Learning Forward
Equity and excellence in teaching and learning.
NETWORKS AT WORK
Practical measures tell us if change is making a difference
By Nick Morgan and Michelle Bowman
Categories: Change management, Data, Evaluation & impact, Standards for Professional LearningApril 2024
Change is hard. Whether baking bread or implementing a new high-quality curriculum, our first attempts at trying something new often don’t turn out the way we envisioned. This is why continuous improvement initiatives have become popular — they help us learn to get better at getting better. Learning Forward’s work on continuous improvement has encompassed many subject areas and grade levels over the past decade. Our network initiatives use structured processes built on systems of measurement that track the evolution of change toward a desired end state. The selection and careful use of practical measures as part of a larger system of measures is critical for making improvement processes effective. The right measures help us learn whether changes are actually improvements and provide timely feedback
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References
Brannegan, A. & Takahashi, S. (2023, April). Practical measures make data timely and useful. The Learning Professional, 44(2), 52-55.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. (2024). Practical measures for improvement: A pathway to get started. www.carnegiefoundation.org/pmi-home/
Learning Forward. (2022). Standards for Professional Learning. Author.
Nick Morgan (nick.morgan@learningforward.org) is senior program director for Learning Forward.
Michelle A. Bowman is senior vice president of networks and continuous improvement at Learning Forward. She supports state and local education agencies committed to professional development redesign, especially through the strategy of networks and communities of practice. She also oversees the development of content and learning designs that support organizations' capacity to engage in continuous improvement processes. With 30 years in public education, Michelle served in leadership at the district, campus, and classroom levels before joining Learning Forward. Michelle has an Ed.D. in Learning and Organizational Change from Baylor University. She co-authored Teacher Professional Development in the Digital Age: Design and Implementation of Learning without Limits in Technology in the Classroom: How It Can Improve Teaching and Student Learning in American Schools (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) with Learning Forward Executive Director (retired) Stephanie Hirsh.
Categories: Change management, Data, Evaluation & impact, Standards for Professional Learning
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