The Power of the Interventions (original) (raw)

Ruminations on Reinventing an R&D Capacity for Educational Improvement

School improvement efforts have typically focused attention on particular instructional practices and school activities. There have been efforts, for example, to develop more rigorous math and science curricula, better mechanisms for integrating students from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, better strategies for meeting the educational needs of English language learners, more rigorous academic courses for all high school students, and so on. But throughout all of this, the basic institutional structure of schooling was never questioned as it is today. Now, everything is “up for grabs”, from the design of new curriculum, to who teaches, to how individuals are prepared, enter the field of teaching and are rewarded for their work, to even who actually gets to run schools.