Improvement Science and the Transformation Lab (Poster 2)

• In Event: A University System Transforming Teacher Preparation Through Initiatives to Recruit, Support, and Retain BIPOC Teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this poster is to describe the role of the Transformation Lab (TLab) and its use of improvement science theory, tools and frameworks in supporting the transformation work. Viewing the posters in the collection through the lens of improvement science will help the audience better understand how their work differs from traditional research but is essential to developing lasting improvements within complex system.

“Improvement science is a methodological framework that is undergirded by foundational principles that guide scholar-practitioners to define problems, understand how the system produces the problems, identify changes to rectify the problems, test the efficacy of those changes, and spread the changes (if the change is indeed an improvement.)” (Hinnant-Crawford, 2019, p. 29). Utilizing these methodologies within a network with others focusing on a similar problem has proven to provide institutional teams with a shared set of tools and vision that both deepens and accelerates learning and improvement (Bryk, Gomez, et al., 2016, Ch. 6). Following on previous investment and commitments by the university system in improvement practices and communities, the formation of an improvement community called the Transformation Lab (TLab) was deemed an essential lever for achieving the organization’s vision for transformation.
Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Ten campus improvement teams are led through three stages of work, consisting of 5 action periods each year. All teams meet together for working sessions 3-4 times per year.
Stage 1: Problem statement development (Ortiz Guzman, 2021, Hinnant-Crawford, 2019, Sect. 2, Ch. 5), system investigation (Bryk, Gomez, et al. 2016 Ch. 3, Hinnant-Crawford, 2019, Sect. 3, Ch. 5 ), aim setting (Bryk, Gomez, et al, 2016 , Ch. 4, Hinnant-Crawford, 2019, Sect. 3, Ch. 6), theory development (Bennett & Provost, 2015 )
Stage 2: Testing of change ideas (Bryk, Gomez, et al. 2016 Ch. 5, Hinnant-Crawford, 2019, Sect. 3, Ch. 8 ) and measurement (Takahashi, White & Donahue, 2019, Hinnant-Crawford, 2019, Sect. 3, Ch. 7, Bryk, Gomez, et al., 2016 Ch. 4)
Stage 3: Spread and scale of successful changes (Bennett, Biag & Miller, 2020) and documentation in a change package (Bennett, 2020)


The Educator Quality Center serves as the support hub for the network, providing campus specific and systemwide teacher preparation pipeline and perception data to support campus aims. Each team is provided with an improvement coach who has expertise in academic and improvement coaching.


Each cohort team has authored a change package to illustrate the measurable progress they have made towards their aims. Change packages are descriptions of improvement projects meant to provide practical examples to help others tackling similar problems avoid common pitfalls and to accelerate a pathway to improvement. These data and results will be shared in the posters. See poster summaries for examples of results.

This network model provides the field with an example of how to organize and support educator preparation institutions to both individually and collaboratively work towards measurable impact and to provide the field with documentation of its practical application. It also serves as an example of how to build and expand improvement capacity across a large system.

Authors

• Erin M. Ramirez, California State University - Monterey Bay

• Virginia Adams Simon, California State University

• Allegra Brown, California State University - Dominguez Hills