Internal Coherence
Michelle Forman & Richard F. Elmore
SERP Institute / HGSE
Internal Coherence
The leadership practices, efficacy beliefs, and
organizational processes associated with a faculty’s
capacity to engage in deliberate improvements in
instructional practice and student learning across
classrooms, over time
Research Base
IC weaves together constructs from the
organizational behavior, school improvement and
social cognitive literatures into a general theory of
how schools improve
School improvement requires ongoing
organizational processes
describe
examine
analyze
hypothesize
plan
commit
enact
monitor
assess
Internal Coherence Assessment
Protocol (ICAP)
1. Teacher Survey
2. Classroom Observation
* Non-evaluative, evidence-based, focused on task
* Nature of tasks and variability across classrooms
3. Interviews with teachers, principals, leadership team
* Contextualize, corroborate survey data
* Administrative perspective (no survey data)
Domain Scores in Context
Leadership Domain
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
Reference High
ProfileBonnie
School
Brae,
Reference Low
Individual Item Graphs
How often have you worked with members of your team to evaluate curricular or
assessment materials?
6
5
5
5
4
4
3
3
2
2
1
1
0
Almost Never
2-3 Times a Year
About Once a Month
2-3 Times a Month
Once a Week
More Than Once a
Week
Developmental Theory
• Developmental theory, place schools on a
continuum on each dimension
• Help school and district leaders carve out a
sensible path to building this capacity in their
organizations
Connection to WG
• Support for schools’ adoption of Word
Generation, Boston Field Site, 2006
• An assessment to determine the existing level
of readiness, and intervention strategy for
increasing IC
• We don’t build organizational capacity for
improvement in the abstract
• WG as platform for building IC, attention to
IC as a means to support WG
Your thoughts on IC
• Does the construct of IC, or the notion of the
“carrying capacity” of an organization, resonate?
• Any questions or feedback on the model?
• How would you describe your school’s current
level of IC?
• What do you imagine happening when WG
hits your organization? What do you think will
happen post roll-out?