Education Week: Innovative Reforms Require Innovative Scorekeeping:
"Unfortunately, no single, circumscribed program can turn things around in an entire community or for a whole population. Nor can complex social programs and policies be tested like new drugs. The interventions that turn around inner-city schools, strengthen families, and rebuild neighborhoods are not stable chemicals manufactured and administered in standardized doses. They are sprawling efforts with multiple components, some of which may be proven experimentally, but many that can’t be because they require midcourse corrections and adaptations to fit local circumstances."
"Unfortunately, no single, circumscribed program can turn things around in an entire community or for a whole population. Nor can complex social programs and policies be tested like new drugs. The interventions that turn around inner-city schools, strengthen families, and rebuild neighborhoods are not stable chemicals manufactured and administered in standardized doses. They are sprawling efforts with multiple components, some of which may be proven experimentally, but many that can’t be because they require midcourse corrections and adaptations to fit local circumstances."
