Scaling Personalization: Exploring the Implementation of an Academic and Social-Emotional Innovation in High Schools

Abstract

Scaling in educational settings has tended to focus on replication of external programs with less focus on the nature of adaptation. In this article, we explore the scaling of Personalization for Academic and Social-emotional Learning (PASL), a systemic high school reform effort that was intentionally identified, developed, and implemented with adaption in mind for both the innovation and the scaling process itself. Drawing on focus group and individual interviews with administrators, guidance counselors, and teachers in eight urban high schools in Florida, we explore five elements of scale: depth, sustainability, spread, shift in reform ownership, and evolution of PASL. We find that implementers demonstrated a depth of belief, sustainability, and spread related to the idea of personalization. They did not show the same levels of sustainability and spread regarding the organizational routines related to PASL, although this differed widely by school. The reform approach using continuous improvement helped with shift in reform ownership and gave implementers control over the evolution of the reform. Despite this active involvement, administrators and teachers responded to PASL much like they would have an external reform, identifying the lack of time and school norms as impeding the implementation of routines and practices.