The use of Improvement Science (IS) for the dissertation in practice (DiP) must be encouraged because the questions and concerns addressed in these projects go beyond answering basic research. Authors of dissertations in practice will bring philosophical assumptions, select research designs, and situate themselves somewhere along the practitioner…

Improvement and action-oriented research approaches make iterative testing to learn about systems and adaptive change a central practice. As the need to develop the field's capacity to improve grows, so does the need to develop leaders' capacity for leading and conducting iterative cycles of testing. The present study reveals how EdD candidates…

There is a great need to understand how we might leverage research-practice partnerships (RPPs) to change K-12 school practices, organizations, and policies that continue to reflect structural racism in schooling. In this paper, we present case vignettes of RPPs that aim to create educational improvement efforts but focus on building from the…

Background: As more education practitioners adopt techniques of improvement science to address problems of practice, there is an increasing demand for leaders with the knowledge and capacity to lead improvement efforts. However, little research explores how school leaders learn to lead improvement science in their school context or the challenges…

Current research supports the need for data-driven systems that occur naturally through a culture of continuous growth. Told through an ethnographic case study design and the lens of shared leadership, is the story of one educator preparation program's journey to improve curricula, clinical practice, and performance management through improvement…

There has been no shortage of advice regarding how the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) might reinvent itself to improve the utility, relevance, and impact of the research it funds. Nor is there a lack of efforts to glean lessons from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), some of which are referenced within this report. This…

In this brief, we discuss embedding and framing the evolving literatures related to improvement and implementation sciences into a general intervention perspective. From that perspective, we sketch out some basic considerations related to improvement and implementation research, practice, and policy.

Given the rapid growth of research-practice partnerships (RPPs), we need a framework that helps the field understand how RPPs can facilitate organizational learning in service of local educational improvement and transformation. Drawing on sociocultural and organizational learning theories, we argue that learning can happen for the organizations…

Given the rapid growth of research-practice partnerships (RPPs), we need a framework that helps the field understand how RPPs can facilitate organizational learning in service of local educational improvement and transformation. Drawing on sociocultural and organizational learning theories, we argue that learning can happen for the organizations…

Hub-centered improvement networks are emerging as an organizational form that has the potential to empower local educators, families, communities, and students to respond positively to ever-rising ambitions for educational access, quality, and equity in the United States. A problem, however, lies in a disconnect between (a) hub leaders as the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a professional learning intervention on conceptual coherence and inquiry orientation for teachers and leaders participating in a K-12 Mathematics Committee (N = 18). This 9-month mixed methods single case study, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, was designed using the principles and…

Purpose: Improvement science (IS) has become a popular approach to organizing school-university partnerships because of IS's potential to increase schools' capacity for sustainable improvement. However, little research has directly examined whether and how specific elements of IS support school improvement, particularly during and post-COVID-19…

In some countries it is common for policy makers to advocate research use by practitioners as a means to bring about school development. Yet, despite their increasing sophistication, the enactment of protocols for using research is problematic and, even in optimal environments, practitioners have difficulty mobilising research findings to improve…

The aspiration of achieving equitable outcomes for all students is a focus of schools, districts, and communities but has largely remained unattainable with the top-down implementation of change ideas and directives that come and go as quickly as they are implemented. Too often the direct users, students and classroom staff, are left out of the…

The purpose of this monograph is to advance thinking about transforming how schools play their role in addressing barriers to learning and teaching. In the process, the authors discuss embedding and framing the evolving literatures related to improvement and implementation sciences into a general intervention perspective. Part I of this monograph…