A Focus on Improvement Science in the Pacific Region

REL Pacific
Phillip Herman
January 29, 2018

As part of REL Pacific's work during the 2017–2022 contract cycle, we've partnered with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a leading proponent of using improvement science methods in education, to support the work of the REL Pacific Partnerships. The Carnegie Foundation defines improvement science as an iterative “focused learning journey,” in which stakeholders use specific tools and processes to address critical problems of practice. There are six core principles of improvement science:

1. Make the work problem-specific and user-centered.
2. Variation in performance is the core problem to address.
3. See the system that produces the current outcomes.
4. We cannot approve at scale what we cannot measure.
5. Anchor practice improvement in disciplined inquiry.
6. Accelerate improvements through networked communities.

REL Pacific Partnership members will have the opportunity to learn about these principles and explore associated methods and processes of system improvement through a series of exploratory and team-building workshops, leading up to the formation of a Pacific-based Networked Improvement Community, or NIC, focused on better aligning K–12, college, and workforce systems across the region. NICs focus on specific problems of practice, and on understanding the system that has produced the problem. The REL Pacific NIC will provide a way for Partnership members to learn from one another across the span of the region, with the goal of improving their systems more quickly and more reliably. We're excited to have this opportunity to bring our jurisdictions together to work on common problems of practice, and invite you to join us. Contact us at relpacific@mcrel.org if you're interested in learning more about this work or would like to join a Partnership in any of our jurisdictions!