Building an intervention: A theoretical and practical infrastructure for planning, implementing, and evaluating a metropolitan-wide school-to-career initiative

A blueprint for planning, implementing, and evaluating (PIE) an interventio n is presented against the backdrop of a construction analogy. Emphasized i s the interplay among theory, research, and practice throughout the PIE pro cess, and operationalized are key terms to guide planners in their own PIE process. A model of ecological innovation and change, the assimmodation inn ovation model, is introduced to explain the process associated with the imp lementation and adoption of an innovation and to inform a containment x cha nge and growth model of social action and human development. Illustrated is Kansas City's Business/Education Expectations (BE2): School-To-Career Part nership, a comprehensive, metropolitan-wide, multiple-county school reform initiative that developed out of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 19 94 that seeks a pedagogy and curriculum that enhances student achievement t hrough authentic, contextual, real world thinking and experience.