Inequities in education, health care, and other social services are often rooted in systemic challenges that organizations must work together to address. If not done with a focus on advancing equity, improvement efforts risk reproducing or exacerbating inequities instead of eliminating them. In response to this need, Shift, an organization…

This chapter describes a model for continuous improvement that guides the work of the National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools, or NCSU. NCSU is a research and development center funded by the Institute for Education Sciences, the research arm of the United States Department of Education. At the core of the Center's work is an innovative…

For the past 12 years, the Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) has offered an innovative means for colleges and universities to maintain regional accreditation with the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), the only regional U.S. accrediting commission currently providing alternative pathways for maintaining accreditation. Although all HLC…

Through vision, leadership, and creativity, Salisbury University's Blackwell Library transformed its access services department structurally and philosophically to better position itself to meet, and strive to exceed, today's user needs and expectations. Restructuring and the introduction of new leadership and new ideas provided the foundation for…

The 2012 MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough Schools are outstanding examples of how determined and focused leaders create and sustain school improvement. The schools are places of strategic decision making where dedicated adults demonstrate their conviction that every student can and will achieve. Each of the schools demonstrates the efficacy…

Healthcare has become a rapidly changing field. With the introduction of value-based purchasing to determine reimbursement of Medicare providers based on the quality of care in addition to outcomes in treatment, the environment is becoming ever more competitive. Saint Philip's Hospital is among the largest non-profit hospitals in the nation…

Experienced e-learning faculty members share strategies for implementing a comprehensive postsecondary faculty development program essential to continuous improvement of instructional skills. The high-impact META Model (centered around Mentoring, Engagement, Technology, and Assessment) promotes information sharing and content creation, and fosters…

To create and maintain continual improvement, school leaders must set goals, create strategies to reach the goals, and use checklists and rubrics in combination with regular communication between the district office and schools to ensure that everyone is staying on track. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

To solve two enduring problems in education--unacceptably large variation in learning opportunities for students across classrooms and little continuing improvement in the quality of instruction--the authors propose a system that centers on the creation of shared instructional products that guide classroom teaching. By examining systems outside…

This document provides a set of criteria to be used by psychologists in evaluating quality improvement programs (QIPs) that have been promulgated by health care organizations, government agencies, professional associations, or other entities. These criteria also address the privacy and confidentiality issues evoked by the intended use of patient…

Response to intervention (RTI) protocols at the secondary level require a systems approach that is supported by professional learning teams (PLTs). PLTs create viable courses in which most students experience success and work together to plan further interventions. PLT protocol work begins with the design of uniform summative assessments and is…

Over the years, the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) has experimented with various continuous improvement initiatives. Some projects fizzled owing to the universal killers of grand ideas such as inertia, inconsistent implementation, lack of buy-in, "flavor of the month" attitude, and the all-time favorite: if they ignore this idea it…

External and internal forces are driving institutions not only to create departments and positions that specialize in planning, quality improvement, and institutional research but also to link them within a systems context.

Stung by a negative accreditation review, Los Angeles City College established an administrative position and a planning process that is successfully creating a culture of continuous improvement. At the core of this success is a "plan-act-check" reinforcing systems loop that links planning, budgeting, and institutional research. (Contains 2…

Highlights changes that have occurred since 1992 at Elm Dale Elementary School (Greenfield, Wisconsin) through the school improvement process. Describes how teachers have become involved in and developed ownership of the improvement process, and how they have learned to analyze data. Asserts that the school improvement process has changed the…