Damn the Experts and Full Speed Ahead

Abstract

Views on the federal role in stimulating educational change have shiftedfrom beliefin the value of long-term efforts to develop innovations intended for specific populations to an emphasis on helping schools learn how to manage change, identifying and solving their own problems. The evaluative study of the impact of four federal demonstration pro grams, Federal Programs Supporting Educational Change is one of the main evidentiary foundations for this shift in belief. The evidence cited in the FPSEC study is compared to the claims against directed development and for local problem-solving. It is argued that the conclusions of the study are not just ified by the data presented, and that the case for the unique power of local problem-solving as a dominant metaphor of change remains to be made empirically.