Some Emerging Characteristics of Sustainable Practices

1. Some Emerging Characteristics of Sustainable Practices Ronnie Detrich Randy Keyworth Jack States Wing Institute

2. Nature of the Problem • In education innovations come and go in 18-48 months (Latham, 1988). • Alderman & Taylor (2003) Optimally, sustainability should be a focus from the day a project is implemented. With most projects, the pressure of just becoming operational often postpones such a focus until well into the 2nd year.

3. Why Such a Short Life Span? • High Effort • Innovation more difficult than expected. • Causes too much change. • Takes too much time.

4. Why Such a Short Life Span? • Poor system design • Supporters leave. • Personnel lack training. • External funds run out. • Inadequate supervision. • No accountability. • No consequences for early termination.

5. Even Well Tested Programs Often Fail to Sustain • Elliott & Mihalic (2004) review Blueprint Model Programs (violence prevention and drug prevention programs) replication in community settings. • Programs reviewed across 5 dimensions • Site selection • Training • Technical assistance • Fidelity • Sustainability.

6. Even Well Tested Programs Often Fail to Sustain • Critical elements in site readiness • Well connected local champion • Strong administrative support • Formal organizational commitments • Formal organizational staffing stability • Up front commitment of necessary resources • Program credibility within the community • Program sustained by the existing operational budget.

7. Even Well Tested Programs Often Fail to Sustain • Critical elements of training • Adhere to requirements for training, skills, and education. • Hire all staff before scheduling training. • Encourage administrators to attend training. • Plan and budget for staff turnover. • Implement program immediately after training.

8. Even Well Tested Programs Often Fail to Sustain • Critical elements of Technical Assistance • Proactive plan for technical assistance. • Critical elements of Fidelity • Monitor fidelity • Critical elements of Sustainability • Function of how well other dimensions are implemented.

9. Why Such a Short Life Span? • Those responsible for developing effective interventions do not necessarily have the skills to effect large systems change. • Systems change is different level of intervention. • Adults are the target of change rather than student behavior.

10. Emerging Features of Sustainable Programs • Maintain over time. • Maintain across generations of practitioners. • Operate within existing financial and staffing resources.

11. Cultural Analysis and Sustainability • Cultural Analysis may contribute to understanding. • Baum (2000): culture consists of behavior and… cultural change constitutes an evolutionary process. • Glenn (2003) if novel behavior is to make a difference either its consequences must differ from those of previously learned behavior, or it must produce the previous consequences more expeditiously.

12. Cultural Analysis and Sustainability • Diffusion of Innovations (Rogers, 2003) • Diffusion is a kind of social change, defined as the process by which alteration occurs in the structure and function of a social system. When new ideas are invented, diffused, and adopted or rejected, leading to certain consequences, social change occurs. • Diffusion of innovation is a social process, even more than a technical matter. • The adoption rate of innovation is a function of its compatibility with the values beliefs, and past experiences of the individuals in the social system.

13. Cultural Analysis and Sustainability • Harris (1979): practices are adopted and maintained to the extent that they have favorable, fundamental outcomes at a lower cost than alternative practices. • Fundamental outcomes are subsistence and survival.

14. Important Funding Outcomes for Cultural Institutions • Schools: Average Daily Attendance. • Schools: Unit cost for a classroom. • Special Education: # of students identified • Special Education services are often specified as # minutes per session or # sessions per week. • Mental health services: # of clients seen/time. • These all represent process measures rather than outcome measures.

15. Implications of Current Measures • If key outcome is survival of cultural practice then innovations in service must accomplish these outcomes at a much lower cost than current practice. • Nothing in the current unit of analysis specifies effectiveness as critical dimension of the practice.

16. Implications of Current Measures • Current accountability measures of NCLB may reflect a change in emphasis. • Problem is that NCLB specifies outcomes but does not specify behaviors to accomplish outcome. • Consequence may be that test scores improve but student learning does not. • Multiple instances of cheating reported • Many schools spend great deal of time “teaching to the test.” • Remains to be seen if these accountability measures result in more effective practices that sustain.

17. How Can We Increase Sustainability of Practices? • When developing innovative practices demonstrate how they address basic funding outcomes for schools. • Monitor performance outcomes. • Even though not directly tied to fundamental outcomes, the larger culture has expectations that schools will educate students in a safe environment. • Find champions who are part of the system. • Champion should control important reinforcers for others within the system. • Champion needs to plan on “sticking around.”

18. How Can We Increase Sustainability of Practices? • Pro-active technical assistance. • Help solve the real problems of implementation. • Monitor integrity of implementation. • Without monitoring, the system likely to drift back to previous practices. • Anticipate 3-5 years before system is fully operational. • Emphasizes the need to plan for multigenerational support. • Use external funding and support with extreme caution.

19. References Alderman, H. S. & Taylor, L. (2003). On sustainability of project innovations as systemic change. Journal of Education and Psychological Consultation, 14 (1), 1-25. Baum, W. M. (2000). Being concrete about culture and cultural evolution. In N. Thompson and F. Tonneau (Eds.) Perspectives in Ethology(Vol. 13, pp. 181-212). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Elliott, D. S. & Mihalic, S. (2004). Issues in disseminating and replicating effective prevention programs. Prevention Science, 5(1), 47-53. Glenn, S. S. (2003). Operant contingencies and the origin of cultures. In K. A. Lattal and P. N. Chase (Eds.) Behavior Theory and Philosophy. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Harris, M. (1979). Cultural Materialism: The struggle for a science of culture. New York: Simon and Shuster. Latham, G. (1988). The birth and death cycles of educational innovations. Principal, 68(1), p41 -43. Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations (5th Edition). New York: Free Press.