Resource roundup: Accelerating improvement through networked improvement communities
How can educators identify solutions that lead to real change? One method is to form a networked improvement community (NIC). In a NIC, a group of stakeholders identifies a shared problem of practice and then uses a rapid continuous improvement process to develop, test, refine, and scale up a solution. This iterative process enables NIC participants to learn from one another about what works, for whom, and under what conditions.
As an introduction to NICs and the science of continuous improvement, we rounded up resources from across the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Program and the Carnegie Foundation.
The fundamentals
- A blog series from the Carnegie Foundation highlights key principles in the 2015 book Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better, by Anthony S. Bryk, Louis Gomez, Alicia Grunow, and Paul LeMahieu. The Carnegie blog series includes four elements: Expanding the Conversation About Learning to Improve, Improvement Discipline in Practice, It’s Complex, and Why a NIC?
- REL Northeast & Islands’ webinar, A Practical Approach to Continuous Improvement in Education, introduces the continuous improvement process and tools for navigating it. The webinar includes five excerpts: The Model for Improvement, The Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) Cycle, The Fishbone Diagram, Practical Measures and the Driver Diagram, and Practitioner Testimonial.
- A 2018 facilitator’s guide, Continuous Improvement Through Networked Improvement Communities: Root Cause Analysis and Theory of Action, produced by REL Midwest, provides agendas, handouts, and other materials to lead a group through the early stages of a continuous improvement cycle—collectively identifying an actionable problem and its root causes and then developing a theory of action focused on the problem to guide continuous improvement efforts.
Examples from the field
REL Midwest has helped establish and sustain numerous NICs. These resources highlight this work and some of the lessons learned.
- REL Midwest’s 2017 report, Establishing and Sustaining Networked Improvement Communities: Lessons From Michigan and Minnesota, shares the lessons researchers learned working with educators in Michigan and Minnesota to create and sustain two NICs.
- REL Midwest’s 2016 public television program, Strength in Numbers: Closing Achievement Gaps Through Collaboration, produced in partnership with Detroit Public Television, focuses on the continuous improvement process as a method to address achievement gaps. As a real-world example, the broadcast features the Michigan Focus NIC, which tested an intervention to improve mathematics fluency. A related podcast, We Are Better Together: Researchers and Educators Partner to Improve Students’ Math Skills, includes interviews with participants in the NIC.
- Collaboration for Success: Networked Improvement Communities, a 2018 blog post from REL Midwest, describes the Iowa Learning and Technology Networked Improvement Community, which is examining the use of technology in rural schools. A second blog post, Personalized Learning: Answering Implementation Questions, describes REL Midwest’s NIC with the Minnesota Department of Education, convened to examine the implementation of personalized learning.
Learn more about REL Southwest’s Networked Improvement Communities partnership with the Oklahoma State Department of Education. This partnership is supporting Oklahoma’s Champions of Excellence districts in forming content-area NICs to test and scale up effective and innovative practices.
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