At the Nexus of Continuous Improvement and School District Research: Possibilities, Dilemmas, and Provocations

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Over the past fifteen years, two bodies of scholarship—related to continuous improvement and design-based methods and educational system-building—have risen to prominence in educational research and practice, offering guidance for how leaders might organize for educational excellence and equity. These areas of research have developed largely in parallel: acknowledging, but not substantively integrating, the growing insights of the other. The purpose of this symposium is to a) bring together scholars who are working at the intersection of these two areas of research, so that we might b) develop a more integrated understanding of how school systems can incorporate the insights of continuous improvement and design-based approaches as they engage in the work of developing, leading, and improving instructionally focused educational systems.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Districts in Research & Reform

Chair

• Maxwell Yurkofsky, Radford University

Papers

• Fundamental Systemic Change for Equity in School District Central offices: The Promise of Expansive Learning - Meredith I. Honig, University of Washington; Noy Sabag, University of Washington

• The Art and Science of Educational Change: The Modern School District as a Site for Healing and Equity - Kate Kennedy, University of Cincinnati; Lok-Sze Wong, University of North Texas

• County Leadership and Continuous Improvement in Small Rural Districts - Angel Xiao Bohannon, NORC at the University of Chicago; Caitlin Farrell, University of Colorado - Boulder; Spencer Cook, Northwestern University

• Symmetrical Learning and District-Level Continuous Improvement - Candice Bocala, Harvard University

• Using Continuous Improvement and Design Methods for System Leadership: Commonalities, Contingencies, and Paradoxes - Jal David Mehta, Harvard University; Maxwell Yurkofsky, Radford University

Discussant

• Donald J. Peurach, University of Michigan