October 2019
Learning and Practicing Continuous Improvement: Lessons from the CORE Districts
The education sector is embracing the hope that continuous improvement will lead to more beneficial student outcomes than standards-based reform and other approaches to policies and practice in prior decades. This report examines attempts in California to realize the potential of continuous improvement in some of the state’s largest districts. Policy Analysis for California Education and the CORE Districts, a nonprofit collaborative of eight urban school districts, have been engaged in a research-practice partnership since 2015.
Bridging the Knowing-Doing Gap for Continuous Improvement The Case of Long Beach Unified School District
Read MoreA Student-Centered Culture of Improvement The Case of Garden Grove Unified School District
View FindingsLeadership that Supports Continuous Improvement: The Case of Ayer Elementary
View the ReportJanuary 2019
Engaging District and School Leaders in Continuous Improvement: Lessons from the 2nd Year of Implementing the CORE Improvement Community
View the ReportNovember 2017
Building System Knowledge for Continuous Improvement: Early Lessons from the CORE Districts
The CORE Districts are leveraging their comprehensive data system and strengthening their ongoing collaboration to solve a shared problem – middle school math outcomes and the performance gap for African American and Hispanic/Latino students. The eight districts are applying a specific continuous improvement framework known as Networked Improvement Communities to reach their goal. PACE conducted surveys, analyzed field notes from 23 CORE convenings, and conducted interviews that captured the learnings of more than a hundred educators in the CORE network. This new PACE brief ‘Building System Knowledge for Continuous Improvement: Early Lessons from the CORE Districts’ highlights lessons educators can use to refine their own continuous improvement practices.
View the Report