High-Tech High Schools and Graduate School of Education: Transformative Adult Learning Through Improvement Science

• In Event: 64.025 - Problem-Focused and Place-Based Leadership Development: The Improvement Leadership Education and Development (iLEAD) Research-Practice Preparation Partnership

Abstract

As one of the first graduate schools in the nation to be fully embedded within a charter network of K-12 schools, the High Tech High Graduate School of Education (HTH GSE) has a unique capacity to bridge the worlds of theory and practice. Like the 13 High Tech High (HTH) K-12 schools that serve as a context for adult learning, the GSE is committed to providing adult learning experiences that are personalized, authentic, and transformative. Improvement science provides a compelling framework to engage graduate students in authentic leadership experiences and build capacity for systemic improvement in the broader education community.

This poster will report on the work of the HTH GSE & HTH schools research-practice preparation partnership (RP3). The goals of the partnership align with the existing specific aims of the HTH schools – to create an adult improvement culture that fosters the skills and dispositions necessary to address systemic inequities and support students in realizing their full potential.

In support of this goal, the partnership has developed the following initiatives and programs that utilize improvement science methods

• Improvement & Innovation Capstone Project - graduate students in the Educational Leadership Masters program complete an improvement project in collaboration with colleagues at their respective sites
• K-12 Lab Classrooms – testing sites for improving classroom instruction
• Five Networked Improvement Communities (NICs) – HTH teachers from all 13 K-12 schools have opted into one of five NICs (math, literacy, science, project design, and restorative practices) focused on improving daily instruction.

The Center for Research on Equity and Innovation (CREI), a division of the HTH GSE, serves as the hub for spreading and supporting improvement work taking place in the GSE programs and the K-12 schools. To determine the effectiveness of these programs, CREI faculty in collaboration with teachers and graduate students are collecting and analyzing data from PDSAs, surveys, interviews, and student work samples – both at the K-12 and graduate level. Three years after adopting an improvement science framework we have seen the following results:

• All thirteen High Tech High schools use an improvement framework for professional development
• More school-based improvement projects have resulted in more opportunities for GSE students to engage in authentic collaborative leadership experiences for their Masters capstone projects
• Increased teacher focus on improving classroom instruction through participation in network improvement communities
• Development of simplified protocols for using the tools of improvement science

If the promise of improvement science as an approach for collaborative reform in education is to come to fruition, higher education institutions must leverage their unique position of preparing future education leaders by providing opportunities to engage in authentic reform-oriented leadership experiences. The HTH GSE & HTH partnership is a compelling case study of how RP3s can provide educators and school leaders with these opportunities, and support systemic educational reform through improvement science.

Author

• Daisy Sharrock