Although the successes of some research-based educational practices have been documented, equally recognized is the “deep, systemic incapacity of U.S. schools, and the practitioners who work in them, to develop, incorporate, and extend new ideas about teaching and learning in anything but a small fraction of schools and classrooms” {Elmore, 1996 #1859, p. 1; see also \Berends, 2001 #1856; Cuban, 2001 #2085; Tyack, 1992 #1548}. There may be no more challenging educational and theoretical issue than scaling up educational programs across a large number of diverse populations and contexts in the early childhood system in the U.S., avoiding the dilution and pollution that usually plagues such efforts to achieve broad success. We created a research-based model to meet this challenge in the area of mathematics, with the intent the model generalize to other subject matter areas and other age groups. The field needs transferable, practical examples of scale up {McDonald, 2006 #2808}; empirical evidence of the effectiveness of these examples; and focused research on critical variables—all leading to refined, generalizable theories and models of scale up. Our research plan describes a project designed to meet those needs.

The specific goal of our implementation of the TRIAD (Technology-enhanced, Research-based, Instruction, Assessment, and professional Development) model is to increase math achievement in young children, especially those at risk, by means of a high-quality implementation of the Building Blocks math curriculum, with all aspects of the curriculum—mathematical content, pedagogy, teacher’s guide, technology, and assessments—based on a common core of learning trajectories. The TRIAD intervention provides (a) these curriculum materials; (b) ongoing professional development, including scalable distance education, a web-based application with extensive support for teaching based on learning trajectories, and classroom-based coaching during the school year; and(c) supportive roles and materials for parents and administrators.

TRIAD’s theoretical framework (Sarama, Clements, Starkey, Klein, & Wakeley, 2008) is an elaboration of the Network of Influences model (Sarama, Clements, & Henry, 1998), illustrated in Figure 1 (please insert figure 1 here). It is consistent with, but extends in levels of detail, such theories as diffusion theory and the overlapping spheres of influence (Rogers, 2003; Showers, Joyce, & Bennett, 1987). Thus, scale up can be seen as the effort to maintain the integrity of the vision and practices of an innovation through increasingly numerous and complex socially-mediated filters, through phases of introduction, initial adoption, implementation, and institutionalization.