Lauren, Joe & others raise some good points about "replication." Yes, it deosn't make sense to think of replication as exactly reproducing school A in location B -- there needs to be adaptation and adjustment to meet specific needs. And it's important to recognize the quality teaching is, at bottom, what counts, rather than "the model" per se.
But (you knew that was coming) we need to ask the following question: where is the drive and discipline going to come from to do the hard work of adaptation of good ideas in different places? One of the things I like about the idea of "replication" is that the organization-seeking-to-replicate takes this job -- commits effort and resources to it. And cares deeply about the results, has a powerful incentive to adapt successfully, because it wants to be able to keep growing and prospering.
Now that's sounding a bit romantic, and of course Joe's right that many organizations-seeking-to-replicate have done this badly. But I think there's a lot of power to be harnessed in that entrepreneurial drive to take an idea to scale. Like in any entrepreneurial "space," some will do it badly and some well.
Posted as a reply to:
Sharing and replicating by Lauren Morando Rhim 
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