Carnegie Improvement Science Collection

90-Day Cycles are a structured method to develop and test new processes, tools, practices or knowledge frameworks in support of ... Read more

While failure is often identified as a necessary part of learning, not all failure productively advances learning or growth. The ... Read more

Discussing the topic of “Advancing Quality in Continuous Improvement” Carnegie Foundation President (Emeritus) Anthony S. Bryk reflects on seven diverse ... Read more

This one-page reference summarizes the purpose of an aim statement or improvement goal. It highlights key characteristics of an effective ... Read more

This video highlights a protocol that improvement team facilitators and coaches can utilize to help others connect their local work ... Read more

This session, presented at the 2023 Summit on Improvement in Education, introduces the role of disciplined inquiry in improvement efforts ... Read more

In this video, the presenter walks through an example of engaging in successive PDSA cycles to move from testing a ... Read more

This fourth post in a series on networked improvement community (NIC) initiation spotlights issues related to building a culture that ... Read more

This report from the Department of Research and Evaluation in the Austin Independent School District summarizes activities and key lessons ... Read more

A theory of improvement, often represented by a driver diagram, articulates a community’s shared goal and how they are working ... Read more

A theory of practice improvement is a powerful tool for communicating a group’s improvement goal and the key levers they ... Read more

This is the second post in a series designed to explore and bring to life the framework for initiating networked ... Read more

Improvement coaches encounter common kinds of challenges as they work with teams towards different improvement aims. Four categories of challenges, ... Read more

This session, presented at the 2020 Summit on Improvement in Education, explains how change packages are developed and how they ... Read more

This blog post, based on the 2016 Kappan article “Getting Better Together,” written by Kristen MacConnell and Stacey Caillier, describes what teachers ... Read more

These resources focus on how coaches can help teams build efficient and effective inquiry routines using PDSA cycles. Materials include ... Read more

This session, presented at the 2022 Summit on Improvement in Education, introduces key causal system analysis tools and discusses how ... Read more

This whitepaper offers examples of continuous quality improvement methods in use in three broad categories: at the level of classroom ... Read more

This session, recorded at the 2020 Summit on Improvement in Education, explores considerations for organizing an improvement effort and building ... Read more

This session, recorded for on-demand viewing as part of the 2021 Summit on Improvement in Education, presents six dispositions of ... Read more

Network hub teams can use this self-assessment tool to identify strengths and areas for growth as they support the development ... Read more

The Developmental Progressions Framework describes aspects of a partnership between a school district and university that can be used to ... Read more

This special issue of the Peabody Journal of Education unpacks essential issues and challenges related to launching and operating improvement ... Read more

This session, presented by Community Design Partners at the 2021 Summit on Improvement in Education, introduces empathy interviews as a ... Read more

This session, recorded at the Carnegie Summit in 2021, introduces the Evidence for Improvement Framework. The Framework illustrates how improvement ... Read more

This protocol can be used by improvement leaders to facilitate a team or larger network/organization to create community agreements that ... Read more

This activity introduces the elements of a well-specified, actionable aim statement and provides an opportunity for groups to reflect on ... Read more

This paper offers an integrated perspective on how evidence can be marshaled by network leaders and their analytic partners to ... Read more

This fifth post in a series on networked improvement community (NIC) initiation draws on an analogy to pop-up business. Through ... Read more

Facilitating Improvement Teams℠ is an intermediate-level course that engages coordinators, facilitators, and those who support improvement teams in hands-on, practical ... Read more

Fidelity of implementation is often contrasted with adaptive integration when considering how changes are enacted to account for variation in ... Read more

One of the key features of a practical measure is that it provides actionable information that drives changes in practice. ... Read more

This blog post summarizes five areas of activity for an initiation team launching an improvement effort. Synthesizing ideas presented in ... Read more

This session, presented at the 2020 Summit on Improvement in Education, shares how narratives can be used to foster improvement ... Read more

The Foundational Handbook in Improvement Research in Education elaborates the intellectual foundations, explores the organizational and policy contexts, reviews approaches, and ... Read more

This paper summarizes findings of an exploratory study to understand important dispositions common among educational improvers. Drawing on interviews with ... Read more

Existing in many different sectors, high-reliability organizations achieve consistently high-quality outcomes while avoiding serious accidents and failures. This session, recorded ... Read more

How a City Learned to Improve Its Schools offers comprehensive analysis of the astonishing changes that elevated the Chicago public school ... Read more

This is the first post in a series of designed to explore and bring to life the framework for initiating ... Read more

Hub leadership teams support the development of a NIC and its ability to function as a scientific, professional learning community ... Read more

This video highlights an important pre-planning step in the Plan-Do-Study-Acty (PDSA) process and offers key considerations for selecting a target ... Read more

This casebook and discussion guide is designed for improvement coaches, individually and in groups, to learn through reflecting on and ... Read more

In this post, Learning to Improve co-author Alicia Grunow reflects on the ways that improvement science as a formal method builds on ... Read more

There are several dispositions or mindsets that can cultivate an improvement culture and fuel improvement efforts. This set of resources ... Read more

Improvement in Action highlights six examples of rigorous, high-quality improvement work in districts, schools, and professional development networks across the country. ... Read more

This post illustrates how features of user-centered design bring to life the improvement principle of making the work problem-centered and ... Read more

Improvement Reviews are structured sessions for improvement teams and networks to ask for and receive feedback on specific aspects of ... Read more

Improvement Science in Practice: Finding Solutions Through Iterative Testing℠ is an intermediate-level course for individuals and teams seeking to strengthen ... Read more

Improving America’s Schools Together: How District-University Partnerships and Continuous Improvement Can Transform Education includes stories, examples, and tools from 11 district-university ... Read more

This blog post describes the use of a practical measure developed by an improvement network focused on integrating culturally responsive ... Read more

Hear Tony Bryk, president emeritus of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, describe the need for networked improvement ... Read more

This short video introduces the different kinds of measures that together form a system of measures. A system of measures ... Read more

This facilitator’s handbook and related teaching materials prepare an experienced improver to lead a group through a case-based simulation of ... Read more

Introduction to Networked Improvement Basics℠ is an online course that introduces how improvement science brings discipline and specific methods to ... Read more

In this post, Learning to Improve co-author Louis Gomez distinguishes between complicated and complex problems, and the differences in what is required ... Read more

This video highlights two social tools that improvement team facilitators and coaches can leverage to maintain engagement and commitment: a ... Read more

This annotated list of references and resources is curated for system leaders seeking to strengthen their knowledge and skills to ... Read more

This session, presented at the 2022 Summit on Improvement in Education, explores how examination of variation can point to opportunities ... Read more

This video delves into the Study and Act steps of the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle, focusing on how to surface learning ... Read more

This glossary organizes a selection of key terms used in the book, Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better ... Read more

Learning to Improve shows how a disciplined approach to inquiry, combined with the power of social learning in a network, can ... Read more

This hands-on activity demonstrates how iterative tests of change (PDSA cycles) are informed by data, while also emphasizing the characteristics ... Read more

In this hands-on activity participants will practice using data for quality improvement to generate and test change ideas connected to ... Read more

This session, pre-recorded as part of the virtual 2020 Summit on Improvement in Education, explores ways that measurement for improvement ... Read more

In this video the presenter describes the system of measures that the Building Teacher Effectiveness Network (BTEN) used to learn ... Read more

Measuring to Improve introduces the foundational elements of practical measurement to support continuous improvement in K-12 schools. Detailed case studies of ... Read more

These templates (e.g., agenda, action plan, etc.) can be used by improvement team facilitators and coaches to prepare for meetings ... Read more

This one-page reference summarizes key definitions, features, and organizational structures of a Networked Improvement Community (NIC). A Networked Improvement Community ... Read more

This self-assessment tool enables network initiation or hub teams to assess their readiness to launch a networked improvement community. It ... Read more

The Networked Improvement Learning and Support (NILS™) platform supports social learning and improvement testing within networked improvement communities (NICs). Purpose-built ... Read more

This is the third post in a series designed to explore and bring to life the framework for initiating networked ... Read more

Networks have the power to accelerate learning when they organize around a shared theory of improvement. This session, recorded at ... Read more

This sixth post in a series on networked improvement community (NIC) initiation focuses on how network leaders consider the policy, ... Read more

This case highlights the importance of developing measures that are context-specific and provide usable, relevant information to front-line practitioners. The ... Read more

This activity provides an introduction to the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle, allowing groups to “learn by doing” as they practice testing ... Read more

This activity provides an introduction to the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle, allowing groups to practice engaging in disciplined inquiry and iterative ... Read more

During this activity, teams experience conducting multiple PDSA cycles (iterative testing) to learn about a change idea and build confidence ... Read more

PDSA ramps provide a way to continue to learn about and refine a change through related, repeated cycles of testing ... Read more

This worksheet guides individuals in selecting and scoping a change idea prior to testing it to ensure that it is ... Read more

This worksheet guides individuals in selecting and scoping a change idea prior to testing it to ensure that it is ... Read more

This worksheet guides individuals to reflect on learnings from a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle and use this evidence to inform refinements ... Read more

This worksheet guides individuals to reflect on what they have learned to-date from tests of a particular change, and where ... Read more

This fillable template can be used to document plans, predictions, learnings and next steps when testing a change idea using ... Read more

This session, presented at the 2024 Summit on Improvement in Education, discusses key considerations for planning to spread or scale ... Read more

This video delves into the Plan and Do steps of the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle, focusing on the role of learning ... Read more

This site offers definitions, guidance, examples, and technical briefs related to leveraging practical measures for continuous improvement. Designed to help ... Read more

Practical measurement for improvement enables system actors to learn continuously about whether the changes that they are introducing are leading ... Read more

A carefully defined, specific problem statement can help to focus a team’s work. This guide highlights the value of a ... Read more

Read or watch this keynote delivered by past Carnegie President Anthony S. Bryk at the 2017 Summit on Improvement in ... Read more

Run charts are an important tool for representing data in an improvement effort, for understanding variation over time, and for ... Read more

In this session, offered at the 2021 Summit on Improvement in Education, presenter Huggy Rao, professor at the graduate school ... Read more

This activity introduces systems thinking, allowing participants to experience the interdependencies of a complex system. A facilitator can use this ... Read more

This video discusses considerations for refining change ideas when planning a Plan-Do-Study Act (PDSA) cycle. It also highlights how a ... Read more

This video discusses a meeting protocol that improvement team facilitators and coaches can use to help their teams prioritize change ... Read more

This blog describes how technology can be leveraged to collect meaningful data to inform improvement efforts. The case also highlights ... Read more

The Six Improvement Principles are core organizing ideas for improvement science. They speak to how problems are unpacked and understood ... Read more

In 2018, the Center for Urban Education Leadership, University of Illinois at Chicago was recognized with the Spotlight on Quality ... Read more

The Central Valley Networked Improvement Community (CVNIC) was recognized with the Spotlight on Quality in Continuous Improvement in 2018 for ... Read more

The Connecticut RISE Network was recognized in 2020 with the Spotlight on Quality in Continuous Improvement for its work with ... Read more

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) works to develop skilled educators equipped to support all learners and aims to improve standards-driven ... Read more

The Learning Collaborative, a networked improvement community of four charter networks in Tennessee, formed around raising persistently low literacy achievement ... Read more

The National Implementation Research Network (NIRN), in partnership with the Kentucky Department of Education, was recognized with the Spotlight on ... Read more

Northwest Regional Education Service District (NWRESD) serves schools and districts in four counties in northwestern Oregon. They formed a 9th ... Read more

The Queensland Department of Education (Australia) was honored with the Spotlight on Quality in Continuous Improvement in 2019 for its ... Read more

StriveTogether and United Way of Salt Lake joined together to convene an impact and improvement network of school and community ... Read more

In 2018, the nonprofit organization Fundación Educacional Oportunidad was recognized with the Spotlight on Quality in Continuous Improvement for its ... Read more

The University of Chicago Network for College Success (NCS) partnered with high schools in the Chicago Public School district to ... Read more

This video introduces PDSA ramps as a tool for learning about a change idea and building confidence in its efficacy ... Read more

Summarizing ideas presented in the Kappan article “The Right Network for the Right Problem,” (Gomez et al, 2016), this blog ... Read more

Practical measures for improvement are user-centered. This blog describes how an improvement community centered front-line improvers as they designed their ... Read more

Practical measures do not need to be complex in order to provide valuable signals and information to drive improvement. This ... Read more

This video focuses on strategies that improvement team facilitators and coaches can leverage to encourage others to think and work ... Read more

A system improvement map is used to visualize the structures, processes, and norms that exist in different parts of a ... Read more

The Diagnostic Tool for Reflection in this toolkit is a self-assessment designed to help K-12 system-level leaders reflect on their ... Read more

The System Leader Toolkit: Tools for Growth includes two resources for leaders: the Mini 360 Feedback Tool and the Personal A3. These instruments ... Read more

The System Lever Toolkit: Tools for Change includes two tools for leaders: a SWOT Analysis and a Living Leadership for System Transformation Activity. ... Read more

The Carnegie Teaching Commons is a searchable collection of instructional resources for the teaching of improvement science and networked improvement ... Read more

This protocol can be used by improvement facilitators and coaches to lead a team in creating a shared narrative that ... Read more

This session, recorded at the 2021 Summit on Improvement in Education, explores the human side of change. Grounded in the ... Read more

This paper describes a framework for network development. The framework describes the technical core of improvement activity as well as ... Read more

In this video, the presenter explains how a theory of practice improvement, represented in a driver diagram, supports coordinated action ... Read more

Thriving networked improvement communities (NICs) exhibit distinct social structures that support and enable the technical improvement work that the NIC ... Read more

A theory of improvement connects an improvement aim to the specific practices or changes that are hypothesized to be needed ... Read more

This Reflection Guide summarizes the findings of a Carnegie Foundation project to understand how executive leaders in education transform their ... Read more

In this blog post, two superintendents reflect on their work to develop their school districts as continuously improving organizations. Two ... Read more

There are many tools that can be leveraged to investigate a problem and the system producing it. These materials for ... Read more

This video discusses the importance of leading a team to deeply understand a problem and the system producing it. It ... Read more

This resource highlights key moves and considerations for each phase of the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle, including coaching moves to support learning ... Read more

In this simulation activity, participants explore the complexities of undertaking measurement to inform improvement activities and the infrastructure (roles, processes, ... Read more

In this activity, participants will explore how a pareto graph can be leveraged to analyze variation in data and better ... Read more

This blog post discusses the challenge of bringing empirically-warranted solutions into new settings in ways that are sensitive to local ... Read more

This 2015 blog post introduces the distinctive features of Networked Improvement Communities (NICs) and identifies some of their advantages for ... Read more