Continuous Improvement and "High Leverage" Educational Problems
Efforts to achieve integrity in the implementation of educational reforms and policies has long been considered a challenge in large part due to a failure to account for local context. In their efforts to achieve fidelity with policy and program goals, policymakers and implementers often neglect to account for the particularities of their organization and environment. A current approach, aimed at adaptation to local context in implementation, comes from improvement science and its practice of continuous improvement. Continuous improvement is a reform strategy in which implementers engage in an intentional and deliberate process of goal setting, enactment, and analysis that, in turn, informs the next cycle of implementation and improvement. Through this structured adaptation, implementers tailor policy and program goals with local conditions and constraints. Furthermore, while educational practitioners have been at the forefront of continuous improvement efforts and its emergence within the field for some time, only recently have researchers begun turning to the approach to implement high-leverage educational problems. “High leverage” refers to educational approaches that have been found in the field to have an impact on student academic, social-emotional, and behavioral outcomes or teacher activities. These are approaches in which there is broad consensus that, if implemented with integrity, there is a high likelihood that they will lead to high-quality, positive change. This article reviews empirical research that studied the implementation of high-leverage practices using continuous improvement strategies and identified seven high-leverage strategies on which there are studies of their implementation using a continuous improvement approach. Each section provides research that establishes the high-leverage practice, as well as improvement research on the high-leverage practice. The six topics are instructional leadership and collaboration, school turnaround, social-emotional learning, professional development, and use of data.
Official Bibliography (via Oxford Bibliography)
Closson-Pitts, B., Gilliam, E., Rutledge, S., & Cannata, M. (2020). Continuous Improvement and “High Leverage” Educational Problems. In B. Closson-Pitts, E. Gilliam, S. Rutledge, & M. Cannata, Oxford Bibliographies: Education. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0236
Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago
System Learning in an Urban School District: A Case Study of Intra-District Learning
Lesson Study to Scale Up Research-Based Knowledge: A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Fractions Learning
Continuous Improvement in the Public School Context: Understanding How Educators Respond to Plan–Do–Study–Act Cycles
Design-Based School Improvement: A Practical Guide for Education Leaders
Studying Implementation within a Continuous-Improvement Process: What Happens When We Design with Adaptations in Mind?
Mixing Metaphors: Building Infrastructure for Large Scale School Turnaround
Using Improvement Science to Better Support Beginning Teachers: The Case of the Building a Teaching Effectiveness Network
Establishing and Sustaining Networked Improvement Communities: Lessons From Michigan and Minnesota
Dilemmas of Prescriptive Practices and Perceived Alignment in Program Implementation
Scaling Personalization: Exploring the Implementation of an Academic and Social-Emotional Innovation in High Schools
Continuous Improvement in Schools: Understanding the Practice
From Shanghai to Tennessee: Developing Instructional Leadership Through Teacher Peer Excellence Groups
Improving Mathematics Instruction Through Lesson Study: A Theoretical Model and North American Case
Strengthening Developmental Education Reforms: Evidence on Implementation Efforts From the Scaling Innovation Project
Lesson Study: A Japanese Approach To Improving Mathematics Teaching and Learning
Using Design-Based Research to Improve the Lesson Study Approach to Professional Development in Camden (London)
Japanese Lesson Study: Teacher Professional Development through Communities of Inquiry
Implementing Japanese Lesson Study in Foreign Countries: Misconceptions Revealed
Reassessing the Principal's Role in School Effectiveness: A Review of Empirical Research, 1980-1995
Teaching Versus Teachers as a Lever for Change: Comparing a Japanese and a U.S. Perspective on Improving Instruction
Poco a Poco: Leadership Practices Supporting Productive Communities of Practice in Schools Serving the New Mainstream
Examining Capacity for “Cross-Pollination” in a Rural School District: A Social Network Analysis Case Study
Using Research to Improve College Readiness: A Research Partnership Between the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles Education Research Institute
Creating a Culture of Data Use for Continuous Improvement: A Case Study of an Edison Project School
The Impact of Enhancing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Universal Interventions
Engaging Families in the High School Transition: Initial Findings From a Continuous Improvement Initiative
Wise Feedback as a Timely Intervention for At-Risk Students Transitioning Into High School
Lesson Study: An Approach to Increase the Competency of Out-of-Field Mathematics Teacher in Building the Students Conceptual Understanding in Learning Mathematics
University Support of Secondary STEM Teachers Through Professional Development.
Learning in Practice: Exploring the Use of Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycles to Support Professional Learning
Lesson Study in Mathematics: Three Cases from Singapore
How Leaders Can Support Teachers with Data-Driven Decision Making: A Framework for Understanding Capacity Building
Co-Constructors of Data, Co-Constructors of Meaning: Teacher Professional Development in an Age of Accountability
Involving Teachers in Data-Driven Decision Making: Using Computer Data Systems to Support Teacher Inquiry and Reflection
Raising Test Scores through the Continuous Improvement Model
Oxford Bibliographies [Special Series]: Continuous Improvement in Education
Oxford Bibliographies: Continuous Improvement in Education [Special Series]
OB Citations - Continuous Improvement and "High Leverage" Educational Problems