Journey to Improvement

Alicia Grunow is co-founder of the Improvement Collective, a company that partners with organizations to improve a wide variety of outcomes that impact children and families. She trains teams, coaches and leaders on the application of improvement science methods and helps people design improvement initiatives to get tangible results. She co-authored the seminal book Learning to Improve; How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better. Grunow began her career as a bilingual teacher and holds a Ph.D in education from Stanford University.Sandra Park is a co-founder of the Improvement Collective where she trains improvement coaches and advises large-scale education networks and projects. She led one of the first improvement networks to apply improvement science in the field of education at the Carnegie Foundation. Sandra previously taught elementary school in Oregon, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., and was director of programs at First Graduate in San Francisco. She holds a Ph.D. in education policy from UC-Berkeley, and an Improvement Advisor certificate from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Brandon Bennett is an advisor, teacher and author who helps organizations in health care, education and social welfare improve outcomes for the communities and individuals they serve. As the founder of ISC LLC, Brandon Bennett teaches advanced improvement methods and partners on a range of global initiatives including disease-specific processes, academic outcomes for students with disabilities and country-wide improvement efforts. Brandon has a B.S. in Psychology from the University of California, Davis and an MPH from Loma Linda University School of Public Health, specializing in global health. He is the author of several results based and methodological papers on the application of improvement science methods and has been a featured speaker at quality conferences around the world.

Improvement Science is a mindset. Its aim is to develop pathways to equity-centered systems change in Education and allied disciplines. This extraordinary volume will help us use Improvement Science to sharpen our collaborative skills and support evidence-centered action to improve the life chances of the people we serve.

• Table of ContentsIntroductionChapter 1: FoundationsSection I: WHO’S At the Table?Chapter 2: Improvement TeamsChapter 3: Leadership: Setting up teams for successChapter 4: Team FormationSection II: WHAT ARE OUR CURRENT OUTCOMES AND WHY ARE WE GETTING THEM?Chapter 5: Learning to see SystemsChapter 6: From Seeing to SelectingSection III: WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH?Chapter 7: Coming Together around a Shared AimChapter 8: Chartering an Improvement JourneySection IV: WHAT CHANGES CAN WE MAKE THAT WILL RESULT IN IMPROVEMENT?Chapter 9: Change IdeasChapter 10: Shared Theory of ImprovementSection V: HOW WILL WE KNOW THAT A CHANGE IS AN IMPROVEMENT?Chapter 11: Testing Changes in PracticeChapter 12: Measurement for ImprovementChapter 13:Improvement RoutinesSection VI: HOW DO WE GET CHANGES TO WORK ACROSS A DIVERSE SET OF CONTEXTS?Chapter 14: Change packages: Preserving knowledge, preparing for spreadChapter 15: Organizing for SpreadChapter 16: Guiding the JourneyChapter 17: ConclusionAppendix AAppendix BAppendix C