Chapter 3: Interventions to Improve Instruction: How Implementation Strategies Affect Instructional Change¹

This chapter examines the strategies three widely disseminated Comprehensive School Reform programs used to promote instructional change in high-poverty elementary schools. We argue that one of these programs, the Accelerated Schools Project, used a strategy of “cultural control” to promote implementation of its instructional model, that another program, the America’s Choice program, used a strategy of “professional control” to promote implementation of its instructional model, and that a third program, Success for All, used a strategy of “procedural control” to promote implementation of its instructional model. Using data collected in about 120 elementary schools collected as part of A Study of Instructional Improvement, we show that America’s Choice and Success for All schools experienced much higher rates of implementation fidelity than did the Accelerated Schools project, suggesting that implementation strategy is a key predictor of implementation success in instructional change efforts.