Chapter 1: National Efforts to Bring Reform to Scale in High-Poverty Schools: Outcomes and Implications

ducation in the United States is a decentralized system composed of highly vari,able practices, programs, and school contexts. The primary technology of education, teaching, is highly complex and is typically designed and implemented by teachers who have traditionally enjoyed a great deal of autonomy and independence from regular inspection. The principal goals and products of education and whether they should be centered around creativity, knowledge of basic facts, sound moral judgment, or something else are constantly open to differing opinions and debate. Can such a diffuse system with uncertain technology and goals be served by centralized efforts to implement educational reform at scale? Furthermore, how can educational research support the scale up of promising programs and practices? This chapter discusses some of the ways in which recent national efforts to reform the country's high-poverty schools inform these questions. I begin by tracing the recent history of these reform efforts. In addition to considering the evolution of the interventions themselves, I consider how the national research and evaluation agenda has evolved, and can continue to evolve, to help advance the development of replicable programs and evidence-based educational policy. Finally, applying the lessons learned from two syntheses of the federal Title I and comprehensive school reform research literature, I offer four conclusions for methodologists, policymakers, and reform developers to consider when conducting research, crafting policy, and refining educational programs to support the scale up of educational innovations.