Moving from good ideas in educational systems change to sustainable program implementation: Coming to terms with some of the realities

Proponents of systemic changes in education commonly encounter ethical, theoretical, and pragmatic challenges in moving from possibility to implementation of their vision of change. Although ethical and theoretical issues are critically important to a successful change initiative, pragmatic issues relevant to assuring program implementation have generally been understudied in the literature examining school change. The disconnects between research regarding effective practices and program implementation in schools and planning for intervention implementation and actual implementation have been increasingly recognized over the last two decades. It is much easier to talk about behavior change than it is to accomplish it. This article discusses selected issues surrounding ethical, theoretical, and pragmatic issues of systemic change, with the primary emphasis on pragmatic issues. The importance of providing programming to support implementation of new practices in schools is highlighted.