ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a new generation of educational innovations and argues that adopting such innovations, while costly in the short run, are a better alternative in a significant number of schools than is local school improvement, which is largely dependent on exploitative forms of organizational learning. T. Fashola and R. Slavin found that clearly targeted, content-rich, long-term professional development was a second cross-program characteristic of effective reform efforts. While there is very little research on the reliability of schools and school reform efforts, there is a growing body of knowledge on the necessary conditions for very high reliability of human performance in other fields. Building from J. Dewey’s call for a “linking science” between educational theory and practice, several major studies have found that the intelligent importation of educational “innovations” is both possible and, in many circumstances, a preferable route to reform.
