Reform signaling beats implementation

Education reforms repeatedly fail because political and media incentives reward visible policy promises and symbolic changes more than the slow, boring work of implementation, measurement, and local management. As a result, capacity deficits and perverse incentives in districts and state agencies consistently blunt reform results. — Spotting the signaling/implementation tradeoff reframes why well‑funded reforms underperform and directs attention toward institutional capacity and accountability as the place to invest political capital.