Classroom Teachers Embrace Quality Improvement Processes and Join Large-Scale Networks

March 30, 2017

One of the most read Carnegie Commons Blog posts of 2016 was “Networked Improvement Communities Accelerate Collective Efforts for Solving Educational Problems.” In the post, Carnegie president Anthony S. Bryk notes that while classroom teachers easily gravitate toward using the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) experimentation cycle that is at the heart of improvement science, they may have little previous experience with large improvement networks. The education field largely operates without structures that allow educators to learn from the change efforts of others, apply further tests, and build out efforts in systematic ways. Consequently, few educators have had the opportunity to experience the power of large improvement networks, which can lift them out of the isolation of their individual classrooms and schools and allow them to engage in large-scale improvement efforts as scientists. Read more for a description of a workshop activity that helps introduce these concepts to classroom teachers.