researchers without borders

Fidelity of Implementation Webinar 2

Sharon Lynch - Development of Fidelity of Implementation Measures

This webinar is a narrative tracing the development of fidelity of implementation measures for a study of the effectiveness of 3 different middle school science curriculum units. Initially, the study was based on a theory of change that predicted that student outcomes would be affected by teachers’ ability to find and enact instructional strategies that were embedded in the curriculum materials. However, when similar strategies were found in comparison teachers’ classes, it was clear that better measures of fidelity were needed. The search to find them suggests that the initial theory of change was too simple. Not only are teachers implicated in fidelity of implementation, so too are the middle school students who participated in the curriculum unit’s activities. The suite of fidelity measures helped us to develop a more interesting and complex theory of change about these science curriculum materials and student learning.