Chapter Six: Sustainability of the LSM

Conceptions of sustainability differ. Sustainability can be conceived as an outcome. For example, a literacy intervention is sustained when literacy achievement levels continue to improve after the end of the intervention. It can also be conceived as a process, for example, the literacy intervention is sustained when schools continue using the literacy strategies they used during the intervention. In a process view, sustainability continues or maintains activities designed to improve school practices and teaching activities after the end of an intervention (Datnow, 2005). However, this idea assumes we know when the appropriate time has been reached to stop, and we are able to engage in the intervention until that point is reached. In the context of long-term research-practice partnerships with an intervention focus like the LSM, the assumption that there is a definite end to an intervention is problematic, and we discuss this later in this chapter. The process view also+ assumes that we know all there is to know about being effective through the intervention actions, activities or teaching practices and how they relate to outcomes of interest (Borman, 2005).