Series: Improvement Approaches

  • September 20, 2017

    Quality Improvement Approaches: Positive Deviance

    By Sarah McKay

    Addressing complex educational problems using positive deviance requires detective work. The task: to discover “outliers” who have succeeded under conditions where most others fail; uncover the strategies they use; and design opportunities to share those strategies.

  • April 25, 2017

    Quality Improvement Approaches: Six Sigma

    By Sarah McKay

    Variability is everywhere in education. Everything from a school’s location to the textbooks it uses impact student learning. The Six Sigma approach to improvement emphasizes data analysis to reduce variance and inefficiency in school processes to help all students succeed.

  • April 20, 2017

    Quality Improvement Approaches: Lean for Education

    By Sarah McKay

    Everyone has a stake and a say in the Lean approach to improving educational achievement. The school improvement model evolved from Toyota’s philosophy of building a culture in which all employees were empowered and expected to be part of providing the best possible product.

  • March 15, 2017

    Quality Improvement Approaches: Implementation Science

    By Sarah McKay

    The implementation science approach to improvement in education centers on how to accommodate local school variables and other contextual factors that can impede successful implementation of change ideas, by creating teams that include external facilitators and specialists.

  • March 2, 2017

    Quality Improvement: Deliverology

    By Sarah McKay

    When the Kentucky Department of Education wanted a strategy to significantly increase the number of high school students prepared for college and/or careers, it turned to deliverology, a method used by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to make good on his campaign promises.

  • February 23, 2017

    Quality Improvement Approaches: The Networked Improvement Model

    By Sarah McKay

    A special issue of the journal Quality Assurance in Education breaks down seven approaches to improvement in education, beginning with the networked improvement model. Explore key features and principles of this method through a successful example of helping new teachers.