Implementation

Anita Pankake

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781317920625
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book shows school leaders how to put programs and change efforts into action; facilitate and coordinate tasks; monitor progress; and support those responsible for carrying out projects and plans.

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AN INTRODUCTION TO IMPLEMENTATION

In 1993, the National Policy Board for Educational Administration published Principals for Our Changing Schools: The Knowledge and Skill Base. This document describes, in detail, a knowledge and skill base for the principalship organized into 21 domains. The 21 domains make up a core of things that individuals need to know about and be able to do in fulfilling the role of principal. The NPBEA emphasizes that while the domains form a convenient way of sorting and categorizing the knowledge and skills, the domains are not discrete from one another, but instead are “overlapping pieces of a complex puzzle.” The NPBEA identified implementation as one of the 21 domains of essential knowledge and skills needed by principals. Implementation is one of seven categories that the NPBEA grouped under the heading of “Functional Domains.” Functional Domains are those that “address the organizational processes and techniques by which the mission of the school is achieved. They provide for the educational program to be realized and allow the institution to function.” This book is about implementation. It is about what implementation means, how implementation happens, and the knowledge and skills principals need to be quality implementers. Cuban gives voice to some feelings common in the experience of many educators:

In such a decentralized yet national system of schooling that encourages plural interest groups and much prodding of professionals to alter what they do, it should come as no surprise that many reforms seldom go beyond getting adopted as policy. Most get implemented in word rather than deed, especially in classrooms. What often ends up in districts and schools are signs of reform in new rules, different tests, revised organizational charts, and new equipment. Seldom are the deepest structures of schooling that are embedded in the school’s use of time and space, teaching practices, and classroom routines fundamentally altered even at those historical moments when reforms seek those alterations as the goal.…Why? (Cuban, 1990, p. 9)

The history of educational change initiatives is crowded, while the history of successful implementation of these initiatives is less so. The frustration of being poised to implement a much needed or desired change only to have the agenda switched or the efforts blocked or dropped is an experience common to veteran educators at all levels. Knowledge about why this happens and has happened so consistently in the past can be helpful in understanding how future attempts to implement changes can be more successful. Implementing change initiatives, however, is a rather traditional and narrow view of this domain of knowledge and skills. The inference is a restrictive one; that is, that knowledge and skills regarding implementation are needed only when change is desired. However, knowledge and skills of implementation are needed daily in myriad ways in schools and school districts. Implementation should be viewed as the riverbed into which the “converging streams of behavior” from the other 20 knowledge and skill domains run and as evidenced within the schools and in the behavior of children they serve. This more broad, less restrictive view provides the framework for this book. Focusing carefully on what we currently know about implementation in all its forms can assist practitioners in becoming more effective implementers. While others may talk and/or write about implementing, school administrators and classroom teachers are expected to “make it happen,” that is, to implement. That is the central theme of this work. In the remaining pages of this Introduction, implementation is defined and an explanation of a broader perspective of implementation is presented. Additionally, an overview of the contents for each of the remaining chapters is provided and a concluding statement regarding implementation’s place within and among NPBEA’s 21 domains is offered.

IMPLEMENTATION DEFINED

The National Policy Board for Educational Administration uses numerous phrases and synonyms to define the implementation domain such as, “making things happen; putting programs and change efforts into action; facilitating coordination and collaboration of tasks; establishing project checkpoints and monitoring progress; providing ‘midcourse’ corrections when actual outcomes start to diverge from intended outcomes or when new conditions require adaptation; and, supporting those responsible for carrying out projects and plans.” Another source for defining “implementation” is The American Heritage Dictionary (Second College Edition). It lists the term “implementation” as a form of the word “implement.” “Implement” can be both a noun and a verb. As a noun, “implement” implies “means employed to achieve a given end; agent.” As a verb, “implement” means “to put into practical effect; carry out.” These “means to an end” and activity-oriented definitions connect well with the NPBEA description of the implementation domain. Additionally, they enhance an understanding of implementation by identifying it as both a noun and a verb. This grammatical perspective infers that implementation has both product and process dimensions. Implementation involves the what (a state or destination desired) and the how (strategies for making the journey to that state or destination). It has both an activity and an accomplishment dimension. This dual role contributes to the breadth and complexity of the knowledge and skills needed for implementation. Additionally, it signals the extent to which elements of the other 20 domains may be embedded in the implementation domain and how elements from implementation may surface in other domains.

AN OVERVIEW OF THIS VOLUME ON IMPLEMENTATION

In developing this volume of the School Leadership Library series, many of the terms and phrases found in the NPBEA’s definition of implementation are used as chapter headings. Every attempt has been made to align the content of this volume with the intent of the NPBEA and perhaps to go beyond that intent. This overview is intended to give the reader a sense of what lies ahead. Chapter 2, “Making Things Happen,” includes an overview of what principals have to make happen, how these responsibilities might be categorized, and some necessary conditions for making things happen. Chapter 3, “Putting Programs and Change Efforts Into Action,” focuses on implementation as a desired outcome of change and program initiation, the relationship of initiation and implementation in change efforts and some tools that can be used to assist implementation efforts. Chapter 4, “Facilitating Coordination and Collaboration of Tasks,” emphasizes the people component of implementation. It provides information about the roles that various groups and individuals have in implementation and strategies to ensure quality involvement. Chapter 5, “Monitoring Implementation,” provides information on the important, but often neglected, formative evaluation component of implementation. A discussion of why monitoring is needed, what tools are available to help, when to monitor, and who should do it is included. The differences in content and process evaluation and why each is important is also presented. The formative evaluation focus of monitoring implementation is directly related to a discussion on making needed adjustments. Topics treated include: data analyses, uses of data for planning and decision making, and establishing feedback systems to identify needed corrections and reporting to others, and developing the continuous feedback loop. Chapter 6, “Supporting Those Responsible for Implementation,” emphasizes the need for on-going support, training, and resources to achieve satisfactory levels of implementation. The admonition for “supporting those responsible” is inclusive, encompassing top management, building leaders, classroom personnel, support staff, and community. Knowledge and skills regarding effective staff development, delegation of responsibility and authority, organizational issues as supports or barriers, and professional growth for self and others form the major elements of the chapter. Finally, the conclusion in Chapter 7, “Closing with a Few Brief Reflections,” contains five recommended behaviors. Each of the recommended behaviors requires numerous knowledge and skills. However, while they appear in the closing chapter of the book, they are offered as places to start in pursuing successful implementation. A reference list of the works used in this volume follows Chapter 7.

IMPLEMENTATION: ONE OF TWENTY-ONE

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to discuss implementation without also referencing the other 20 domains both in this introduction and throughout the volume. Implementation calls for a synthesis of knowledge and skills from all other domains. For example, moving from plan to practice can only be accomplished with skilled leadership. Among other things, leadership provides the means to develop the vision, set the direction, and initiate the planning that identifies what needs to be implemented. Also, the identification of need, the monitoring of progress, the feedback from individuals and groups regarding direction and concerns and myriad other important components of implementation cannot be done without knowledge and skills in information collection. Judgment provides yet another example of how knowledge and skills from other domains relate to implementation. Judging, when done well, helps assure that the projects, programs, and so forth that we seek to implement are worthy of the time and effort they demand. Additionally, judgment is crucial in determining such things as which changes to resist and which to embrace, what strategy adjustments to make and when, and what support to provide, when and to whom. Implementation is all of the above and more. It is one of the 21 domains of knowledge and skills principals must master to effectively direct what they and teachers do—implement. What kind of leadership has occurred if there is no effective implementation? Are philosophical and cultural values not evidenced in what we implement and how we do it? Does not motivating others require implementation and are we not attempting to motivate them in an effort to implement something? One or more connect...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• FOREWORD
• PREFACE
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• 1 AN INTRODUCTION TO IMPLEMENTATION
• 2 MAKING THINGS HAPPEN
• 3 PUTTING PROGRAMS AND CHANGE EFFORTS INTO ACTION
• 4 FACILITATING COORDINATION AND COLLABORATION OF TASKS
• 5 MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION
• 6 SUPPORTING THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR IMPLEMENTATION
• 7 CLOSING WITH A FEW BRIEF REFLECTIONS
• REFERENCES