SIMposium Session: Leading Sustainable SIM Implementation with School Partners

Presenters:

Rosemary Tralli and Jocelyn Washburn

Session Description:

Major federal funders have invested billions of dollars into a range of instructional improvement efforts, including SIM instructional tools and interventions, and SIM Professional Developers have worked tirelessly to support their school partners to implement them. When these efforts are not sustained in practice and policy, a myriad of losses occur: valuable federal resources, educator burn-out, students do not benefit, and more. Some highly commendable research has examined how to initiate and reach full implementation in evidence-based practices (e.g., National Implementation Research Network). As a network, we need to understand why some SIM initiatives in schools and districts (a) diminish, (b) stop entirely, or (c) most importantly and most aspirationally, continue. Additionally, we need to make sure SIM implementation strategies are anchored in structures that will withstand high rates of administrator and teacher turn-over prevalent today. During this session, participants will consider a framework of contextual factors believed to contribute to sustainability or discontinued implementation of SIM. At the same time, participants will engage as expert reviewers for an upcoming study. For each contextual factor, participants will cycle through three rounds of review with reflection, discussion to provide feedback, and application steps. 

• Session Outcomes:
  • Explore what it means to be a “change agent” based on lessons learned and today’s field of education.
  • Engage in reflection and dialogue about contextual factors that influence sustainable SIM implementation and make plans to address them in your work with school partners.
  • Serve as an expert reviewer for an upcoming study to examine contextual factors for sustainable SIM implementation.

Handouts:

• Available in SIMville