Improvement Research and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Good morning, 

I want to share with you a great website, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching ( http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/).  This website contains a wealth of resources, articles, and publications in the following categories:

 

  • Improvement research,
  • Developmental math,
  • Learning teaching,
  • Resources, and
  • Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

Of particular interest to program managers are the Improvement Research section, the Learning Teaching section, and the Resources section.  The Improvement Research section covers topics such as continuous improvement methodology, productive persistence, improvement networks, and networked communities.  This section also provides the following principles of improvement:

 

The Six Core Principles of Improvement

  1. Make the work problem-specific and user-centered.
    It starts with a single question: “What specifically is the problem we are trying to solve?” It enlivens a co-development orientation: engage key participants early and often.
  2. Variation in performance is the core problem to address.
    The critical issue is not what works, but rather what works, for whom and under what set of conditions. Aim to advance efficacy reliably at scale.
  3. See the system that produces the current outcomes.
    It is hard to improve what you do not fully understand. Go and see how local conditions shape work processes. Make your hypotheses for change public and clear.
  4. We cannot improve at scale what we cannot measure.
    Embed measure of key outcomes and processes to track if change is an improvement. We intervene in complex organizations. Anticipate unintended consequences and measures these too.
  5. Anchor practice improvement in disciplined inquiry.
    Engage rapid cycles of Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) to learn fast, fail fast, and improve quickly. That failures may occur is not the problem; that we fail to learn from them is.
  6. Accelerate improvements through networked communities.
    Embrace the wisdom of crowds. We can accomplish more together than even the best of us can accomplish alone.(http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/improvement-research/approach )

The Learning Teaching section includes resources and reports related to teaching effectiveness, teacher evaluation, and improving learning.  The Resource section includes a collection of nearly 400 publications, an eLibrary, tools for sharing, and a gallery of teaching and learning.  In addition, the website contains a blog, Carnegie Commons, that contains news and information about the Foundation activities and their approach to educational improvement.  I hope you will review the website, explore the various sections, and share with our group the resources and ideas that you find helpful as a program manager!