Improvement science is an applied discipline that emphasizes innovation, rapid-cycle testing in the field, and spread in order to generate learning about which changes work for whom and under what conditions. This strand illustrates improvement work that has resulted in better and more equitable outcomes for students and communities. Sessions feature the methods that led to success along with concrete takeaways to inform the improvement work of others. We encourage sessions in this strand to include the voices and experiences of those at the front lines of improvement activity who are enacting changes in their practice to advance an ambitious aim. Work that involves students, with student presenters is especially encouraged.

For the Improvement Science in Practice strand, we seek proposals that address one or more of the following:

• Tell a story about the work to realize a significant improvement (such as increased graduation rates) that positively impacted the lives of students through the use of improvement science. These proposals must include data and measurable results.
• Demonstrate the use of data and measurement to track progress against a well-specified aim or a specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound (SMART) goal.
• Detail the application of a particular improvement method or tool and the results generated from its use.
• Describe strategies or tools used to make variation visible and accelerate learning about which changes work, for whom, and under what conditions.
• Surface the complexities of initiating or sustaining improvement efforts, including any learning from failures or instances when things did not go as planned.
• Share how continuous improvement practices are being applied to advance equity in education.
• Describe how one or more of the six core improvement principles has shaped continuous improvement activity and advanced progress toward an aim.
• Describe how to incorporate improvement science successfully into the day-to-day practice of schools, districts, charter school organizations, or higher education institutions.
• Describe how having an improvement stance impacted the response to school closures and/or reopening due to the COVID pandemic or is shaping learning acceleration efforts

A networked approach can be a powerful strategy for accelerating the collective ability to learn and improve educational outcomes for all students. Networks in practice are communities of common accomplishment that rely on principles of improvement and use continuous improvement methods to make progress on well-specified problems. A typical feature of improvement networks is that they are strategically led by a hub—i.e., leadership team—that creates the necessary conditions for a network to develop the practical know-how needed to change systems and the resulting outcomes for students. This strand illustrates what is necessary to bring a network to life and support it in reaching its improvement goals.

For the Improvement Networks in Practice strand, we seek proposals that address one or more of the following:

• Share the story of how a networked approach accelerated learning and led to progress in improvement aims or measures.
• Offer measures, tools, indicators, strategies, or practices that have been used to monitor and manage network health.
• Describe network structures, processes, or tools that foster effective collaboration, a shared narrative or a culture of collective learning within a network.
• Share strategies, tools, and technologies that allow for the spread of promising practices, including, but not limited to, a network’s analytic capabilities.
• Describe practices developed or used by hubs, or leadership teams, to support the development of continuous improvement capabilities among members, including fostering mindsets needed to engage productively in networked communities.
• Describe the development of hub practices to build, manage, and sustain a network.
• Describe a network’s approach to consolidating learning and managing knowledge.
• Describe a network’s use of external supports to bolster its efforts (e.g., technical assistance, evaluations, etc.).
• Share how a network is advancing equity through its improvement efforts or its community.

Leadership plays a critical role in driving and supporting improvement. Leading improvement in a system requires the ability to shift norms, mindsets, and practices that are deeply ingrained in the culture of educational enterprises. Transforming a system requires individual leaders and their leadership teams to break through the status quo and achieve new levels of performance with agility. Such results are achieved by dismantling the system structures and processes that perpetuate inequitable student opportunities and outcomes and building new ones that support and sustain equity. Leaders are also instrumental in advocating for an improvement science approach to education reform as they navigate the policy environment.

For the Leadership for Improvement strand, we seek proposals that address one or more of the following:

• Tell the story of leadership efforts to bring about and sustain systematic improvement across a school, district, region, or other enterprise, toward a specific aspirational goal(s), to include: how improvement principles informed the pursuit of this transformation, the lessons that were learned through the process, and evidence of the impact that resulted
• Describe how to intentionally create the cultural conditions that cultivate a shift in the dispositions, mindsets, and skills of the improvement community to embed a continuous improvement approach toward equity in educational systems.
• Detail strategies for building improvement capability system-wide, including both technical skills in improvement science, as well as adaptive capacity around the human side of change (e.g., building will and skill in this approach and deepening and sustaining engagement in the work of improvement).
• Promote meaningful ways of collecting the voices of users and ensuring that all stakeholders, particularly of students and families, are engaged in the improvement process.
• Demonstrate how the use of measurement and data drive improvement and shift systemic culture from measurement for accountability to measurement for improvement.
• Explore the lessons learned from both successes and failures in leading system-level improvement.
• Showcase federal, state, and/or local policy that advances improvement science in education.
• Advocate for an approach(es) to creating a policy environment that is hospitable to the ideas of improvement science and networks.

Summit Program Strand

Select the strand below that best reflects your session topic:

• Improvement Science in Practice
• Improvement Networks in Practice
• Leadership for Improvement

Session Title (≤90 characters)

Session Description (≤100 words)

If accepted, this content will inform the text to describe the session in the Summit program. Please be sure that the title and session description accurately reflect the content of the presentation.

Session Format

Please indicate the delivery format(s) for which the session should be considered. Sessions accepted into the Summit program will be delivered in one of two ways:

• At the conference for an in-person audience only. Live presenters will be invited to submit a recording in advance that will be available to the remote audience during the conference and as part of a digital library afterwards. Sessions should be designed for live presentation; Carnegie will support presenters to identify how they might best share the content of their sessions in a recording and will provide technical support as needed.
• At the conference for a hybrid audience of in-person and remote attendees. This select subset of sessions will be streamed for remote attendees and recorded live, but not prerecorded. 

Learning Objectives

List at least two learning objectives or two key facts, points, or ideas that attendees will take away from your session—i.e., “After this session, attendees will be able to …”

Elaborated Session Description (≤700 words)

Refer to the strand description and detail how your proposal addresses element(s) in that strand. Be sure to indicate which specific elements your proposal addresses. Please also briefly summarize any results your improvement effort has realized, whether progress towards a defined aim or on an intermediate measure.

Session Design (≤200 words)

Please outline your session design. Examples of Summit session designs include, but are not limited to, didactic sessions or panel discussions followed by Q&A, interactive workshops, with multiple hands-on activities, case studies, and simulations.

Area of Focus

Please select up to four areas of focus for your session:

• COVID Response and Acceleration of Student Learning
• Data and Measurement
• Educator Development
• Equity, Diversity, and Belonging
• Higher Education
• Improvement Capability
• Instruction and Assessment
• Postsecondary Innovation
• Spread and Scale
• Student and Staff Social Emotional Wellbeing
• Student Attainment
• System Transformation Toward Continuous Improvement
• Transformational Secondary School Learning

Presenter Information

Name, job title, organization, email address, and phone number must be provided for each presenter. Please be sure to indicate who the main presenter contact is by listing that presenter’s information first.

NOTE: There is no maximum number of presenters in a session, but only two presenters for in-person sessions or three presenters for hybrid sessions will receive the reduced Summit speaker registration rate of $695.

Poster Title (≤90 characters)

Poster Description (≤100 words)

If accepted, this content will inform the text to describe the poster in the Summit program. Please be sure that the title and session description accurately reflect the content of the presentation.

Aim/Goal of the Improvement Work (≤100 words)

Data Assessing Progress Toward the Aim (≤100 words)

Area of Focus

Please select up to four areas of focus for your session:

• COVID Response and Acceleration of Student Learning
• Data and Measurement
• Educator Development
• Equity, Diversity, and Belonging
• Higher Education
• Improvement Capability
• Instruction and Assessment
• Postsecondary Innovation
• Spread and Scale
• Student and Staff Social Emotional Wellbeing
• Student Attainment
• System Transformation Toward Continuous Improvement
• Transformational Secondary School Learning

Poster Presenter Information

Name, job title, organization, email address, and phone number must be provided for each presenter. Please be sure to indicate who the main poster presenter is by listing that presenter’s contact information first.

NOTE: There is no maximum number of presenters for a poster, but only one presenter will receive the reduced Summit poster registration rate of $838.