Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Article submitted by: Maggie Trenda, CESA 5 Curriculum Specialist
Districts, schools, and systems are engaging in a process of continuous improvement all the time, whether they know it – or intentionally plan for it – or not.
Continuous improvement is a data-driven cycle that regularly moves through stages of plan, do, study/check, and act phases and begins with readiness. The DPI’s Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) Criteria and Rubric is a valuable tool for teams to use to reflect on their current efforts related to continuous improvement in order to move toward sustained improved outcomes for all students.
For leadership teams, the work is to create an implementation plan that clearly outlines the conditions for success; this is the “Plan” in the PDSA cycle. As coaches, the work is to proactively support the development of that plan – based on patterns of data collected through various sources – and then support plan implementation. See Coaching Competency Practice Profile 6: Change Facilitation.
As part of a PDSA cycle, in the “Do” stage, the team implements improvement cycles and monitors the plan to achieve district or school goals. Often, in systems, much attention and focus are given to the collection and use of student outcome data to measure/determine progress toward implementation (see Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) Criteria and Rubric, criteria D4, p. 17). Buildings gauge progress by collecting and analyzing student achievement and growth data over the course of a unit, a grading period, and/or a school year. A coach can support the work of the teachers individually or collectively as they analyze data and engage in learning and collaborative planning to improve student outcomes.
However, in addition to the collection and analysis of student outcome data, the goal of the team should also be to strategically prioritize and identify the select adult practices that will be implemented to set the continuous improvement plan into motion. As the CIP tells us, continuous improvement “leverages the adults in the system to make changes that are measurable to affect student outcomes” (p. 1). As a system, do we need to backpedal to focus on the identification or development of clearly-identified and articulated adult practices so that we can move more intentionally toward the collection of adult practice data (see Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) Criteria and Rubric, criteria D3, p. 17)? Within the planning stage of the PDSA cycle, have we established clarity around what we have identified, based on research, to be the “best practices” in our systems? Is there an alignment to a collectively understood and agreed-upon mission and vision?
If all individuals in our systems can answer the following questions, the work of identifying adult practices can proceed. If not, we have more work to do to establish the vision!
- What is the vision of instructional excellence for instruction in which we want to anchor our work?
- What would we want to see in instruction in every lesson?
- What would we want to see in instruction in every unit?
Once the vision of excellence is collectively developed and communicated with all necessary partners, the true work of implementation can begin, and coaches can get to the heart of establishing coaching cycles and providing intentional feedback based on a common vision/goal that will support systems change. Often, when students experience failure, the system is quick to blame the teachers. But have the conditions for success been established as part of a school or district’s continuous improvement planning?
We know that change is complex. Change is a process. Change takes time. And teachers require intentionally planned and aligned supports that will set them up for success. We plan for teacher training or professional development, but when educators leave the training room and are confronted with everyday reality and the barriers that exist in our systems, things get messy. How do educators at all levels of the system (district administrators, building principals, coaches, teachers, paraprofessionals, etc.) access support that is based on their personal growth goals to successfully implement the continuous improvement plan? Is coaching an option, and has that coaching work been demystified so everyone knows the “why” behind the work? Just as we want to see clarity in instructional goals in classrooms for our students, we want to see clarity in expectations and purpose to support all educators within our systems, so everyone is moving their oars in the same direction, in sync with each other. This is essential for efficient forward movement and for improvement to occur.
So, where to start?
A tool to support the implementation of high-quality instructional materials, the Curriculum Support Guide from Instruction Partners, is a valuable resource that an instructional leader can have in their toolbox. The guide includes a framework that captures the leadership team actions that create the conditions and support structures to help teachers translate great materials into great instruction. (See image below)
In Phase II: Prepare to Launch, guidelines for determining the expectations for use, plans for collaborative planning, plans for coaching, plans for training teachers and leaders, and more can support implementation planning within your own continuous improvement model.
A leadership team can work together to ensure clear expectations of use are established that are directly connected to the school/district vision. This work will include the development of a common understanding of the evidence-based practices, including common language and understanding of what these practices look like and sound like (for both adults and students) in the form of instructional look-fors in a classroom. Once these look-fors are established, any administrator, coach, or leader can walk into any classroom to provide consistent feedback. Every PLC team can focus their learning around the instructional practices that they now have clarity around establishing in their classrooms as they work collectively toward improved student outcomes. Once all of the above is considered in the “Plan” stage, there is a clear path forward, and the work can officially begin for the Do, Study, Act phases of the cycle.
To move the needle on student outcomes, ensure clarity around desired adult practices. A system can adopt the highest-quality resource or have the best research-based idea, but without intentional planning and clarity of expectations, we’ll miss the mark. Plan on!