Understanding and Measuring Spread and Endurance of Innovations in Education
CEMSE's work on sustaining innovations builds on a previous project called, "Accumulating Knowledge on Scaling and Sustaining Reform: A Foundation for Future Research." Current work on sustaining innovations is focused on a project called, "The Ohio STEM Learning Network: A Study of Factors Affecting Implementation, Spread and Sustainability." This study grows out of prior work aimed at understanding the mechanisms of innovation in STEM education. This work builds from two National Science Foundation (NSF) supported studies with the first focused on identifying the factors that contribute to or inhibit the spread and sustainability of innovations in education and the second focused on developing a suite of instruments for measuring fidelity of implementation (FOI) of science and mathematics instructional materials. For more information see the NSF documents for the Fidelity of Implementation Project on our CEMSE site You may also visit Researchers Without Borders to learn more about the Measuring Enactment Project.
The Ohio STEM Learning Network
The Ohio STEM Learning Network: A Study of Factors Affecting Implementation, Spread and Sustainability" is a National Science foundation funded project at the Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education (CEMSE). CEMSE is collaborating with the Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy (BC) in the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University with cooperation of the Ohio STEM Learning Network (OSLN). This study examines the factors affecting the implementation, spread and sustainability of innovative STEM teaching and learning at the secondary school level. OSLN is a statewide network-oriented collaborative of partners from preK-12 education, higher education and business and industry in the state of Ohio. This study focuses on one portion of OSLN's effort – the Platform Schools Initiative which is supported by local and state resources and philanthropy including the Battelle Memorial Institute and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This initiative's goal is to help launch and connect five STEM secondary schools strategically placed in key economic and cultural regions of the state. These schools have diverse designs, but must reflect a set of shared design principles (determined in part by legislation) and engage in a network that supports sharing practices and building knowledge.
The Battelle Center's work, in place since 2007, has focused on the role of knowledge and management networks in the planning, implementation and sustainability of STEM-focused secondary school initiatives in Ohio. These studies have included a review of literature on 'public-private management networks' and structured interviews with key informants from the STEM schools, the collaborating institutions of higher education and corporate partners statewide. This study builds on these previous works and seeks to answer to the following questions:
- What is the status of implementation of each Platform school's STEM school model (including innovative management and STEM teaching and learning practices) and to what extent does the model reflect the OSLN Platform School Initiative's design principles?
- What factors have contributed to or inhibited the implementation of each Platform school's STEM school model?
- What factors have contributed to or inhibited the spread of each Platform school's STEM school model to other schools, hubs, and institutions over time?
- What are the differential effects of the factors affecting sustainability, spread, and implementation on the evolution of the implementation (within and across sites) over time?
Accumulating Knowledge on Scaling and Sustaining Reform: A Foundation for Future Research Project
CEMSE's work on sustaining innovations grows out of a National Science Foundation funded project called, "Accumulating Knowledge on Scaling and Sustaining Reform: A Foundation for Future Research." The goals of that project are: 1) To provide a foundation for accumulating knowledge about diffusion and sustainability of reform in STEM education and education in general, and in other fields; 2) To identify ways that knowledge about diffusion and sustainability of reform in other disciplines and sectors can inform improvement efforts in education and STEM education in particular; and 3) To establish a forum for cross-discipline collaboration and sharing and growth of knowledge on diffusion and sustainability of reform.
Sustaining Innovation: NSF Project Documents
The goals of the project have been addressed with two strategies. The first comprises comprehensive literature reviews on diffusion and sustainability of reform in science education, other areas of education, and other fields including business, marketing, medicine, public health, and economics. The second, is facilitation of a collaborative learning environment that will provide resources and create a forum for sharing findings and methodologies and contribute to shared understandings that support accumulation of knowledge.
The NSF Sustainability Project has created four technical reports that describe the project's steps for collection and review of the sources included in this work. Those technical reports are:
Technical Report #1: Searching for Sources—This technical report describes the search process for sources for the review.
Technical Report #2: Abstract Coding—This technical report describes the process for coding abstracts to determine inclusion for coding the full sources.
Technical Report #3: Report Collection and Coding—This technical report describes the process of coding full sources with NVivo and the development of the codebook.
Technical Report #4: Report Generation and Analysis—This technical report describes the process of generating reports for NVivo nodes and analysis of the coded text.
Sustaining Innovation: NSF Project Meeting to Establish Shared Language
As part of the NSF funded Sustaining Innovation project, CEMSE convened a group of individuals from a range of fields who have studied sustainability of innovations in education and other fields and/or are themselves concerned with sustaining innovations in education. Participants drew from the work of the NSF project and RWB effort to identify next steps for collaboration and a research agenda for the future. Information on the participants, the agenda of the meeting, and clips of discussions are housed at Researchers Without Borders (RWB).
Sustaining Innovation: Sustainability Factors and Processes
As a result of our literature review, we identified a set of key factors and processes that contribute to and/or inhibit the sustainability of innovations. We also examined the relationships between the factors and processes and developed some conceptual maps that illustrate those relationships. The factors and processes and their definitions are on the Researchers Without Borders (RWB) site.
Researchers Without Borders
Researchers Without Borders is a home for open research in education. It is a collaborative working environment in which individuals across academic institutions, disciplines, sectors and levels of organizational structure can direct their efforts to solve shared problems, do collaborative research and development and build productive working relationships and collaborations. Additional information on CEMSE's further efforts on understanding and measuring spread and endurance of innovations in education can be found at Researchers Without Borders. In addition to products and findngs from the NSF projects, RWB also has other resources. There is a collection of Recommended Reading on sustainability of innovations and a searchable database with many sources about sustaining innovation. RWB also has an on-line community with a group of participants focused on sustainability of innovations as well as an online community focused on STEM education.