Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
As our nation demands system-wide improvement, external providers are
challenged to scale up educational reform efforts, to implement them more widely, more
deeply, and more rapidly than in the past. Virtual high schools come at a time when
public education is being challenged by mandates for new forms of educational choice
and supplemental services. Replicating success of educational reforms on a large scale is
a vexing issue. Failure to scale them up is accredited to the absence of a practical theory
that accounts for the institutional complexities operating on changes of practice. This
research developed such a practical theory gleaning attributes from Comprehensive
School Reform, Diffusion of Innovation, and Leadership and Scale theories.
The purpose of this study was to determine the attributes that contribute to the
scalability of the virtual high school. Scalability was separated into two levels; a
traditional notion of scaling up reforms, and the more contemporary idea of going to scale. The conceptual framework suggested that scalability was dependent upon the
frequency of the attributes associated with these levels.
Content analysis was conducted on N = 270 documents pertaining to virtual high
schools. A validation subset of N = 137 documents on five specific virtual high schools
was used. An attribute checklist assisted the coding, classifying 39 attributes into five
mutually exclusive categories, along with seven contextual factors that potentially
moderated scalability. Analysis on the validation subset produced similar findings to
those of the universal sample set.
A statistical model was developed that predicted a large amount (52 %) of the
variation of scalability. When scaling up attributes are prevalent both in the innovation's
design, the communication channels, and leadership capabilities then going to scale can
be achieved O..er time. Specifically, virtual high schools should focus on three
significant scaling up attributes: (a) offering quality curriculum aligned to high
national/state standards, (b) creating networks with other virtual high school adopters,
and (c) strong management, in order to go to scale. The development of a practical theory
must include these attributes in order for the virtual high school to go to scale.
challenged to scale up educational reform efforts, to implement them more widely, more
deeply, and more rapidly than in the past. Virtual high schools come at a time when
public education is being challenged by mandates for new forms of educational choice
and supplemental services. Replicating success of educational reforms on a large scale is
a vexing issue. Failure to scale them up is accredited to the absence of a practical theory
that accounts for the institutional complexities operating on changes of practice. This
research developed such a practical theory gleaning attributes from Comprehensive
School Reform, Diffusion of Innovation, and Leadership and Scale theories.
The purpose of this study was to determine the attributes that contribute to the
scalability of the virtual high school. Scalability was separated into two levels; a
traditional notion of scaling up reforms, and the more contemporary idea of going to scale. The conceptual framework suggested that scalability was dependent upon the
frequency of the attributes associated with these levels.
Content analysis was conducted on N = 270 documents pertaining to virtual high
schools. A validation subset of N = 137 documents on five specific virtual high schools
was used. An attribute checklist assisted the coding, classifying 39 attributes into five
mutually exclusive categories, along with seven contextual factors that potentially
moderated scalability. Analysis on the validation subset produced similar findings to
those of the universal sample set.
A statistical model was developed that predicted a large amount (52 %) of the
variation of scalability. When scaling up attributes are prevalent both in the innovation's
design, the communication channels, and leadership capabilities then going to scale can
be achieved O..er time. Specifically, virtual high schools should focus on three
significant scaling up attributes: (a) offering quality curriculum aligned to high
national/state standards, (b) creating networks with other virtual high school adopters,
and (c) strong management, in order to go to scale. The development of a practical theory
must include these attributes in order for the virtual high school to go to scale.
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