale means substantially changing these incentive structures.

Effects of Reform-Based Mathematics Instruction on Low Achievers in Five Third-Grade Classrooms

“…The assumption that all students will flourish with the challenging mathematics curricula and pedagogy that comprise reform needs to be questioned. Reform is a complex process that involves many factors at many levels (Elmore, 1996). The current mathematics reform is, for the most part, being implemented in traditionally configured schools: One teacher works with 28 students.…”

Is alignment enough? Investigating the effects of state policies and professional development on science curriculum implementation

“…School leaders are responsible for setting schedules for instruction and for teachers' planning periods. Giving teachers time to meet during a regular part of the workday provides the conditions for coordinated efforts to implement curricular reforms (Elmore, 1996;Elmore, Peterson, & McCarthey, 1996). Specifically, it can facilitate teachers' engagement in making sense about the meaning of reforms (Coburn, 2001).…”

Pedagogical habitus engagement: teacher learning and adaptation in a professional learning community

“…Eradicating or reducing the inequalities of the past within the South African context remains an elusive and ongoing challenge for all involved in education. Structural changes that have high symbolic value are easy to make, however, actually changing the core of teaching and learning practices relies on teachers (Elmore, 1996 (2008, p. 216) The focus of the PLC conversations was centred on the teachers reflexively finding ways, within the current scripted and regulated CAPS curriculum framing, to build on Christie's (2008) invitation to envisage alternatives, challenge with new ideas, and continually press against the boundaries of the status quo towards something different, something better.…”