Adaptive Implementation: Navigating the School Improvement Landscape

After decades spent pondering basic questions about adopting or implementing ‘best practices’ in education, educators have assembled a canon of evidence-based strategies and programs that should consistently produce good outcomes. So why is the work of educating students still such challenging work for so many? The best, most skilled educators adapt programs every day to meet the changing needs of their students. One size does not fit all, and one textbook, teaching strategy, or program will never meet the needs of all teachers and learners. Adaptive Implementation: Navigating the School Improvement Landscape focuses on how practitioners and researchers together continue to improve their craft by systematically collecting data on adaptations, testing them out, and figuring out what works. We provide a framework for building an adaptive implementation process in education, with tools and templates for practitioners to use. In the end, we hope that this book sparks a dialogue among educators as they continue to create adaptive implementation processes that work for their context.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction Schools: A combination of technical and adaptive systems What are your core goals? Are you Scaling Up? Or Scaling Down? Adaptive Implementation (AI) Team Adaptive Implementation (AI) Cycle Step 1: What do we need to see? Step 2: What resources do we have? Step 3: What will we do? Step 4: What did we do? Step 5: What did we learn? CASE STUDY: PROJECT EXCEL The ExcEL model STEP 1: WHAT DO WE NEED TO SEE? How Ambitious Should We Be? Identify Waypoints Create your roadmap Five Characteristics of Strong Waypoints Project ExcEL Example STEP 2: WHAT RESOURCES DO WE HAVE? Assess what you have Assess what you don’t have Assess what you could have Project ExcEL Example STEP 3: WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO? Conduct Pro and Con Assessment (PCA) Create a Design and Action Plan (DAP) The problem with logic models Process for developing the DAP Identify the group of activities using the PCA Determine the relationships and synergies of activities Map out the activities Conduct a series of face validity meetings with stakeholders Revise, revise, and revise again Project ExcEL Example STEP 4: WHAT DID WE DO? Annotate your roadmap What to annotate and document? Annotating is not evaluating Project ExcEL Example STEP 5: WHAT DID WE LEARN? Will we do it again? When we do it again … Scaling Up Scaling down Learning through reflection Project ExcEL Example CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION To use or not to use? Who’s at the table? A note to evaluators – and funders Making the time The final word – momentum Appendix Adaptive Implementation (AI) Tools: Templates for the AI Process Adaptive Implementation (AI) Process Template Step 1: What do we want to see? Five Characteristics of Strong Waypoints Checklist Step 2: What resources do we have? AI Resource Management Tool Step 3: What will we do? Pro/ Con Assessment (PCA) Template Step 3: What will we do? Design and Action Plan (DAP) Template Step 4: What did we do? Data Review Sheet Step 5: What Did We Learn? Discussion Protocol Tool REFERENCES  

About the Author :
Ryoko Yamaguchi is a social scientist and former special education teacher with over 25 years of experience in K-12 education serving disadvantaged students as a practitioner, researcher, parent leader, and advocate. Dr. Yamaguchi has advised state and local education policy makers, school and teacher leaders, school board members, and community and parent leaders across the country on effective school practices to increase student learning and ameliorate achievement gaps. Laureen Avery leads the work of UCLA’s Center X efforts in the Northeastern US, and has more than 30 years of experience in K-12 public education as a researcher and practitioner. Avery developed and leads whole school improvement programs focused on improving outcomes for English learners and at-risk students. Jason Cervone is the Northeast Region Project Director for UCLA Center X’s Project ExcEL Leadership Academy. He has over a decade of experience in public education as a researcher, advisor, and evaluator, focusing on improving instruction for English Learners. Lisa DiMartino is a former Program Manager for UCLA Center X, Northeast Region, and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree at Lesley University. DiMartino has over fifteen years of experience working with educators, administrators, and community organizations to improve student achievement through professional development and program evaluation. Adam Hall is an education research and policy consultant. He has served the education community as an evaluator, technical assistance provider, and professional developer for over 20 years.

Review :
For those of us who seek to advance an improvement science in education, this book promises an important contribution. It is conceptually rigorous, practically feasible, and methodologically transparent. It addresses one of the most widespread and common of improvement challenges -- how to get good ideas to work in practice, even across diverse contexts. It is a science. But don’t be afraid of it, it is the answer to the problem of how practitioners can get good answers to their problems. Early-stage innovation requires a thoughtful approach to real-world experimentation and continuous improvement. Adaptive innovation builds on what is already known, but with the flexibility needed to succeed. Adaptive Implementation is an insightful framing of how the real work of school improvement can take root It sets the tone for melding the respective agendas of researchers and practitioners in a meaningful way. The Adaptive Implementation Process is informing our way of work in the School District of Palm Beach County. There is an ever-increasing need for researchers and practitioners to deliver rapid solutions, while informing the work through a collaborative cycle. The AIP offers a practical solution for field-based implementation, particularly in large-sized districts.