PROBLEM AND PROJECT SUMMARY - Successful pilot projects can often fail to achieve their desired scale and sustainbility.  The lack of a robust design to effect deep and consequential change, an inability to adapt to different underlying conditions beyond the pilot context, a failure to achieve ownership of the innovation by subsequent adopters and implementers, and the innovation’s inability to evolve with subsequent experience and learning can all contribute to a failure to achieve scale and sustainability.  The SynergyRPT (Research, Practice and Transformation) project created and sustained a community of practice (a "collaboratory") among thirteen Advanced Technological Education (ATE) national and resource centers, which focused on the practice of scaling innovations and contributed to a body of knowledge based on their learning and trying out concepts, practices and tools (CPTs) related to achieving scale.  The community learned and shared that learning in a series of face-to-face workshops and conferences, as well as regular conference calls and webinars.  In building that community and harvesting the resulting knowledge, the community developed common definitions and understandings of scaling terms and concepts.  This body of experience and knowledge was shared and critiqued beyond the community and has already served as a basis for achieving scale in the ATE Community and beyond, with specific application in NSF’s TUES and STEP Programs and the Department of Labor’s TAACCCT Program.

PROJECT OUTCOMES - Building on successful approaches to achieving scale and the experience of thought leaders from education and industry in the scaling and diffusion of innovations, SynergyRPT created a community of practice that translated this experience to a community college context and furthered the existing body of knowledge.  This addition to the body of experience and knowledge on scaling up resulted in part from the adoption and use of scaling CPTs in a range of settings and projects across the ATE community.  Logic models were among the most used of these CPTs and became integral to planning, communicating and implementing the centers’ scaling projects, as well as to assessing their outcomes and impact.  Their common and ongoing use provided opportunities for critique and peer review by other members of the community.  Common misperceptions of what constitutes well-defined outcomes and outcome assessments were challenged and replaced with a deeper understanding of how data collection decisions and assessment methods can strengthen claims of success and impact for a project.  Representatives from each project team became subject matter experts and oversaw activities for their team’s scaling project.  These individuals became the core of the community of practice and a principal means for communications to and among the participating projects.

The multiple perspectives and varied disciplines and experiences in such a community provided insights into the efficacy and value of the various CPTs across a range of situations and applications.  New perspectives on various types of value creation offered additional ways to consider and communicate the value of the CPTs, as well as that of the centers’ innovations.  The relationships among story, community and knowledge served to inform and shape the project’s focus and design.  How each of the three influences and is influenced by the other two provided new and deeper insights into the nature and nurture of successful communities of practice.  Ongoing opportunities for interaction among members of the community resulted in a depth of trust and honest exchange seldom realized in projects and events of shorter duration.

BROADER IMPACT OF THE PROJE...