September 4, 2018
Summit on Improvement in Education
Due to the evolving situation around COVID-19, the seventh annual Carnegie Summit will be held as a virtual conference on April 1–3, 2020. We will post updates to the event as we have them.
Topic: Improvement Science
April 11, 2017
Five Years & 20,000 Students: How a NIC Succeeded Where Others Failed
Five-year studies show that Carnegie’s network approach to improving developmental math increased both student success in college-level math and transfer rates from 2-year to 4-year colleges compared to students in traditional remedial math, even as enrollment quadrupled.
March 3, 2017
The Promise of Social Relationships in Building Strong Networked Improvement Communities
Social relationships are key to the potential of networked improvement communities to accelerate and sharpen education change using the improvement science approach. Veterans of the process explain how they keep strengthening those connections while expanding their networks.
February 23, 2017
Quality Improvement Approaches: The Networked Improvement Model
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.
February 17, 2017
Journey Mapping a Path to Early Literacy in Tennessee
A networked improvement community in Tennessee that’s applying improvement science to address literacy rates finds that journey mapping helps to see the system more clearly, to build empathy for students affected by the problems, and to focus their improvement work.
February 8, 2017
Improvement is a Team Sport
User-centered design is key to developing meaningful change to improve student achievement, and networked improvement communities help ensure and maintain the focus on human needs.
February 3, 2017
What We’re Reading: Making the Case for Evidence-Based Decision-Making
We’re reading Jennifer Brooks’ provocative piece on continuous improvement as an essential complement to evidence-based practice in achieving scalable outcomes for social programs. In this Stanford Social Innovation Review essay, Brooks discusses randomized controlled trials, data-driven decision-making, implementation science, and more.
February 3, 2017
Two Wisconsin School Districts Pave an Early Path to Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement is gaining adherents in education for its evidence-based and structured methodology to creating lasting, effective changes to improve student achievement. Two Wisconsin superintendents share lessons learned as pioneers of the improvement process.
January 31, 2017
How a Networked Improvement Community Improved Success Rates for Struggling College Math Students
When a 2010 study found dismal success rates in college developmental math, the Carnegie Foundation formed a network of experts to address the problem guided by improvement science. This narrative tells how the process led to a new remedial program with stunning results.
January 26, 2017
Online Course Builds a Base of Leaders in Support of Ambitious Instruction
Engaging students in learning through ambitious instruction is a chief focus of educational reform and policy in the US and around the world. The University of Michigan and the Carnegie Foundation created MOOCs to support teams of educational leaders in pursuit of this goal.
January 11, 2017
Proposing a New Federal Role to Support Better School Improvement Policy
With the upcoming presidential inauguration and confirmation hearings for the next education secretary, Carnegie Foundation and other scholars are urging the new administration to shift federal education policy to support better school improvement strategies.
December 21, 2016
A Federal Assist to Increase Graduation Rates for Underserved Students
There’s ample new evidence of successful interventions to increase high school and college graduation rates to prepare students for today’s jobs. But, in this Memo to the President, Carnegie researchers explain what the federal government has to do to help spread this work.
December 16, 2016
Finding a Balance for the Federal Role in Education Policy
A new president, a new secretary of education, and a new version of ESSA are creating a confluence of unknowns about the future federal role in education policy. Carnegie Foundation scholars propose their recommendations as part of a series of Memos to the President.
December 8, 2016
Clear, Measurable Goals and Empathy Help Scale Improvement Science at High Tech High
Teachers at High Tech High, a network of charter schools in San Diego County, say using improvement science has cultivated collaboration; set guidelines for clear, measureable goals; fostered innovative ideas; and encouraged more teachers to start improvement networks.
November 14, 2016
Better Evidence and Better Research Yield Better Policy
Policy can do a lot to support positive changes, but policy alone isn’t effective in such large, diverse, and complex arenas as education, wrote policy analyst Paul Lingenfelter in comments solicited by the federal Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking.
October 31, 2016
A Partnership between Evidence-Based Policy and Practice-Based Evidence
What will it take to make effective, lasting, and scalable education improvements? It’s not a silver bullet. Policymakers and practitioners must start working together to design solutions based on research and evidence.