Abstract
This article takes its point of departure from recent developments in design-based school reform: design competition, authoritative lists of presumably research-based projects, and forced choice of comprehensive designs, especially by low-performing schools. Data from the implementation reality of four reform projects in 35 schools, as well as other studies, suggest that perhaps expectations of comprehensiveness, robustness, and fidelity, underlying recent developments, need to be reevaluated and synergy effects of design repertoires more consciously used. The authors contend that design cooperation, rather than design competition, may be a more promising leitmotif for design-based educational reform.