Monitoring Implementation
Implementation of new initiatives involves careful planning, monitoring the plan on a continuous basis, engaging in formative evaluation, modifying initial plans as necessary, and providing opportunities for focused professional development based on evidence of progress and the school staff’s own assessments of what it needs more to know. And it requires strategic and flexible leadership.
This step involves two distinct tasks:
Careful & Detailed Planning
Monitoring Implementation
Commentary
It is not unusual for members of an organization to seem to agree initially that change is needed and to later resist change on the grounds of feasibility or to feel overwhelmed by the new challenges that they did not anticipate. Sometimes people underestimate their own capacity and need reassurance and additional support.
In recent years, there have been a number of books and articles recognizing the difficulty of sustaining improvement efforts. Those involved in implementing new initiatives would do well to use as their anthem songwriter Paul Simon’s warning that, “The closer your destination, the more you’re slip-slidin away”.
Guidelines and Tools for Planning and Managing the Implementation of New Initiatives
• Project Planning, Scheduling, Implementation and Control
Insert pp .5.10-5.12, from FG Part 3
• PERT Charts (for managing implementation)
Insert pp. 91-92 from J. DiVincenzo and F. Ricci, Group Decision Making: A Tool Kit for Schools, 1999, NEA
• Action Planning Forms
Insert pp. 105-106 from J. DiVincenzo and F. Ricci, Group Decision Making: A Tool Kit for Schools, 1999, NEA