Reconsidering Replication: New Perspectives on Large-Scale School Improvement

Item

Title

Reconsidering Replication: New Perspectives on Large-Scale School Improvement

Abstract/Description

The purpose of this analysis is to reconsider organizational replication as a strategy for large-scale school improvement: a strategy that features a "hub" organization collaborating with "outlet" schools to enact school-wide designs for improvement. To do so, we synthesize a leading line of research on commercial replication to construct a "knowledge-based logic" focused on the production, use, improvement, and retention of effective practices in large numbers of schools. Drawing on findings from a longitudinal case study, we then use the knowledge-based logic to structure an interpretation of Success for All, a leading comprehensive school reform program. In contrast to common assumptions of organizational replication as a strategy that yields rapid results at the expense of local and professional control, we argue that organizational replication can be understood as a long-term enterprise in which program providers and schools collaborate to produce, use, improve, and retain practical knowledge. Capitalizing on this potential, however, is contingent on both proponents and critics re-examining common assumptions about organizational replication and recognizing value in replication enterprises that they would otherwise miss.

Author/creator

Peurach, Donald J.

Glazer, Joshua L.

Date

May 2012

In publication

Journal of Educational Change

Volume

13

Issue

2

Pages

155-190

Resource type

Research/Scholarly Media

Resource status/form

en Published Text

Scholarship genre

en Empirical

en Theoretical

Keywords

best practice

educational reform

innovation

knowledge production

organizational learning

replication

scale

school turnaround

sustainability

IRE Approach/Concept

Organizational Replication

Large-Scale Improvement

Education Reform

Featured case/project

Success for All Foundation (SFAF)

i3 Learning Community (i3LC)

Language

en

Open access/full-text available

en No

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

1389-2843

DOI

10.1007/s10833-011-9177-7

URL

Publisher Webpage

ERIC Link (#EJ960654)

Grant funding

Atlantic Philanthropies, USA

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

U.S. Department of Education

National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant number

U.S. Department of Education (#R308A6003)

National Science Foundation (#9979863).

Citation

Peurach, D. J., & Glazer, J. L. (2012). Reconsidering Replication: New Perspectives on Large-Scale School Improvement. Journal of Educational Change, 13(2), 155–190. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-011-9177-7

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