Thanks for the question. Yes, I think our history gave us three legs of support:

The first was having a strong base of potential lead teachers. The grant provided the resources to build their capacity and utilize them more effectively.

The second was having already made 25 years of mistakes! That is to say, we already had some experience with the change process. We still made mistakes, but at least they were new ones...

The third leg was a strong, supportive infastructure within the superintendency. They knew our history, the people who comprised it and believed in our project. From previous successes, we didn't have to "sell" each new idea to get it moving.