Is "Scalable" a Code Word for Top-Down Reform?
About a week ago, John Thompson posted a note in which he conceded that "Educators who oppose the testing mania must admit that our preferred strategies would require high-quality implementation, and neither do we know how to scale them up."
I want to explore this idea of "scalability," because I think we may have a problem here.
As I wrote in a comment to his post, we have been told that the only way schools can improve is through "scalable" reforms. What does that mean? It seems to mean that whenever we come up with some great initiative, the only way it can make a difference is if it can be packaged and replicated. Or even more often, that we can only improve if we take some model that has been "proven" elsewhere and replicate it ourselves. There is certainly value in sharing great models, and many can be built upon and re-created anew. But I believe there is an underlying bias towards uniform solutions that are packaged and sold as innovations. I think of the great wave of Professional Learning Communities that swept through a few years ago. We had been working in Oakland in a
I want to explore this idea of "scalability," because I think we may have a problem here.
As I wrote in a comment to his post, we have been told that the only way schools can improve is through "scalable" reforms. What does that mean? It seems to mean that whenever we come up with some great initiative, the only way it can make a difference is if it can be packaged and replicated. Or even more often, that we can only improve if we take some model that has been "proven" elsewhere and replicate it ourselves. There is certainly value in sharing great models, and many can be built upon and re-created anew. But I believe there is an underlying bias towards uniform solutions that are packaged and sold as innovations. I think of the great wave of Professional Learning Communities that swept through a few years ago. We had been working in Oakland in a
