District Innovation Index

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Your innovation index considers how much your district like to try new things and whether you are risk-averse. Some districts prefer a conservative approach, making plans that take into account not only what needs to be done but also what might go wrong and preparing for alternative paths. This is the system life-cycle approach. Other districts prefer an action research orientation. In this orientation failure is not to be avoided but to be embraced and used a learning experience. This is the adaptive cycle approach.

As will be noted in the discussion on district size, there is often a correlation between size and approach. Larger districts, often due to the complexity of the technical environment, will choose a system life-cycle approach to deploying any technologies on a district-wide scale. Smaller districts or single campuses find it possible to be more nimble, and an adaptive cycle approach can work.

This is not to say that large districts cannot be innovative. It may be more difficult to do so in the whole district at once. Selecting a few schools or a smaller area of the district to evolve the Portal can help. Then the Portal can be deployed throughout the whole district.