1. Innovations in Education
William Allan Kritsonis, PhD
Sample Question : What is the process of implementing an innovation?
Consider all individuals involved.
The number and dynamics of factors that interact and affect the
process of change are to overwhelming to compute in anything resembling a
fully determined way. We do know more about the processes of change as a
result of the research of the 1970s and 1980s, only to discover that there are
no hard-and-fast rules, rather a set of suggestions or implications given the
contingencies specific to local situations. The uniqueness of the individual
setting is a critical factor. What works in one situation may or may not work
in another. This is not to say that there are not guidelines. Research
findings on the change process should be used less as instruments of
application and more as means of helping practitioners and planners make
sense of planning, implementation strategies, and monitoring.
Most researchers now see three broad phases to the change process.
Phase I – variously labeled initiation, mobilization, or adoption consists of
the process that leads up to and includes a decision to adopt or proceed with
a change. Phase II – implementation or initial use (usually the first two or
Initiation Implementation Continuation Outcome

2. three years) involves the first experiences of attempting to put an idea or
reform into practice. Phase III – called continuation, incorporation, or
institutionalization refers to whether the change gets built in as an ongoing
part of the system or disappears by way of a decision to discard or through
attrition. The concept of outcome provides a more complete overview of the
change process.
In simple terms, someone or some group, for whatever reasons,
initiates or promotes a certain program or direction of change. The direction
of change, which may be more or less defined at the early stages, moves to a
phase of attempted use (implementation), which can be more or less
effective in that use may or may not be accomplished. Continuation is an
extension of the implementation phases in that the new program is sustained
beyond the first year or two (or whatever timeframe is chosen). Outcome,
depending on the objectives, can refer to several different types of results
and can be thought of generally as the degree of school improvement in
relation to a given criteria. Results could include, for example, improved
student learning and attitudes; new skills, attitudes, or satisfaction on the
part of teachers and other school personnel; or improved problem-solving
capacity of the school as an organization.

3. Ideally the best beginnings for the initiation process combines
relevance, readiness, and resources. Relevance includes the interaction of
need, clarity of the innovation (and practitioner’s understanding of it), and
utility, or what it really has to offer teachers and students. Surprisingly,
simple changes are the ones school systems are least likely to adopt and
implement successfully, largely because they are not perceived to be worth
the effort. By contrast, the greatest success is likely to occur when the size
of the change is large enough to require noticeable, sustained effort, but not
so massive that typical users find it necessary to adopt a coping strategy that
seriously distorts the change. Relevance and importance do matter.
Readiness involves the school’s practical and conceptual capacity to
initiate, develop, or adopt a given innovation – the school’s capacity to use
reform. Readiness may be approached in terms of individual and
organization factors. For individuals: Does it address a perceived need? Is
it a reasonable change? Do they posses the requisite knowledge and skills?
Do they have the time? For organizations: Is the change compatible with the
culture of the school? Are facilities, equipment, material, and supplies
available? Are there other crises or other change efforts in progress? The

4. greater the number of no’s, the more reason to take another look at
readiness.
Resources concern the accumulation of and provision of support as a
part of the change process. Just because it is a good and pressing idea,
doesn’t mean that the resources are available to carry it out. People often
underestimate the resources needed to go forward with a change. While
resources are obviously critical during implementation, it is at the initiation
phase that the issue must first be considered and provided for.
The key factors in the implementation process are organized into three
main categories relating to the characteristics of the innovation or change
project, local characteristics, and external factors. The characteristics of
change are need, clarity, complexity, and quality/practicality. Need refers to
whether or not change is required. Many innovations are attempted without
a careful examination of whether or not they address what are perceived to
be priority needs. Teachers, for example, frequently do not see the need for
an advocated change. Several large-scale studies in the United States
confirm the importance of relating need to decisions about innovations or
change directions. Other studies have discovered that implementation if
more effective when it is relatively focused or specific needs are identified.
Complex or multifaceted reforms can also be focused, but they require a

5. great deal of effort to clarify the nature of the needs being addressed. It is
incumbent that a needs assessment be performed to determine with a change
process is warranted.
Clarity (about goals and means) is a perennial problem in the change
process. Even when there is agreement that some kind of change is needed,
as when teachers want to improve some area of the curriculum or improve
the school as a whole, the adopted change may not be at all clear about what
teachers should do differently. The majority of teachers are unable to
identify the essential features of the innovation they are using. Problems
related to clarity have been found in virtually every study of significant
change. Studies have shown that the more complex the reform, the greater
the problem of clarity. Lack of clarity – diffuse goals and unspecified means
of implementation – represents a major problem at the implementation stage;
teachers and others find that change is simply not very clear as to what it
means in practice.
Complexity refers to the difficulty and extent of change required of
the individuals responsible for implementation. The actual amount depends
on the starting point of any given individual or group, but the main idea is
that any change can be examined with regard to difficulty, skill required, and
extent of alterations in beliefs, teaching strategies, and use of materials.

6. Many changes such as open education, systematic direct instruction, inquiry-
oriented social studies, special education, effective schools, parent
involvement, and restructuring experiments requires a sophisticated array of
activities, structures, diagnosis, teaching strategies, and philosophical
understanding if effective implementation is to be achieved.
The last factor associated directly with the nature of change concerns
the quality and practicality of the innovation – whether it is a new
curriculum, a new policy, a restructured school or whatever. The history of
the quality of attempted changes relative to the other three variables (need,
clarity, complexity) is revealing. To say that the importance of the quality
of the change is self-evident is to underestimate how initiation decisions are
made. Inadequate quality and even the simple unavailability of materials
and other resources can result when adoption decisions are made on grounds
of political necessity, or even on the grounds of perceived need without time
for development. When adoption is more important the implementation,
decisions are frequently made without the follow-up or preparation time
necessary to generate adequate materials. Ambitious projects are nearly
always politically driven. Practical changes are those that address salient
needs that fit well with the teachers’ situation, that are focused, and that
include concrete how-to-do-it possibilities. Practical does not necessarily

7. mean easy, but it does mean the presence of next steps. Changes that are
practical, even though of good quality, may be trivial or offensive, while
changes that are complex may not be practically worked out.
Local factors that play a major role in the implementation phase of the
change process consist of district, community, principal, and teacher. The
importance of the district’s history of innovation attempts can be stated in
the form of a proposition: The more the teachers and others have had
negative experiences with previous implementation attempts in the district
or elsewhere, the more cynical or apathetic they will be about the next
change presented regardless of the merit of the new idea or program.
Districts can develop an incapacity for change as well as a capacity for it.
Individual teachers and single schools can bring about change without the
support of central administrators, but district-wide change will not happen.
Although it has always been said that the superintendent and the principal
are critical to educational change, it is only recently that we are beginning to
understand more specifically what that means in practice. Research shows
that the support of central administrators is critical for change in district
practice.
It is very difficult to generalize about the role of communities and
school boards regarding implementation. Research shows that community

8. support of the school was correlated positively with innovativeness. There
is also evidence that rural school districts not only have less access to
innovations but also are often too distant geographically from needed
sources of assistance during implementation.
All major research on innovation and school effectiveness shows that
the principal strongly influences the likelihood of change, but it also
indicates that most principals do not play instructional or change leadership
roles. Principals’ actions serve to legitimate whether a change is to be taken
seriously (and not all changes are) and to support teachers both
psychologically and with resources.
Both individual teacher characteristics and collective play roles in
determining implementation. The psychological state of a teacher can be
more or less predisposed toward considering and acting on improvements.
Some teachers, depending on their personality and influenced by their
previous experiences and stage of career, are more self-actualized and have a
greater sense of efficacy, which leads them to take action and persist in the
effort required to bring about successful implementation in the change
process.
External factors that influence the implementation phase in the change
process are state departments of education and federal agencies. State and

9. national priorities for education are set according to the political forces, and
lobbying of interest groups, government bureaucracies, and elected
representatives. Legislation, new policies, and new program initiatives arise
from public concerns that the education system is not doing an adequate job
of teaching basics, developing career relevant skills for the economic
system, producing effective citizens, meeting the needs of at-risk children –
recent immigrants or handicapped children or cultural minorities – and so
on. These sources of reform put pressure on local districts (sometimes to the
point of force) and also provide various incentives for changing in the
desired direction. Whether or not implementation occurs will depend on the
congruence between the reforms and local needs, and how the changes are
introduced and followed through. The multiplicity of post-adoption
decisions after education legislation or new policies involves several layers
of agencies. That success is achieved in many instances is a reflection that
some people “out there” know what they are doing. Sharing and developing
this know-how should be a major goal of those interested in educational
change.
The problem of continuation is endemic to all innovations irrespective
of whether they arise from external initiative or are internally developed.
Continuation of innovations depends on whether or not the change gets

10. embedded or built into the structure (through policy, budget, timetable, etc.),
has (by the time of the continuation phase) generated a critical mass of
administrators and teachers who are skilled in and committed to the change,
and has established procedures for continuing assistance, especially relative
to supporting new teachers and administrators.
Reform is badly needed, yet people’s experience with change is
overwhelmingly negative – imposition is the norm, costs outweigh the
benefits, the few successes are short-lived. The only way out of this
dilemma is for individuals to take responsibility for empowering themselves
and others through becoming experts in the change process. New values are
needed for leadership in tomorrow’s schools as compared to the present:
Value 1: Openness to Participation
Today’s Value: Our organization values employees listening to the
organization’s leaders and doing what the leaders tell them to do.
Tomorrow’s Value: Our organization values employees actively
participating in any discussion or decision affecting them
Value 2: Openness to Diversity
Today’s Value: Our organization values employees falling in line with the
overall organizational direction.
Tomorrow’s Value: Our organization values diversity in perspectives
leading to a deeper understanding of organizational reality and an enriched
knowledge base for decision making.
Value 3: Openness to Conflict
Today’s Value: Our organization values employees communicating a
climate of group harmony and happiness.
Tomorrow’s Value: Our organization values employees resolving conflict in
a healthy way that leads to stronger solutions for complex issues.

11. Value 4: Openness to Reflection
Today’s Value: Our organization values employees conveying a climate of
decisiveness. Firm decisions are made and implemented without looking
back.
Tomorrow’s Value: Our organization values employees reflecting on their
own and others’ thinking in order to achieve better organizational decisions.
Value 5: Openness to Mistakes
Today’s Value: Our organization values employees concentrating on making
no mistakes and working as efficiently as possible.
Tomorrow’s Value: Our organization values employees acknowledging
mistakes and learning from them.

12. Internet Links
The Learning Revolution http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC27/TOC27.htm
The Education & Research Network http://www.aera.net/
The Center for Education Reform http://www.edreform.com/
School Choices http://www.schoolchoices.org/
Effective Education http://klimag.tripod.ca/ed.html
Public Education Network http://www.publiceducation.org/
Education Reform http://www.teach-nology.com/
General Education Reform
http://www.enc.org/professional/research/journal/generalreform/
The Teacher’s Guide – Educational Reform
http://www.theteachersguide.com/Educationreform.htm
The Progress of Education Reform
http://www.ecs.org/html/educationIssues/ProgressofReform.asp

13. Key Terms and Definitions
1. Implementation: or initial use (usually the first two or three years)
involves the first experiences of attempting to put an idea or reform into
practice.
2. Initiation: mobilization, or adoption consists of the process that leads up
to and includes a decision to adopt or proceed with a change.
3. Continuation: incorporation, or institutionalization refers to whether the
change gets built in as an ongoing part of the system or disappears by
way of a decision to discard or through attrition.
4. Relevance: includes the interaction of need, clarity of the innovation (and
practitioner’s understanding of it), and utility, or what it really has to
offer teachers and students.
5. Readiness: involves the school’s practical and conceptual capacity to
initiate, develop, or adopt a given innovation – the school’s capacity to
use reform.
6. Resources: concern the accumulation of and provision of support as a
part of the change process.
7. Need: refers to whether or not change is required.
8. Clarity: (about goals and means) is a perennial problem in the change
process. Understanding every detail of the goals and means.
9. Complexity: refers to the difficulty and extent of change required of the
individuals responsible for implementation.

14. 10.Local factors: district, community, principal, and teacher.
11.External factors: state departments of education and federal agencies.
12.Continuation: whether or not the change gets embedded or built into the
structure (through policy, budget, timetable, etc.), has (by the time of the
continuation phase) generated a critical mass of administrators and
teachers who are skilled in and committed to the change, and has
established procedures for continuing assistance, especially relative to
supporting new teachers and administrators.