Getty Image #: 108359586!

Effective Visual Communication:How to avoid…"

By:!

PowerPoint: “It’s the most misused technological !innovation since the handgun.” – James Gray !

Eddie Adams © 1968

New York Times !4-26-10!

“When we understand that slide, !we’ll have won the war.”!

!-- General Stanley McChrystal!

Charter School Scale-Up: Managing Fidelity and Adaptation"

By:!

Charter Schools are currently in operation in 40 states and D.C.

Charters are poised to scale-up quickly:!

1. Obama’s educational policy shift!

3. Philanthropic pipeline!

2. “Race to the Top”!

Scale-Up through Branding

Strategic Issues in CMO Scale-Up

1. Financial

3. Organizational

2. Political

Key Challenges to CMO Scale-Up

1. Fidelity

2. Teaching

3. Ownership

4. Communication

5. Feedback

6. Resources

7. Political

8. Mindset (McDonald, Klein & Riordan 2009)

Key Challenges to CMO Scale-Up

1. Fidelity

2. Teaching

(McDonald, Klein & Riordan 2009)

Key Challenges to CMO Scale-Up

1. Fidelity

(McDonald, Klein & Riordan 2009)

Fidelity

Fidelity Adaptation

(McDonald, Klein & Riordan 2003, 2004, 2009)

Key Scale-Up Factor

Fidelity

Fidelity

Adaptation

(McDonald, Klein & Riordan 2003, 2004, 2009)

Key Scale-Up Factor

Fidelity Adaptation

“Ignore fidelity and what will you take to scale? Ignore adaptation and your design

will crack. This is more than just a challenge. It is a dilemma. It can only be

managed, never resolved.”

(McDonald, Klein & Riordan 2009, p. 19)

Site Selection: 1. Largest and best funded CMO in CA

2. Poised to scale-up ~8 x in size

3. Green Dot NY

Why Green Dot?

21

Literature Review

22

software engineering

chemical engineering

manufacturing international development

public health

medicine

computer science

economics

sociology

social welfare policy

business

management

organizational theory

Scale-up research [in education] is translational research. It is conducted with the explicit objective of informing

practice — which means not only documenting the importance of implementing interventions with integrity,

but documenting the benefits of balancing fidelity of implementation with adaptation to dynamic local

contexts”

(Schneider & McDonald, 2007b, p. 11).

Organizational Life Cycle Theory

(Flamholtz & Randle, 2007a, 2007b)

5. Decline and Revitalization

1. Birth/New Venture

2. Growth/Expansion

3. Maturity/Professionalization

4. Consolidation, Diversification and Integration

Research Methods

CcAaSsEe SsTtUuDdYy “inquiry that investigates a

contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the

boundaries between the phenomenon and context are not

clearly evident”

(Yin, 2009, p. 15)

CcAaSsEe SsTtUuDdYy

Phenomenon = Tension between fidelity and adaptation

Context = Large CMO Scale-Up

Unit of Analysis = Green Dot Benchmark Exams Program

28

Green Dot Benchmark

Exams Program

Benchmark Assessment “mandate”

Modifications at each scale-up school

This was the focus of the study for two main reasons:

1. It is most closely aligned with student achievement

35

This was the focus of the study for two main reasons:

1. It is most closely aligned with student achievement

2. It was the chief problem Green Dot

wanted to study and work on

Co-Research Team

Comprised of two representatives from each cluster

Home Office

Data Collection Methods 1. FIELD NOTES

2. DOCUMENTS 3. IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS

4. ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE

FOCUS GROUPS

Study Credibility & Interpretive Validity

1. Member Checking

2. Peer debriefing

3. Triangulation

4. PARTICIPATORY/COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

Research Questions

1. In the perception of Green Dot Public Schools’ home office-based managers

and site-based teachers and administrators, what are the barriers that

school leaders and teachers believe inhibit the fidelity of implementing the

mandates regarding benchmark assessments?

Research Questions

2. What are the perceptions of Green Dot Public Schools’ site-based teachers and administrators, regarding the extent

to which they adopt or do not adopt with fidelity home office mandates regarding benchmark assessments?

What are some of the reasons they offer for the varying degrees of adoption of

these home office mandates?

Research Questions

3. In the opinion of Green Dot Public Schools’ home office-based managers

and site-based teachers and administrators, what are the policies

and/or practices that should be adopted in order to balance the

tension between home office mandates and teacher autonomy in the use of benchmark assessments?

43

Findings: RQ # 1

1. Teachers feel vulnerable about discussing their benchmark assessment data in public

Teacher

Vulnerability

45

Findings: RQ # 1

1. Teachers feel vulnerable about discussing their benchmark assessment data in public

2. There is a lack of uniformity across Green Dot schools in

calendars and pacing

Lack of Uniformity

1. Calendars

2. Pacing

47

Findings: RQ # 1

1. Teachers feel vulnerable about discussing their benchmark assessment data in public

2. There is a lack of uniformity across Green Dot schools in

calendars and pacing

3. There is a lack of an explicit follow-through mechanism for using

the benchmark

No Follow-through!

49

Findings: RQ # 2

1. The majority of teachers adopted the GDPS’ home office benchmarks with a high degree

of fidelity

The “Green Dot Benchmark Exams” Program only has 4 requirements teachers are responsible for:

1. All teachers must administer all 4 benchmark exams in the

alloted time frame

2. All teachers must follow the blueprints/pacing guides

3. School sites must scan their own answer sheets into the SIS software

4. All teachers must meet after the first 3 benchmark exams to share reflections on

their data and collaborate

51

Findings: RQ # 2

1. The majority of teachers adopted the GDPS’ home office benchmarks with a high degree

of fidelity

2. Adaptations to the benchmark assessments should be made for

specific subjects and different pedagogical philosophies

One size does not fit all

54

56

Recommendations: RQ # 3

1. The benchmark program should be continued with specific adaptations at

the school and home office level.

57

Recommendations: RQ # 3

1. The benchmark program should be continued with specific adaptations at

the school and home office level.

2. Green Dot should create and implement uniform calendars and pacing guides across

the organization.

58

Recommendations: RQ # 3

1. The benchmark program should be continued with specific adaptations at

the school and home office level.

2. Green Dot should create and implement uniform calendars and pacing guides across

the organization.

3. Green Dot should create and implement an explicit follow-through mechanism for using

the benchmark data to reteach.

59

Meta-Recommendation:

GDPS should plan strategically around their organizational

growing pains

THANK YOU

Key Scale-Up Factor

(McDonald, Klein & Riordan 2003, 2004, 2009)

You will implement the benchmark assessments

as rolled out by the home office

We’ll do it our way, if at all...