Scale WorkbookOutcomes

Participants will think more deeply about scaleParticipants will be exposed to a scale design process

OutlinePart I: Warm Up

Large Group Two Quotes and Engage Initial Thoughts on ScaleShare Initial Thoughts

Part II: Think TimeSmall GroupsConsider Scale Case and Initial ReactionsBecome Familiar with Scale Dimension

Part III: Information ExchangeLarge GroupEach group shares information about specific scale dimensionAllyson reviews overall framework, how to leverage power of

technology for scale, traps, scale balance, overall scale plan template, monitoring scale template

Part IV: Reflection and Wrap Up

Allyson KnoxUS Partners in LearningMicrosoft Corporation

Washington, DC202 243 1627

allyknox@microsoft.com

On February 4, 2009 in their first trip to a public school since the Inauguration, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama visited Capital City Public Charter School in northwest Washington, D.C. There they read "The Moon Over Star," by Dianna Hutts Aston, to a second-grade class and met with fifth-graders who told them about their learning expedition on voting rights. "We're very proud of what's been accomplished at this school, and we want to make sure that we're duplicating that success all across the country," the President said. "Nothing is going to be more important than this."

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February 9, 2009

Secretary Arne Duncan Speaks at the 91st Annual Meeting of the American Council on Education

“Finally, I am very excited about a $15 billion "Race to the Top" fund approved by the House. The Senate version is somewhat smaller but it is still significant.

The President is deeply committed to this program because it will enable us to spur reform on a national scale—driving school systems to adopt college and career-ready, internationally benchmarked standards.

It will incent them to put in place state of the art data collection systems, assessments and curricula to meet these higher standards.

And it will encourage states to recruit, train, mentor and support a great, new generation of teachers who can better prepare our students for college and work.”

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SCALEPlease write or draw below words or images that come to mind when you think of the word

What are some of scale success?

INDICATORSexample: # of new schools who have adopted this program

What would you put in place to achieve scale?example: train educators to adopt new programs

STRATEGIES

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Context Large urban school district with 11 high schools

Scale what? Four years ago, a high school English teacher in one of the eleven high schools found that students’ ability to write continued to be on the decline, so each week she started requiring all students to read a novel, write a three page essay about the novel, and write a news article. She also required them to write in their journals daily. In response, the teacher made the commitment to her students that she would return their work to them within two days. The teacher ended up calling her approach “The English Edge.”

Over time, the Superintendent and the school board noticed a trend in this teacher’s students the SAT scores. All the students who had had The English Edge scored better on the writing tests.

The Superintendent publicly announced that all high school English teachers (approximately 100 teachers) would now use The English Edge.

You are on the scale design team to make this happen within the next 12 months.

Approximate Budget $50,000

• What are the first steps you would take in developing a scale plan?

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CASE: WITHIN DISTRICT SCALE

One of your team members contacts the Microsoft US Partners in Learning team and asks about their scale work.. This work was done in partnership with two of the nation’s leading scale experts: Dr. Chris Dede of Harvard and based on work by Dr. Cynthia Coburn of the University of Pittsburgh.

Your team member learns that the capacity for scale success increases when various dimensions of it are addressed. They learned a great deal about one

dimension: DEPTH

• Depth is a term referring to those instructional changes leading to improved student outcomes.

• It refers to deep and consequential change in practice.

• It alters teachers’ beliefs and norms.

• It is when teachers’ assumptions about what constitutes effective instruction changes.

• It is when teachers assumptions about how students learn changes.

Some of the ways that your team considers addressing DEPTH in the SCALE PLAN is to conduct a evaluation and research so that the district and especially 11th grade teachers can understand causes of effectiveness of English Edge.

Are there other strategies that you would propose to achieve greater depth in your scale plan? For example, if your team proposes to conduct professional development of teachers – how would you design the professional development so that it changes teachers’ assumptions about what constitutes effective instruction?

NEW DEVELOPMENT

One of your team members contacts the Microsoft US Partners in Learning team and asks about their scale work.. This work was done in partnership with two of the nation’s leading scale experts: Dr. Chris Dede of Harvard and Dr. Cynthia Coburn of the University of Pittsburgh.

Your team member learns that the capacity for scale success increases when various dimensions of it are addressed. They learned a great deal about one

dimension: SUSTAINABILITY• Sustainability involves maintaining consequential changes over substantial

periods of time

• It means that the program is designed in such a way that it can adapt to inhospitable conditions

• Sustainability involves identifying critical conditions of success for the reform to succeed.

Some of the ways that your team considers addressing SUSTAINABILITY in the SCALE PLAN is to develop a rugged version of the program.

Are there other strategies that you would propose to achieve SUSTAINABILITY in your scale plan? For example, if your team proposes to conduct professional development of teachers – how would you design the professional development so that it the changes in their instruction are maintained over time?

NEW DEVELOPMENT

One of your team members contacts the Microsoft US Partners in Learning team and asks about their scale work. This work was done in partnership with two of the nation’s leading scale experts: Dr. Chris Dede of Harvard and Dr. Cynthia Coburn of the University of Pittsburgh.

Your team member learns that the capacity for scale success increases when various dimensions of it are addressed. They learned a great deal about one

dimension: SPREADSpread is when large numbers of users embrace the reform.

Spread is often achieved by reducing costs while retaining the power of the program (creating a light version)

When creating a light version it is important to consider the trade-offs.

To create momentum and earn the early confidence of users – it is important to plan for early successes.

Some of the ways that your team considers addressing SPREAD in the SCALE PLAN is to create a light version of the program.

Are there other strategies that you would propose to achieve SPREAD in your scale plan?

NEW DEVELOPMENT

One of your team members contacts the Microsoft US Partners in Learning team and asks about their scale work.. This work was done in partnership with two of the nation’s leading scale experts: Dr. Chris Dede of Harvard and Dr. Cynthia Coburn of the University of Pittsburgh.

Your team member learns that the capacity for scale success increases when various dimensions of it are addressed. They learned a great deal about one

dimension: SHIFTShift requires districts, schools, and teachers to assume ownership of the innovation.

Shift moves beyond superficially “co-branding” and encourages user ownership as co-evaluators, co-designers, and co-scalers.

Shift moves users away from simply using the innovation to forming a “community of practice”.

Shift supports users’ capacity to go beyond what the originators created.

Some of the ways that your team considers addressing SHIFT in the SCALE PLAN is to train teachers not simply as “teacher replicators” of the English Edge – but as co-designers of English Edge..

Are there other strategies that you would propose to achieve SHIFT in your scale plan?

NEW DEVELOPMENT

One of your team members contacts the Microsoft US Partners in Learning team and asks about their scale work. This work was done in partnership with two of the nation’s leading scale experts: Dr. Chris Dede of Harvard and Dr. Cynthia Coburn of the University of Pittsburgh.

Your team member learns that the capacity for scale success increases when various dimensions of it. They learned a great deal about one dimension:

EVOLUTIONEvolution is when the users revise the original design.

Evolution is often demonstrated by establishing a “community of reflective redesign” with other users.

Evolution asks originators to re-conceptualize the innovation.

Some of the ways that your team considers addressing EVOLUTION in the SCALE PLAN is to create a system by which users can provide continual feedback about their experience with the English Edge.

Are there other strategies that you would propose to achieve EVOLUTION in your scale plan?

NEW DEVELOPMENT

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POWER OF TECHNOLOGY

As you continue to design for DEPTH in your scale plan – it is decided that technology should be used in various ways to help achieve DEPTH and SCALE.

Knowing that students learn best when they see the relevance of their learning to the real-world, the team decides that technology could be used to access real-world scenarios.

Are there other ways technology could be used to achieve DEPTH?

TRAPS TO AVOID

As you continue to design for DEPTH in your scale plan – what are the particular traps that you want to avoid?

For example, one trap is perfection. If the district spends all of its time and money on the evaluation and research – the scale process will never move forward.

Are there other DEPTH traps that your plan should address so that they are avoided?

POWER OF TECHNOLOGY

As you continue to design for SUSTAINABILITY in your scale plan – it is decided that technology should be used in various ways to help achieve SUSTAINABILITY and SCALE.

For example: technology could be used to alleviate teachers’ administrative burdens thereby allowing them to focus more on arts-infused instruction.

Are there other ways technology could be used to achieve SUSTAINABILITY?

TRAPS TO AVOID

As you continue to design for SUSTAINABILITY in your scale plan – what are the particular traps that you want to avoid?

For example, one trap is radical change to the original design. If the program is too adaptable then its original power might be lost.

Are there other SUSTAINABILITY traps that your plan should address so that they are avoided?

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POWER OF TECHNOLOGY

As you continue to design for SPREAD in your scale plan – it is decided that technology should be used in various ways to help achieve SPREAD and SCALE.

For example: Technology can be used to track changes in the program re-design.

Are there other ways technology could be used to achieve SPREAD?

TRAPS TO AVOID

As you continue to design for SPREAD in your scale plan – what are the particular traps that you want to avoid?

For example, one trap is optimality. Developers should realize a somewhat less powerful innovation that reaches much greater numbers of users is a step forward.

Are there other SPREAD traps that your plan should address so that they are avoided?

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POWER OF TECHNOLOGY

As you continue to design for SHIFT in your scale plan – it is decided that technology should be used in various ways to help achieve SHIFT and SCALE.

For example: technology could be used to increase communication and collaboration.

Are there other ways technology could be used to achieve SHIFT?

TRAPS TO AVOID

As you continue to design for SHIFT in your scale plan – what are the particular traps that you want to avoid?

For example, one trap is for users to superficially adopt the innovation leading to co-branding.

Are there other SHIFT traps that your plan should address so that they are avoided?

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POWER OF TECHNOLOGY

As you continue to design for EVOLUTION in your scale plan – it is decided that technology should be used in various ways to help achieve EVOLUTION and SCALE.

For example: Technology can be used to track changes in the program re-design.

Are there other ways technology could be used to achieve EVOLUTION?

TRAPS TO AVOID

As you continue to design for EVOLUTION in your scale plan – what are the particular traps that you want to avoid?

For example, one trap is that when feedback is generated it is only superficially listened to.

Are there other EVOLUTION traps that your plan should address so that they are avoided?

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WANTDEPTH

WANTSUSTAINABILITY

DON’T WANTPERFECTION

DON’T WANTRADICAL MUTATION

WANTSPREAD

DON’T WANTTOO LIGHT /

POWERLESSNESS

WANTEVOLUTION

DON’T WANT JUST LISTENING TO

FEEDBACK

WANTSHIFT

DON’T WANTJUST CO-BRANDING

TRAPS

depth spread

BALANCE

Developing a SCALE PLAN

Describe what is to be scaled

Describe what “scale success” would look like

Describe the program’s LOGIC MODEL (inputs / activities / outputs)

Strategies to DEEPEN the model

Strategies to SUSTAIN the model

Strategies to SPREAD the model

Strategies to SHIFT the model

Strategies to EVOLVE the model

Strategies to leverage TECHNOLOY

Strategies to avoid scale traps

ONGOING PROCESSMOVING TOWARD SCALE SUCCESS

DEPTH

SUSTAINABILITY

LOW MED HIGH

LOW MED HIGH

LOW MED HIGHSHIFT

SPREAD

EVOLUTION

TECHNOLOGY

LOW MED HIGH

LOW MED HIGH

LOW MED HIGH

SCALEPlease write or draw below words or images that come to mind when you think of the word

How has your thinking about scale changed?