Author: Kerstin Carlson Le Floch , Yu Zhang , Anja Kurki and Suzannah Herrmann
Summary:
The process through which a school adopts a comprehensive school reform (CSR) model has been suggested to be a key element in the lifecycle of school reform, contributing to stakeholder buy in and subsequent implementation. We studied the model adoption process, both on a national scale with survey data and in more depth with qualitative case study data. Although model developers often advocate that a super majority of teachers vote in favor of a model before implementation, National Longitudinal Evaluation of Comprehensive School Reform (NLECSR) data suggest that specific thresholds of teachers voting in favor of a model has no positive effects on implementation. This may be accounted for by the fact that voting has become an institutionalized (and perhaps cursory) process, and large majorities of teachers vote in favor of adoption. Moreover, case study data indicate that the quality of the adoption process still varies greatly between schools.
