Improve or innovate? The possibilities and challenges for educational transformation across contexts

The history of school improvement efforts as well as research on organizational learning suggests that improving and transforming schools and school systems at the same time is extremely difficult. This challenge reflects a basic dilemma of organizational development the demands and supports for increasing efficiency and improving performance in the short-term are substantially different from those needed for making more radical changes over the long term. In this research study, Dr. Hatch and colleagues are confronting this dilemma by exploring the conditions and factors that support and inhibit the development of promising educational activities in several different settings (activities being developed in a school, outside of schools, and in an online learning environment) – and in metropolitan areas with educational systems at different stages in development and performance (such as Singapore, New York City, and Johannesburg). The in- and out-of-school settings and the different educational systems provide very different performance conditions – including different demands and expectations for measuring outcomes– that should increase the diversity and range of the innovations. In the project, this study strives to develop the knowledge and expertise needed to create and connect more powerful learning opportunities for children both inside and outside of schools.,