Amplifying Positive Deviance in Schools

Jerry Sternin's job was to help save starving children in Vietnam. Faced with an impossible timeframe, he adopted a radical approach to making change… "In every community, organization, or social group, there are individuals whose exceptional behaviors or practices enable them to get better results than their neighbors with the exact same resource. Without realizing it, these 'positive deviants' have discovered the path to success for the entire group – that is, if their secrets can be analyzed, isolated, and then shared with the rest of the group. In Vietnam, Sternin proved the theory worked."

Source: "Positive deviant," Fast Company, December 2000
Available online: http://www.fastcompany.com/online/41/sternin.html

Our Challenge: To show how positive deviance is amplified in schools. In schools, some individuals obtain better results than others even though they share the same resources and work in the same environment. They may be teachers whose students achieve at much higher rates than those of other teachers at the same grade or in the same school. They may be principals whose students perform better than expected on standard measures. They may be superintendents whose districts outperform comparable districts. These teachers, principals, and superintendents are education's positive deviants. Think of the value of discovering how positive deviants achieve their results and the strategies they use to spread these outstanding practices throughout a school and system.

Until late 2002, we called for nominations to participate in a study of how the concept of positive deviance has been demonstrated in schools. Watch NSDC's future publications for news of what we are learning.

From the Inside Out: Learning from the Positive Deviance in Your Organization This book by NSDC’s director of publications and JSD executive editor Joan Richardson explores the work of six schools and districts that are “positive deviants,’’ organizations that are achieving above-average results with students although they have the same access to resources as other schools and districts in their areas. NOW AVAILABLE in the NSDC Bookstore!

Related articles in NSDC publications:

• "Pushing the capacity for growth," by Joan Richardson, May 2004 Results
• "A district that illuminates success," by Joan Richardson, April 2004 Results
• "Setting the pace of instruction," by Joan Richardson, March 2004 Results
• "Doing whatever it takes to close the gap," by Joan Richardson, February 2004 Results
• "From hunger aid to school reform: An interview with Jerry Sternin," by Dennis Sparks, Winter 2004 JSD
• "Focus on literacy leads to change," by Joan Richardson, December 2003/January 2004 Results
• "Portrait of success," by Joan Richardson, November 2003 Results
• "Amplifying positive deviance in schools," by Dennis Sparks, April 2002 Results