Cynthia E Coburn
Biographic Data
| ID | 4136716 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Cynthia E Coburn |
| GIVEN NAMES | Cynthia E |
| FAMILY NAME | Coburn |
| SIGNATURE | COBURN C E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Berkeley |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 629 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
Measuring Organizational Learning Outcomes Through Big Ideas
External partnerships can play a vital role in educational change, yet few tools assess how partner ideas become embedded in school systems. This paper introduces measuring organizational learning outcomes through big ideas (MOBI), an emerging methodological approach to identify when and how external ideas take root. MOBI examines the presence, spread, alignment, attribution, and centrality of partner ideas across collective knowledge, policy doc…
Research Hidden in Plain Sight: Theorizing Latent Use as a Form of Research Use
Calls for evidence-based practice are pervasive. In response, extensive scholarship has employed four categories of research use—instrumental, symbolic, conceptual, and imposed—to examine how research is used in schools and districts. We draw on sociocultural learning theory and empirical data from one school district to newly theorize latent use as another category of research use. We define latent use as when educators participate with a resear…
Instructional Policy From Pre-K to Third Grade: The Challenges of Fostering Alignment and Continuity in Two School Districts
In an effort to improve learning for young children and respond to preschool fade out, some districts are working on “PreK-3” initiatives to create better connected learning pathways for children. In these pathways, primary grades continue to build on what children learn in preschool; they also present potential implementation challenges that are not accounted for in the literature. Using conceptual tools from institutional theory and empirical e…
Learning at the Boundaries of Research and Practice: A Framework for Understanding Research–Practice Partnerships
Given the rapid growth of research–practice partnerships (RPPs), we need a framework that helps the field understand how RPPs can facilitate organizational learning in service of local educational improvement and transformation. Drawing on sociocultural and organizational learning theories, we argue that learning can happen for the organizations engaged in RPPs at the boundaries of research and practice. Such learning is evident when there are ch…
Solving for X: Constructing Algebra and Algebra Policy During a Time of Change
The year students take Algebra I historically determines how far they progress in secondary mathematics, creating complex equity issues around access to this course. By examining a case study of one large, urban school district adjusting to the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS-M), we demonstrate how district leaders' interactions, in combination with their organizational and institutional environments, led to an overhaul of the se…
Fostering educational improvement with research-practice partnerships
Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) provide opportunities for researchers to support school districts in addressing the complex challenges they face. Cynthia E. Coburn, William R. Penuel, and Caitlin C. Farrell situate RPPs in the history of educational research and discuss the needs they were designed to address. They then describe what contemporary RPPs are and what they do and close by discussing ways that RPPs can contribute to educational …
Constraints, Values, and Information: How Leaders in One District Justify Their Positions During Instructional Decision Making
Using over 350 hours of observational data from district-level meetings, we investigate how leaders support their interpretations of problems and proposed solutions during closed-door negotiations around three policy decisions, and how they invoke race, class, and language in the process. District leaders primarily cite constraints from stakeholders, practical realities, and policies during deliberations. They also draw on beliefs, values, and—to…
How Central Office Leaders Influence School Leaders’ Decision-Making: Unpacking Power Dynamics in Two School-Based Decision-Making Systems
While past studies on school district decentralization found that central office leaders can limit school leaders’ decision-making power, the studies did not examine how they do so. We investigated this in eight elementary schools in two large urban school systems with official policies of school site-based decision-making. We found that even though school leaders had legal authority over most instructional decisions, they overwhelmingly made dec…
“What the Hell Is This, and Who the Hell Are You?” Role and Identity Negotiation in Research-Practice Partnerships
In research-practice partnerships (RPPs), the line between researcher and practitioner can be blurred, and the roles for everyone involved may be unclear. Yet little is known about how these roles are negotiated and with what consequences for collaborative efforts. Guided by organizational theory, we share findings from a multiyear case study of one RPP, drawing on observations of partnership leadership meetings and interviews with school distric…
The Multiple Meanings of Scale: Implications for Researchers and Practitioners
Interest in the study of scale has grown over the past three decades, yet it still suffers from a lack of conceptual clarity. Despite attempts at conceptualizing scale, there is still wide diversity in how the term “scale” is used. These differences matter. They impact how scale is studied, the strategies used to achieve scale, and the lessons we can draw across studies of the scale of innovations. In this article, we argue that scale is a polyse…
Access, Activation, and Influence: How Brokers Mediate Social Capital Among Professional Development Providers
Professional development [PD] providers can shape how teachers understand and implement new policies. Yet we have a limited understanding of how providers develop the ideas they promote. We explore this by examining social capital among mathematics PD providers. Using social network and interview data, we identified providers in brokerage positions and analyze their interactions. We found that broker behavior varied by organizational setting. Bro…
Under What Conditions Do School Districts Learn From External Partners? The Role of Absorptive Capacity
School district central offices regularly engage with external partners in improvement efforts, but these partnerships are not always productive. Indeed, little is known about under what conditions partnerships are likely to lead to organizational learning outcomes. We conducted a longitudinal comparative case study of two departments in one urban school district central office, both working with the same external partner. Data included 131 inter…
The future of Evidence & Policy: Moving forward from Valencia
The future of Evidence & Policy: moving forward from ValenciaIn celebrating the first ten years of Evidence & Policy we wanted to think expansively and creatively about how to move the field forward and identify ways in which Evidence & Policy can contribute to such an advance.To help with this mission, we held a twoday international meeting in Valencia, Spain, in October 2015
What’s Policy Got to Do with It? How the Structure-Agency Debate Can Illuminate Policy Implementation
Research–Practice Partnerships in Education: Outcomes, Dynamics, and Open Questions
Policymakers, funders, and researchers today view research–practice partnerships (RPPs) as a promising approach for expanding the role of research in improving educational practice. Although studies in other fields provide evidence of the potential for RPPs, studies in education are few. This article provides a review of available evidence of the outcomes and dynamics of RPPs in education and related fields. It then outlines a research agenda for…
Alignment and Accountability in Policy Design and Implementation: The Common Core State Standards and Implementation Research
Both the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and recent efforts to hold schools and teachers accountable have been hotly debated among practitioners, policymakers, and the public at large. Much of the debate centers on the merits and demerits of these initiatives and the general approach they represent to reforming teaching and learning. In this article, we focus on a different issue, that is, the opportunity to advance research on policy implemen…
Conceptualizing Research–Practice Partnerships as Joint Work at Boundaries
This article presents a conceptual framework for analyzing how researchers and district leaders perceive and navigate differences they encounter in the context of research–practice partnerships. Our framework contrasts with images of partnership work as facilitating the translation of research into practice. Instead, we argue that partnership activity is best viewed as a form of joint work requiring mutual engagement across multiple boundaries. D…
The Embeddedness of Teachers' Social Networks: Evidence from a Study of Mathematics Reform
Teachers' social networks can play an important role in teacher learning and organizational change. But what influences teachers' networks? Why do some teachers have networks that are likely to support individual and organizational change, while others do not? This study is a first step in answering this question. We focus on how district policy influences the quality and configuration of teachers' social networks. We draw on a longitudinal, qual…
The Practice of Data Use: An Introduction
Supporting Sustainability: Teachers’ Advice Networks and Ambitious Instructional Reform
Scaling up instructional improvement remains a central challenge for school systems. While existing research suggests that teachers’ social networks play a crucial role, we know little about what dimensions of teachers’ social networks matter for sustainability. Drawing from a longitudinal study of the scale-up of mathematics reform, we use qualitative social network analysis and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to investigate the relations…
Reading Coaches and the Relationship Between Policy and Practice
Many educational policy initiatives use instructional coaching to accomplish their goals. Yet we know little about the role of reading coaches in mediating the relationship between policy and teachers’ classroom practice. In this article, we investigate the role of reading coaches in mediating the relationship between Reading First policy and teachers’ classroom practice. We conducted an in‐depth, longitudinal case study of one urban elementary s…
Evidence, Interpretation, and Persuasion: Instructional Decision Making at the District Central Office
Background/Context Calls for evidence-based decision making have become increasingly prominent on the educational landscape. School district central offices increasingly experience these demands. Yet there are few empirical studies of evidence use at the district level. Furthermore, research on evidence use among policy makers in noneducation settings raises questions about the models of decision making promoted by evidence-use policies, suggesti…
District Policy and Teachers’ Social Networks
Policy makers increasingly include provisions aimed at fostering professional community as part of reform initiatives. Yet little is known about the impact of policy on teachers’ professional relations in schools. Drawing theoretically from social capital theory and methodologically from qualitative social network analysis, this article explores how district policies influence teachers’ social networks in eight elementary schools in two districts…
Evidence-Based Decision Making in School District Central Offices: Toward a Policy and Research Agenda
District central office administrators increasingly face policy demands to use “evidence” in their decision making. These demands up the ante on education policy researchers and policy makers to better understand what evidence use in district central offices entails and the conditions that may support it. To that end, the authors conducted a comprehensive review of research literature on evidence use in district central offices, finding that the …
Architectures for Learning: A Comparative Analysis of Two Urban School Districts
This article explores the usefulness of communities of practice theory for understanding how districts can create organizational environments that foster teachers' opportunities to learn the new ideas and practices required to carry out ambitious reforms. It draws on data from a longitudinal study of the implementation of ambitious mathematics curricula in two urban districts. By analyzing the contrasting ways that teachers in two schools in each…
Rethinking Scale: Moving Beyond Numbers to Deep and Lasting Change
The issue of “scale” is a key challenge for school reform, yet it remains undertheorized in the literature. Definitions of scale have traditionally restricted its scope, focusing on the expanding number of schools reached by a reform. Such definitions mask the complex challenges of reaching out broadly while simultaneously cultivating the depth of change necessary to support and sustain consequential change. This article draws on a review of theo…
Research–Practice Partnerships in Education: Outcomes, Dynamics, and Open Questions
Policymakers, funders, and researchers today view research–practice partnerships (RPPs) as a promising approach for expanding the role of research in improving educational practice. Although studies in other fields provide evidence of the potential for RPPs, studies in education are few. This article provides a review of available evidence of the outcomes and dynamics of RPPs in education and related fields. It then outlines a research agenda for…
Beyond Decoupling: Rethinking the Relationship Between the Institutional Environment and the Classroom
The decoupling argument-that schools respond to pressures from the institutional environment by decoupling changes in structures from classroom instruction-has been a central feature of institutional theory since the early 1970s. This study suggests the need to rethink this argument. Drawing on a study of the relationship between changing ideas about reading instruction in California from 1983 to 1999 and teachers' classroom practice, the study p…
Framing the Problem of Reading Instruction: Using Frame Analysis to Uncover the Microprocesses of Policy Implementation
Policy problems do not exist as social fact awaiting discovery. Rather, they are constructed as policymakers and constituents interpret a particular aspect of the social world as problematic. How a policy problem is framed is important because it assigns responsibility and creates rationales that authorize some policy solutions and not others. This article brings together sense-making theory and frame analysis to understand the dynamics of proble…
Supporting Sustainability: Teachers’ Advice Networks and Ambitious Instructional Reform
Scaling up instructional improvement remains a central challenge for school systems. While existing research suggests that teachers’ social networks play a crucial role, we know little about what dimensions of teachers’ social networks matter for sustainability. Drawing from a longitudinal study of the scale-up of mathematics reform, we use qualitative social network analysis and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to investigate the relations…
Reading Coaches and the Relationship Between Policy and Practice
Many educational policy initiatives use instructional coaching to accomplish their goals. Yet we know little about the role of reading coaches in mediating the relationship between policy and teachers’ classroom practice. In this article, we investigate the role of reading coaches in mediating the relationship between Reading First policy and teachers’ classroom practice. We conducted an in‐depth, longitudinal case study of one urban elementary s…
Alignment and Accountability in Policy Design and Implementation: The Common Core State Standards and Implementation Research
Both the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and recent efforts to hold schools and teachers accountable have been hotly debated among practitioners, policymakers, and the public at large. Much of the debate centers on the merits and demerits of these initiatives and the general approach they represent to reforming teaching and learning. In this article, we focus on a different issue, that is, the opportunity to advance research on policy implemen…
What’s Policy Got to Do with It? How the Structure-Agency Debate Can Illuminate Policy Implementation
The Practice of Data Use: An Introduction
Architectures for Learning: A Comparative Analysis of Two Urban School Districts
This article explores the usefulness of communities of practice theory for understanding how districts can create organizational environments that foster teachers' opportunities to learn the new ideas and practices required to carry out ambitious reforms. It draws on data from a longitudinal study of the implementation of ambitious mathematics curricula in two urban districts. By analyzing the contrasting ways that teachers in two schools in each…
Authority, Status, and the Dynamics of Insider–Outsider Partnerships at the District Level
As school districts move toward systemic approaches to instructional reform, they are increasingly collaborating with outside organizations in this complex work. While emerging research touts the benefits of insider–outsider collaboration, we know little about the underlying processes by which partnerships are negotiated and maintained at the district level. Drawing on data from a longitudinal case study of a collaborative effort between an urban…
Conceptions of Evidence Use in School Districts: Mapping the Terrain
Current policies place unprecedented demands on districts to use evidence to guide their educational improvement efforts. How districts respond is likely to be influenced by how individuals in the district conceptualize what it means to use evidence in their ongoing work. This study draws on sensemaking and institutional theory to investigate how individuals in one urban school district conceive of evidence‐based practice. The study develops grou…
Learning at the Boundaries of Research and Practice: A Framework for Understanding Research–Practice Partnerships
Given the rapid growth of research–practice partnerships (RPPs), we need a framework that helps the field understand how RPPs can facilitate organizational learning in service of local educational improvement and transformation. Drawing on sociocultural and organizational learning theories, we argue that learning can happen for the organizations engaged in RPPs at the boundaries of research and practice. Such learning is evident when there are ch…
Under What Conditions Do School Districts Learn From External Partners? The Role of Absorptive Capacity
School district central offices regularly engage with external partners in improvement efforts, but these partnerships are not always productive. Indeed, little is known about under what conditions partnerships are likely to lead to organizational learning outcomes. We conducted a longitudinal comparative case study of two departments in one urban school district central office, both working with the same external partner. Data included 131 inter…
The Embeddedness of Teachers' Social Networks: Evidence from a Study of Mathematics Reform
Teachers' social networks can play an important role in teacher learning and organizational change. But what influences teachers' networks? Why do some teachers have networks that are likely to support individual and organizational change, while others do not? This study is a first step in answering this question. We focus on how district policy influences the quality and configuration of teachers' social networks. We draw on a longitudinal, qual…
The Multiple Meanings of Scale: Implications for Researchers and Practitioners
Interest in the study of scale has grown over the past three decades, yet it still suffers from a lack of conceptual clarity. Despite attempts at conceptualizing scale, there is still wide diversity in how the term “scale” is used. These differences matter. They impact how scale is studied, the strategies used to achieve scale, and the lessons we can draw across studies of the scale of innovations. In this article, we argue that scale is a polyse…
How Central Office Leaders Influence School Leaders’ Decision-Making: Unpacking Power Dynamics in Two School-Based Decision-Making Systems
While past studies on school district decentralization found that central office leaders can limit school leaders’ decision-making power, the studies did not examine how they do so. We investigated this in eight elementary schools in two large urban school systems with official policies of school site-based decision-making. We found that even though school leaders had legal authority over most instructional decisions, they overwhelmingly made dec…
Constraints, Values, and Information: How Leaders in One District Justify Their Positions During Instructional Decision Making
Using over 350 hours of observational data from district-level meetings, we investigate how leaders support their interpretations of problems and proposed solutions during closed-door negotiations around three policy decisions, and how they invoke race, class, and language in the process. District leaders primarily cite constraints from stakeholders, practical realities, and policies during deliberations. They also draw on beliefs, values, and—to…
Access, Activation, and Influence: How Brokers Mediate Social Capital Among Professional Development Providers
Professional development [PD] providers can shape how teachers understand and implement new policies. Yet we have a limited understanding of how providers develop the ideas they promote. We explore this by examining social capital among mathematics PD providers. Using social network and interview data, we identified providers in brokerage positions and analyze their interactions. We found that broker behavior varied by organizational setting. Bro…
Research Hidden in Plain Sight: Theorizing Latent Use as a Form of Research Use
Calls for evidence-based practice are pervasive. In response, extensive scholarship has employed four categories of research use—instrumental, symbolic, conceptual, and imposed—to examine how research is used in schools and districts. We draw on sociocultural learning theory and empirical data from one school district to newly theorize latent use as another category of research use. We define latent use as when educators participate with a resear…
The future of Evidence & Policy: Moving forward from Valencia
The future of Evidence & Policy: moving forward from ValenciaIn celebrating the first ten years of Evidence & Policy we wanted to think expansively and creatively about how to move the field forward and identify ways in which Evidence & Policy can contribute to such an advance.To help with this mission, we held a twoday international meeting in Valencia, Spain, in October 2015
Collective Sensemaking about Reading: How Teachers Mediate Reading Policy in Their Professional Communities
Recent research on the relationship between instructional policy and classroom practice suggests that teachers interpret, adapt, and even transform policies as they put them into place. This paper extends this line of research, using an in-depth case study of one California elementary school to examine the processes by which teachers construct and reconstruct multiple policy messages about reading instruction in the context of their professional …
Rethinking Scale: Moving Beyond Numbers to Deep and Lasting Change
The issue of “scale” is a key challenge for school reform, yet it remains undertheorized in the literature. Definitions of scale have traditionally restricted its scope, focusing on the expanding number of schools reached by a reform. Such definitions mask the complex challenges of reaching out broadly while simultaneously cultivating the depth of change necessary to support and sustain consequential change. This article draws on a review of theo…
Beyond Decoupling: Rethinking the Relationship Between the Institutional Environment and the Classroom
The decoupling argument-that schools respond to pressures from the institutional environment by decoupling changes in structures from classroom instruction-has been a central feature of institutional theory since the early 1970s. This study suggests the need to rethink this argument. Drawing on a study of the relationship between changing ideas about reading instruction in California from 1983 to 1999 and teachers' classroom practice, the study p…
Shaping Teacher Sensemaking: School Leaders and the Enactment of Reading Policy
A growing body of research has emphasized the social processes by which teachers adapt and transform policy as they enact it in their classrooms. Yet little attention has been paid to the role of school leaders in this process. Drawing on sociological theories of sensemaking, this article investigates how principals in two California elementary schools influenced teacher learning about and enactment of changing reading policy. It argues that prin…
Conceptions of Evidence Use in School Districts: Mapping the Terrain
Current policies place unprecedented demands on districts to use evidence to guide their educational improvement efforts. How districts respond is likely to be influenced by how individuals in the district conceptualize what it means to use evidence in their ongoing work. This study draws on sensemaking and institutional theory to investigate how individuals in one urban school district conceive of evidence‐based practice. The study develops grou…
Framing the Problem of Reading Instruction: Using Frame Analysis to Uncover the Microprocesses of Policy Implementation
Policy problems do not exist as social fact awaiting discovery. Rather, they are constructed as policymakers and constituents interpret a particular aspect of the social world as problematic. How a policy problem is framed is important because it assigns responsibility and creates rationales that authorize some policy solutions and not others. This article brings together sense-making theory and frame analysis to understand the dynamics of proble…
District Policy and Teachers’ Social Networks
Policy makers increasingly include provisions aimed at fostering professional community as part of reform initiatives. Yet little is known about the impact of policy on teachers’ professional relations in schools. Drawing theoretically from social capital theory and methodologically from qualitative social network analysis, this article explores how district policies influence teachers’ social networks in eight elementary schools in two districts…
Evidence-Based Decision Making in School District Central Offices: Toward a Policy and Research Agenda
District central office administrators increasingly face policy demands to use “evidence” in their decision making. These demands up the ante on education policy researchers and policy makers to better understand what evidence use in district central offices entails and the conditions that may support it. To that end, the authors conducted a comprehensive review of research literature on evidence use in district central offices, finding that the …
Architectures for Learning: A Comparative Analysis of Two Urban School Districts
This article explores the usefulness of communities of practice theory for understanding how districts can create organizational environments that foster teachers' opportunities to learn the new ideas and practices required to carry out ambitious reforms. It draws on data from a longitudinal study of the implementation of ambitious mathematics curricula in two urban districts. By analyzing the contrasting ways that teachers in two schools in each…
Authority, Status, and the Dynamics of Insider–Outsider Partnerships at the District Level
As school districts move toward systemic approaches to instructional reform, they are increasingly collaborating with outside organizations in this complex work. While emerging research touts the benefits of insider–outsider collaboration, we know little about the underlying processes by which partnerships are negotiated and maintained at the district level. Drawing on data from a longitudinal case study of a collaborative effort between an urban…
Evidence, Interpretation, and Persuasion: Instructional Decision Making at the District Central Office
Background/Context Calls for evidence-based decision making have become increasingly prominent on the educational landscape. School district central offices increasingly experience these demands. Yet there are few empirical studies of evidence use at the district level. Furthermore, research on evidence use among policy makers in noneducation settings raises questions about the models of decision making promoted by evidence-use policies, suggesti…
The Practice of Data Use: An Introduction
Supporting Sustainability: Teachers’ Advice Networks and Ambitious Instructional Reform
Scaling up instructional improvement remains a central challenge for school systems. While existing research suggests that teachers’ social networks play a crucial role, we know little about what dimensions of teachers’ social networks matter for sustainability. Drawing from a longitudinal study of the scale-up of mathematics reform, we use qualitative social network analysis and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to investigate the relations…
Reading Coaches and the Relationship Between Policy and Practice
Many educational policy initiatives use instructional coaching to accomplish their goals. Yet we know little about the role of reading coaches in mediating the relationship between policy and teachers’ classroom practice. In this article, we investigate the role of reading coaches in mediating the relationship between Reading First policy and teachers’ classroom practice. We conducted an in‐depth, longitudinal case study of one urban elementary s…
The Embeddedness of Teachers' Social Networks: Evidence from a Study of Mathematics Reform
Teachers' social networks can play an important role in teacher learning and organizational change. But what influences teachers' networks? Why do some teachers have networks that are likely to support individual and organizational change, while others do not? This study is a first step in answering this question. We focus on how district policy influences the quality and configuration of teachers' social networks. We draw on a longitudinal, qual…
Conceptualizing Research–Practice Partnerships as Joint Work at Boundaries
This article presents a conceptual framework for analyzing how researchers and district leaders perceive and navigate differences they encounter in the context of research–practice partnerships. Our framework contrasts with images of partnership work as facilitating the translation of research into practice. Instead, we argue that partnership activity is best viewed as a form of joint work requiring mutual engagement across multiple boundaries. D…
The future of Evidence & Policy: Moving forward from Valencia
The future of Evidence & Policy: moving forward from ValenciaIn celebrating the first ten years of Evidence & Policy we wanted to think expansively and creatively about how to move the field forward and identify ways in which Evidence & Policy can contribute to such an advance.To help with this mission, we held a twoday international meeting in Valencia, Spain, in October 2015
What’s Policy Got to Do with It? How the Structure-Agency Debate Can Illuminate Policy Implementation
Research–Practice Partnerships in Education: Outcomes, Dynamics, and Open Questions
Policymakers, funders, and researchers today view research–practice partnerships (RPPs) as a promising approach for expanding the role of research in improving educational practice. Although studies in other fields provide evidence of the potential for RPPs, studies in education are few. This article provides a review of available evidence of the outcomes and dynamics of RPPs in education and related fields. It then outlines a research agenda for…
Alignment and Accountability in Policy Design and Implementation: The Common Core State Standards and Implementation Research
Both the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and recent efforts to hold schools and teachers accountable have been hotly debated among practitioners, policymakers, and the public at large. Much of the debate centers on the merits and demerits of these initiatives and the general approach they represent to reforming teaching and learning. In this article, we focus on a different issue, that is, the opportunity to advance research on policy implemen…
“What the Hell Is This, and Who the Hell Are You?” Role and Identity Negotiation in Research-Practice Partnerships
In research-practice partnerships (RPPs), the line between researcher and practitioner can be blurred, and the roles for everyone involved may be unclear. Yet little is known about how these roles are negotiated and with what consequences for collaborative efforts. Guided by organizational theory, we share findings from a multiyear case study of one RPP, drawing on observations of partnership leadership meetings and interviews with school distric…
The Multiple Meanings of Scale: Implications for Researchers and Practitioners
Interest in the study of scale has grown over the past three decades, yet it still suffers from a lack of conceptual clarity. Despite attempts at conceptualizing scale, there is still wide diversity in how the term “scale” is used. These differences matter. They impact how scale is studied, the strategies used to achieve scale, and the lessons we can draw across studies of the scale of innovations. In this article, we argue that scale is a polyse…
Access, Activation, and Influence: How Brokers Mediate Social Capital Among Professional Development Providers
Professional development [PD] providers can shape how teachers understand and implement new policies. Yet we have a limited understanding of how providers develop the ideas they promote. We explore this by examining social capital among mathematics PD providers. Using social network and interview data, we identified providers in brokerage positions and analyze their interactions. We found that broker behavior varied by organizational setting. Bro…
Under What Conditions Do School Districts Learn From External Partners? The Role of Absorptive Capacity
School district central offices regularly engage with external partners in improvement efforts, but these partnerships are not always productive. Indeed, little is known about under what conditions partnerships are likely to lead to organizational learning outcomes. We conducted a longitudinal comparative case study of two departments in one urban school district central office, both working with the same external partner. Data included 131 inter…
How Central Office Leaders Influence School Leaders’ Decision-Making: Unpacking Power Dynamics in Two School-Based Decision-Making Systems
While past studies on school district decentralization found that central office leaders can limit school leaders’ decision-making power, the studies did not examine how they do so. We investigated this in eight elementary schools in two large urban school systems with official policies of school site-based decision-making. We found that even though school leaders had legal authority over most instructional decisions, they overwhelmingly made dec…
Educational Assessment and Improvement (27 works) · Sociology (27 works) · Political science (25 works) · Public relations (20 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (17 works) · Pedagogy (16 works) · Psychology (16 works) · Computer Science (15 works) · Evaluation and Performance Assessment (14 works) · Social science (13 works)