Finding and Replicating Successful Practices 

In this intriguing Kappan article, Arvind Singhal (University of Texas/El Paso) says that every community has positive deviants – “individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problems than their peers although everyone has access to the same resources and challenges.” The challenge for change agents is (a) spotting the positive deviants, who usually aren’t noticed by those around them, and (b) replicating their successful practices. 

With access to the right data – on child malnutrition in Vietnam, for example, or impressive student achievement in high-poverty classrooms – it’s relatively easy to spot the villagers whose children, against the odds, are thriving, or the teachers whose students are achieving at high levels. The hard part is spreading those best practices. A Vietnamese elder had some sage advice that Singhal and other change agents have taken to heart: “A thousand hearings isn’t worth one seeing, and a thousand seeings isn’t worth one doing.”

The way successful child nutrition practices spread in desperately poor rural areas in Vietnam was not by imposing the successful practices of the positive deviants or even sharing their practices with other villagers. Instead, it was getting villagers to do the successful practices and weigh their children to see the results with their own eyes. Villagers were told to feed children protein-rich shrimps, crabs, and sweet potato shoots gathered from paddy fields, have children eat smaller meals more often, and make sure their children ate the food rather than just putting it in front of them. 

Parents saw results within two weeks and continued the new practices. From the original four communities, the project was expanded to ten adjacent communities and then, over several years, to the whole country. Overall, the program helped improve the nutritional status of over 500,000 Vietnamese children. “A decade later, a study showed that successive generations of impoverished Vietnamese children in the program villages were well-nourished,” says Singhal. “This process of self-discovery was as important, if not more, than the actual positive [deviance behaviors] that were uncovered.” 

The Brazosport, Texas schools provide a similar story in the U.S. Mary Dunbar Barksdale was a third-grade teacher in the district who got excellent results on statewide tests with children who virtually all lived in poverty (94 percent qualified for free and reduced-price meals). District leaders documented what she was doing (analyzing test results, identifying learning problems, retooling her instruction to meet those needs, and retesting students till they achieved the desired level), refined the practices, and gradually got other teachers to do the same. Over seven years, Brazosport saw a remarkable surge in student achievement that virtually closed the racial and economic achievement gap. 

Another positive deviants success story was Merced High School in California, a high-poverty school with a predominantly Latino  and Hmong population, a 56 percent graduation rate, and gang and drug problems. District leaders were able to identify and spread several successful practices, including students walking away from a fight without losing face with the opposing gang while maintaining loyalty and membership in their own gang. “The simple act of walking away ensured physical safety for all and soothed tensions rather than incite them,” says Singhal. “Further, many students said they would actively seek a ‘reflective pause’ when engaging in any action that might land them in detention.” This allowed them to meet their family responsibilities after school. These and other practices led to a 25 percent increase in the school’s graduation rate. 

Clairton City, Pennsylvania’s effort to reduce seventh- and ninth-grade absenteeism and late arrivals is another example. Some of the successful practices in Clairton were as simple as getting students to use alarm clocks and put them across the bedroom so they needed to get out of bed to turn them off. Another group of students implemented a peer-based texting system to make sure their friends were awake and getting ready for school. From 2009 to 2011, in-school and out-of-school suspensions dropped by 50 percent, disruptive class behavior dropped by 57 percent, and tardiness dropped by 45 percent. 

“Uncovering Innovations That Are Invisible in Plain Sight” by Arvind Singhal in Phi Delta Kappan, November 2013 (Vol. 95, #3, p. 28-33), www.kappanmagazine.com; Singhal can be reached at asinghal@utep.edu. 

From the Marshall Memo #509