Learning From Adaptation to Support Instructional Improvement at Scale: Understanding Coach Adaptation in the TN Mathematics Coaching Project

Abstract

Attempts to scale up instructional interventions confront implementation challenges that mitigate their ultimate impact on teaching and learning. In this article, we argue that learning about adaptation during the design and implementation phases of reform is critical to the development of interventions that can be implemented with integrity at scale. Through analysis of data generated during a mathematics instructional coaching initiative, we examine the adaptations coaches made to diverse relational and organizational contexts. Findings from two studies of adaptation illustrate the need to attend to the extent to which adaptations are consistent with the core features of a reform. Based on our findings, we posit a generalizable model that supports evidence-based mutual adaptation.

When Should I Use a Measure to Support Instructional Improvement at Scale? The Importance of Considering Both Intended and Actual Use in Validity Arguments

“…Our interest in supporting people to interpret and use measures capitalizes on what people are actually learning and how they are learning. It contributes to efforts by those in the measurement community to better communicate with the public about measurement in education (see e.g., Haertel, 2018; MacIver et al., 2014; O'Leary, Hattie, & Griffin, 2017), particularly about how measures are used or taken up in different contexts for the purpose of systematic improvement of teaching and learning (see e.g., Russell et al., 2020).…”

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“…In some cases, accomplishing systems change may require innovation, that is, the development and testing of new designs for learning (e.g., Booth, Cooper, Donovan, Huyghe, Koedinger & Pare-Blagoev, 2015). But in other cases, existing designs may be available that can be adapted and institutionalized across an educational system such as a school district or state (Russell et al, 2020). What determines the course and evolution of research is not a prescribed sequence that moves ideas and strategies from research to practice or the desires of either researchers or educators.…”

Research on Continuous Improvement: Exploring the Complexities of Managing Educational Change

“…At the school level, educators’ take-up of inquiry processes is frequently constrained by a multiplicity of other initiatives (Tichnor-Wagner et al, 2017), lack of ongoing access to relevant data (Hannan et al, 2015), and districts’ history with past reforms (Scribner et al, 1999), which can create a climate of distrust that makes inquiry and learning more difficult (Allen & Calhoun, 1998; Ingram et al, 2004). For example, despite a competitive application process, coaches in Russell et al’s (2019) study struggled to document their PDSA cycles due to the number of other expectations they had to manage. Copland (2003) found that teachers facing external pressure for improvement who had limited time to engage in inquiry would often jump to solutions before understanding the problems they were trying to solve.…”

“…In practice, this can result in educators departing from CI's core principles, such as in making decisions via intuition over evidence, not assessing the effectiveness of chosen interventions, or acting and identifying solutions before understanding the problem (Allen & Calhoun, 1998;Copland, 2003;Detert et al, 2000;Hubers et al, 2017;Mintrop & Zumpe, 2019;Nelson, 2009). Efforts to use improvement science to support the scaling up of reforms have similarly been constrained in practice by political fragmentation (Hannan et al, 2015;Russell et al, 2019;Tichnor-Wagner et al, 2017). For example, Redding and Viano (2018), studying a networked partnership, found that in the hopes of garnering staff buy-in and addressing the prior histories of reform efforts, teacher leaders developed less disruptive changes that were also less likely to substantially improve teaching.…”