Continuous Improvement Toolkit

Tools for getting organized, making a plan, and taking action

Educators have passed the first hurdle of reopening during an unprecedented time, but continue to face many interconnected and complex problems. In our work with schools and systems across the country, we’ve identified three major challenges leadership teams are working hard to address:

  1. How do we better orient our planning around priority groups of students? 
  2. How do we devote extra attention to all students’ emotional needs and unfinished learning? 
  3. How do we plan to advance and preserve student learning across multiple instructional scenarios?

We worked with our partners to design and test tools, resources, and guidance that supports leaders in answering these questions. 

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What's in the toolkit?

Resources for keeping students engaged in meaningful learning, whether they are learning in a classroom or at home. The complete toolkit contains more than 40 practical tools, templates, and recommendations for supporting:

  • Vision setting
  • Student attendance
  • Relationships and connections
  • Professional learning & coaching
  • Pacing
  • Lesson preparation & internalization
  • Distance learning practices

 

Who should use it?

School and system leadership teams looking for clarity on what is working and what is not working, and educators in search of practical resources for supporting improvement efforts.

Need a refresher on prerequisite activities around instruction? We assembled a set of essential steps, outcomes, and resources for supporting school reentry—review them here.

Continuous Improvement Action Steps and Guiding Questions

Confirm priorities and aspirations for student learning and culture
Guiding Questions
1. Do our priorities and aspirations that we outlined in the spring/summer hold true? Do we need to make adjustments?
2. Do we have the most up to date list of priority students?
3. Have we ensured our priorities and aspirations include the need for affirming relationships, particularly with priority students?
In this step, leaders will:

Reflect on the priorities and aspirations of reentry and make any adjustments that may be necessary, update the list of priority students, and determine a plan for progress monitoring towards the priorities and aspirations.

Set up sources of data and progress monitoring
Set up leadership structures and routines for reviewing data and making a plan for adjustment
Identify focus areas for improvement and review resources to support with constructing a plan
Set up systems and structures for supporting teachers and staff with training, planning, and coaching
Communicate to all stakeholders the findings, the proposal, and the rationale for response
Quickly build capacity of teachers and staff
Gather data on student and staff engagement and wellbeing
Check in with families
Confirm priorities and aspirations for student learning and culture
Guiding Questions
1. Do our priorities and aspirations that we outlined in the spring/summer hold true? Do we need to make adjustments?
2. Do we have the most up to date list of priority students?
3. Have we ensured our priorities and aspirations include the need for affirming relationships, particularly with priority students?
In this step, leaders will:

Reflect on the priorities and aspirations of reentry and make any adjustments that may be necessary, update the list of priority students, and determine a plan for progress monitoring towards the priorities and aspirations.

Set up sources of data and progress monitoring
Set up leadership structures and routines for reviewing data and making a plan for adjustment
Identify focus areas for improvement and review resources to support with constructing a plan
Set up systems and structures for supporting teachers and staff with training, planning, and coaching
Communicate to all stakeholders the findings, the proposal, and the rationale for response
Quickly build capacity of teachers and staff
Gather data on student and staff engagement and wellbeing
Check in with families

Resources

Find specific resources by clicking the links to the right, or download the toolkit below to access the complete.  

 

Vision Setting

Name or revise your aspirations for this school year, and step back and reflect on your current progress.

Student Attendance

Ensure that students are fully present in school each day, regardless of what school looks like.

Relationships and Connections

Gather and act on data that gets at the perspectives and experiences of various stakeholders, including students, families, and staff.

Professional Learning & Coaching

Prepare for teacher observation, teacher feedback, teacher coaching, and professional learning communities.

Pacing

Support your instructional planning by accessing content prioritization, as well as curriculum-agnostic and curriculum-specific guidance for scope, sequence, and pacing.

Lesson Preparation & Internalization

Plan how to address unfinished learning with lesson internalization protocols and curriculum-specific reference guides.

Distance Learning Practices

Find content-agnostic and content-specific distance learning guidance and best practices, as well as considerations for virtual teaching platforms and structures.

Ready to leverage the toolkit in your school?
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the
toolkit