Improvement Science in the Field: Cases of Practitioners Leading Change in Schools

The book "Practitioner Voices in Improvement Science: Using Evidence to Lead Educational Change" is the first resource on continuous improvement in schools that puts practitioners front and center. It covers improvement methods, theory, research, and is illuminated by real cases with practical improvement tools that can be adapted to any setting.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 244 pages
Publication date: 20 February 2024
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Since Bryk et al. (2015) published their groundbreaking book on how educational stakeholders can take up improvement science as an approach to systematically and collaboratively addressing problems in education, there have been at least ten books on improvement science and counting. Scholars have authored books laying out a step-by-step approach to using improvement science in education (Crow, Hinnant-Crawford, Spaulding, 2019; Hinnant-Crawford, 2020); books on how to teach improvement science to practitioners (Spaulding, Crow, Hinnant-Crawford, 2021); and books on how to evaluate continuous improvement efforts (Christie, Inkelas & Lemire, 2017; Rohanna, 2021). Many of the books published on improvement science have been largely conceptual/theoretical and pedagogical about how to undertake improvement science in education. While many books have been instructive, theoretical, and conceptual for higher education institutions' graduate programs, faculty, students, and educational leaders (Bryk, 2021; Perry, Zambo & Crow, 2020, Peurach et al., 2022), the voice of the practitioner is seldom heard in how they are actively taking up improvement science to lead change in their school settings. Bryk (2021) also presents large-scale efforts that benefit from lots of funding, which many practitioners, unfortunately, do not have available. Our aim is to holistically and specifically present the practitioner's voice, their uptake of improvement science, and how they use the tools to lead to educational change.

The books that have centered the practitioner's voice have provided few details describing the entire arc of the improvement cycle, including their challenges, questions, reflections, and successes in using improvement science in their settings (e.g., Peterson & Carlile, 2021). Although the book .

Weight: 513g
Dimension: 254 x 178 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538180174