Large-scale interventions in science education for diverse student groups in varied educational settings

Current classroom practices in the U.S. and internationally have largely been shaped by changing student demographics and accountability policies. This special issue includes manuscripts that develop conceptual frameworks or report on empirical studies addressing large-scale interventions of educational innovations for diverse student groups in varied educational settings. Understanding issues related to large-scale interventions will be particularly important for the U.S. as the science education system embraces new science standards [National Research Council, [2011] A framework for K-12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. Washington, DC: National Research Council.]. In our introduction to the special issue, we discuss critical issues in scaling up educational innovations through which large-scale interventions evolve. First, we describe the process of scaling up an educational innovation. Then, we address challenges in scaling up an innovation. Next, we discuss implications that these challenges present to implementation of an innovation and evaluation of its efficacy and effectiveness. Finally, we briefly introduce the articles that appear in this special issue.