School Award Programs: Evaluation as a Component in Incentive Systems

Ralph Waldo Emerson made the observation: a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or invent a better mousetrap than his neighbors, though he lives in the woods, the world will beat a path to his door. Despite the observation's fine literary style, its correctness is problematic. A vast literature emphasizes that the transfer of innovations is a complex and often arduous process (see, e.g., Carlson, 1971; Rogers, 1965). The problem of barriers to innovation is especially relevant for people concerned with effective schools research in particular, and school evaluation in general. A major aim of such research has been to identify variables associated with effective schools so that other schools will adopt similar successful policies. But, Emerson to the contrary, we cannot assume that the educational world will beat a path to our discoveries, regardless of their substantive merits. If we hope to stimulate the diffusion of our findings to schools, we must be concerned with the topic of incentives for improvement.