Dr. Deneen Guss, County Superintendent of Schools
Continuous Improvement How-to-Guide
The MCOE Innovation and Strategic Improvement Team works with schools and districts at different levels of the system to best meet your needs and to intentionally support continuous improvement of your system and the students you serve. The reason we engage in continuous improvement with districts is:
- To get better at getting better
- To situate problems of practice as products of a system
- To infuse continuous improvement into the day to day of those closest to the work
- To improve outcomes for all students, especially those most historically marginalized
We will guide your teams through the steps below in a flexible manner. Teams' progress will be documented using the
Completed Examples:Improvement Science Framework
Steps
How to Complete This Step & Available Resources/Tools
Step one
Identify a pressing equity challenge to improve (e.g. low reading scores for EL students; high suspensions of African American boys)
The equity challenge should be aligned to a goal in the schools SPSA and/or the districts LCAP. To determine the equity challenge, teams should engage in a needs assessment and analyze any relevant data (dashboard data, assessments, etc.)
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Step two
Understand the equity challenge and the system that produces it - Identifying possible root causes and drafting a problem of practice
This step helps us narrow the equity challenge to develop a specific, actionable and high leverage problem of practice
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Step three
Develop a SMARTE Aim
Based on solving the problem of practice, the SMARTE aim answer the questions "What specifically are we trying to accomplish?"
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Step Four
Create a theory of improvement and measures
Starting with how to achieve our aim, teams develop a theory of improvement to answer the question, "What changes might we try, and why?". Teams then develop measures to answer the question "How will we know if a change is an improvement?". Teams develop a graphical representation of their thinking and finish with a written theory of improvement, similar to the following frame: "If we [change idea], that will impact [driver], which in turn will lead to [aim]"
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Step Five
Develop a detailed prototype of your change idea
During this step teams flesh out the details of the change they are going to try
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Step six
If needed, gather baseline data for your small dot aim and make your aim statement SMARTE
Some teams may need to collect baseline data, which is done during this step. Teams can also finalize their measures and aims
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Step seven
Schedule and plan your first PDSA
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Step Eight
Continue to improve by running PDSA cycles and updating your change idea prototype