School Continuous Improvement Plan

School Continuous Improvement Plan – In the classroom, good teachers constantly test small changes in class activities, routines, and workflows. They observe how students interact with the material, determine where they stumble, and adjust as they go. This on-the-fly problem solving is so common in classrooms that many teachers don’t even realize they’re doing it, and the expertise gained is rarely considered when schools or districts are trying to solve larger, systemic problems. In educational research, researchers come up with ideas that they think will improve instruction and then set up laboratory or classroom experiments to test the idea. If the trial goes well enough, the idea is added to the list of research-approved practices. While research-based practices are important, this process can often mean that interventions are unrealistic or disconnected from the busy reality of many classrooms and rarely used. But what if the teachers themselves were the engine of research – the spark of continuous development? “It takes a lot of humility to realize that you don’t have the answer and you’re going to learn how to get to it.” Dr. Manuelito Biag, Carnegie Foundation The Carnegie Foundation is trying to bridge this gap by identifying techniques that work and create “a much more democratic process in which teachers participate in identifying and solving practical problems that matter to them,” said Dr. Manuelito Biag. , the foundation’s network development associate of science. Biag previously worked on developing researcher-practitioner partnerships at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. Over the past several years, under the leadership of Dr. Tony Brick, Carnegie has attempted to apply a structured research process to educational problems, building the capacity of teachers, principals, and district administrators for continuous improvement. It is used to successfully change systems such as health care. The basic principles of the process are understanding the problem, defining a manageable goal, identifying the factors that help to achieve this goal, and then testing small ideas to change these drivers. When working in a network, this development cycle is accelerated as different participants test different ideas for change and share their results with the group. Through the constant interplay of these elements, some ideas for change rise to the top and can spread throughout the system.

UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM Many of the biggest problems in practice are long-standing and not easy to solve. Too often, when managers try to fix something, they come up with solutions before properly examining the problem. Understanding the problem requires an appreciation of many types of knowledge. This involves conducting empathic interviews with participants in the system, including teachers, staff, parents and students. This includes presenting the best research literature on the problem. And sometimes mapping the processes involved in a problem can illuminate the areas that are breaking down. According to Bijago, this stage is crucial and should not be rushed. He has seen development projects that require up to a year of study to fully understand the problem, its root causes, and the levers of change available to leaders. Development networks often know it’s time to move on when participants feel fed up—no new perspectives or information is being presented. “Sometimes it’s good to stop researching and try something,” Biag said. Applying some change ideas often helps clarify the problem and may even require the team to revisit and revise the problem statement. Courtesy of the Carnegie Foundation COMPARE GOALS AND COMMON GOALS ON COLLECTIVE EMPOWERMENT When a group has “enough” problems, it’s crucial to write a clear, concise statement of goals. It should be specific, measurable and focused on a challenging problem, but it should be achievable. The key question, Biag said, is: “What is under your control and what is not?” So when you set out to solve a problem, don’t waste time on things that are out of your control.” She often sees people who define the problem too broadly. If the problem is a lack of achievement among the student population, the group might say that the root of the problem is inequality or poverty. These things may contribute to the problem, but it’s not up to teachers, principals, or even districts to fix them. A more manageable goal statement might be, “We will increase from 45% to 90% by June 2020 the number of male students enrolled in for-credit math courses at state colleges. “It has to be motivating enough for people to work on it for a few months,” Biag said of the goal. But it has to be specific and concrete enough for the group to see if their ideas for change will help them “While a goal statement may seem deceptively simple, you need to build trust and get on the same page with everyone in the network to even agree on where to focus your efforts.” re,” Biag said. The network itself is important because it accelerates the pace of learning about possible solutions. When the goal is clear, the group identifies three to five main drivers of the problem. These are the things that the group believes will have the most impact on achieving the goal and are within their control. It is very important that there are only a few, not twenty, because the network must work together on all of them. Focus enables further progress. After identifying the most important drivers, h industry participants present ideas for changes that can affect these drivers. “The word change is very specific to developmental science,” Biag said. “This is a real change in the way we work.” In other words, the focus is on process and results in action. Ideas for change are not things like “more money” or “more staff.” “It’s actually a process change or a new process rollout,” Biag said. TESTING AND BUILDING EVIDENCE Once the group has a good understanding of the problem, its root causes, what’s causing it, and some ideas that directly affect these drivers, it’s time to start testing them. Carnegie uses the Plan, Do, Learn, Act (PDSA) cycle to test ideas. The changes should be fairly small, and the tester will collect data along the way. It doesn’t have to be complicated data, just something that helps you analyze and track whether a change moves the needle. Courtesy of the Carnegie Foundation “Most schools and districts come up with a plan, then do it, and then never learn,” Biag said. He suggests that planning should include anticipation because participants are more likely to compare the new strategy with the expected effect. If the idea of change did not work as expected, there is much to learn. Many of the best ideas for change come from examining what Carnegie calls “positive deviants” — bright spots in the grid. For example, if the network aims to improve the college readiness of English language learners, leaders should build their knowledge base by talking to teachers who appear to be performing better than average in that population. These teachers are “positive deviants” and networks should try to learn from how their practice differs from that of their peers. For example, leaders of the High Tech High Charter Network have identified a desire to increase the number of African American and Latino males applying to four-year colleges. When they surveyed the drivers, they found school attendance was lower among this group, and hypothesized that the way teachers communicate with parents may be part of the problem. In an attempt to eliminate variance in parent-teacher communication, a theory of change involving the use of an interaction protocol with families was tested. They went through several iterations of the protocol, but when they found one that worked, they rolled it out across their school network. Now, when teachers meet with parents about achievement or discipline, they try to make it positive, share information about the student and create an action plan with the parent, among other things. The key to networking is that different people can try out different ideas for change and share their data. “The idea is not to have everyone working on the same thing at the same time,” Biag said. “So, use the network and the power of the network to scale up ideas for change.” Some ideas don’t work and are dropped. Others may look promising, but more data is needed before others in the network can try them. Over time, change the ideas that seem to really influence leaders, rise to the top. “As you test and gather evidence, you’ll find ideas that work, and then we can talk about how to expand those ideas,” Biag said. Courtesy of the Carnegie Foundation PROPAGATION AND CALCULATION Even the best ideas can be difficult to implement. According to Biago, leaders must consider several factors when thinking about how to spread an idea that seems to be happening