Education Epidemic?

I've learned that the DEMOS think-tank told UK education in 2003, in an 80-page pamphlet - they needed the Exc-el approach. Pamphlet title is Education Epidemic - Transforming secondary schools through innovation networks. It rejects top-down deployment of change initiatives and provides a strong, independent, validation of the bottom-up network approach. Just one of many possible quotes:

• "The best way to spread new practices that people must choose voluntarily rather than conform to in response to central prescription is through peers. Innovations have to catch on, like best-selling books, because they seem to be what everybody is doing, or are caught from personal contact, like a virus."

It's noteable they didn't have any examples to point to. Perhaps Exc-el is the first?

I've posted the document to the Exc-el site. Its author is David H Hargreaves. (Source: www.demos.co.uk , thanks to Demos for making it available subject to their Demos Open access licence)

Link: http://www.exc-el.org.uk/content/index.php/main/about_exc_el/references/education_epidemic