School and district improvement is a multi-faceted endeavor that will, most often, involve changing an organization as well as people's practices and beliefs. There are key or critical elements to address, content that has been researched, and processes that have been proven successful. These are incorporated into the Continuous Improvement Process and this toolkit. In addition, the toolkit offers a wealth of information and links to many resources.
The Continuous Improvement Process
The Continuous Improvement Process has four phases with Critical Components and Critical Content Areas for each phase.
- Identifying a starting point. Since “improvement” is not a new activity and each district already is somewhere in the process, each phase has discussion questions and a self-review to help you determine if this is your starting point, if you want to enhance what you’ve done in this phase or whether you are ready to move to the next phase.
- Critical Components. Critical Components have been identified for each phase of the process. These are not sequential steps so much as they are pieces that must be in place during that phase.
- Critical Content Areas. The Critical Content Areas are “threads” or “themes” that run through each of the four phases. For example: Data Analysis is a part of every phase from using the data in the profile to identify areas of need, setting goals to annually compare and monitor performance against the goals. Each of the Critical Content areas provides additional information, sample surveys, and other resources.
Resources within the Toolkit
- The In-Depth Study Areas. The In-Depth Study Areas were developed using a Continuous Improvement Process. These are areas that research has shown are found in high-performing schools and districts. You may want to reference these in-depth area topics as you move through the four phases of the CIP. Or, if your Continuous Improvement Process identifies one of these areas as a need, you may want to have a small group work through the entire topic.
- Improvement Requirements. In addition to the improvement requirements for accreditation, other programs and grants have requirements for improvement when certain conditions are present. These are detailed in a link on the homepage of the Toolkit.