about the program

Innovation is the process of finding a promising idea, putting it into action, and seeing how it works. WestEd's Innovation Studies helps educators with all parts of this iterative improvement cycle.

Staff help educators and funders discover, analyze, plan for, and implement new strategies. They conduct descriptive studies and formative evaluation. They use interactive media for knowledge management and to enhance the professional learning process.

The program's work includes studying promising practices in action, comparing them to other practices, relating them to relevant research, and analyzing key features that appear to contribute to successful outcomes. This work is demonstrated in the Innovation Guides, a series produced for the Office of Innovation and Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education that offers promising practices in the areas of charter schools, parent involvement strategies, online learning, and more.

For the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Innovation Studies Program is leading the Rethinking High School project, creating a series of profiles that examines successful high schools throughout the country along with analyses of high school reforms in action.

Another major initiative, the Doing What Works website, helps educators see how schools have implemented research-based practices and helps them plan their own improvement strategies.

The Innovation Studies Program also specializes in developing web-based tools that help educators adapt and implement new practices in their local contexts.