This is the site of the “Accumulating Knowledge on Scaling and Sustaining Reform: A Foundation for Future Research” project. This project, funded through NSF’s REESE program focuses on three goals:
- to provide a foundation for accumulating knowledge about scaling and sustainability of innovations in education with an emphasis on science education;
- to identify knowledge about scaling and sustainability of innovations from other disciplines that can inform researchers’, reformers’ and policy makers’ improvement efforts in education; and
- to establish a forum for cross-discipline collaboration and sharing knowledge on scaling and sustainability of innovations.
This two-year project is taking a two-strand approach for creating a strong foundation for accumulating knowledge about diffusion and sustainability of innovations. First, we will conduct a comprehensive review of the literature of sustainability, scaling, and diffusion beginning with science and mathematics education and establish a conceptual framework that provides clarity of language, and captures the range of ways spread and endurance of innovations have been described and understood.
Second, in association with the review of literature and the development of the conceptual framework, we will convene a meeting of scholars in education, business, health, medicine, economics, and other fields who have studied diffusion and sustainability of innovations.