5 Steps to Guide Your School Improvement Efforts

School Improvement Strategies to Improve Student Outcomes

For schools across the United States, school improvement plans are essential for enhancing students’ educational experiences. However, mandating that a plan be established does not ensure that it is created with fidelity or that it identifies the main areas needing improvement. Additionally, for schools deemed low performing, the process and need for results are heightened, sometimes requiring schools to completely transform the learning environment for students in a short time. 

School leaders have a daunting task of determining the main challenges to student success, devising a plan, and facilitating change to improve the learning conditions for students. Transformational school improvement is achievable, but it requires a clear school improvement plan focused on continuous improvement and sustainable change measures to ensure success.

To help school leaders break down the process, we developed the i5 School Improvement Framework. This five-part process includes linear steps to help educators create and execute a plan for continuous improvement.

Step 1: Identify Root Causes Using School Data

The team must identify a problem to solve by analyzing data specific to the school or area for reform. Making the work problem-specific promotes stakeholder engagement. During the identify stage, the improvement team should consider developing a detailed diagnosis of root causes. This crucial step should not be overlooked, as it can be common for educators to propose solutions without identifying the actual root cause.

Step 2: Ideate Solutions That Align with School Improvement Goals

The team must ideate or form a collective vision of what success will look like once the changes are implemented. Root cause analysis provides a focus for the team to begin ideating, determining not just what works, but for whom and in what context. 

During this stage, the team begins with the end in mind, listing what the problem will look like once it is solved. From there, the team creates action steps that will lead to the desired outcome once the plan is fully implemented. Finally, assess the plan of action steps to ensure they can lead to change. 

To do this, teams can use 10 of White and Smith’s 17 Indicators for School Improvement Assessment:

1. Comprehensive—All goals are linked to identified concerns, causes, and data.
2. Specific Goals—Targeted students and subgroups, targeted standards.
3. Timely Goals—All goals identify a specific window of time when the assessment will be administered.
4. Research-Based Strategies—All strategies/solutions address standards-based research strategies.
5. Master Plan Design—Action steps consistently describe how solutions will be implemented.
6. Professional Development Gaps—All program implementations are supported by specific action steps for professional development.
7. Parental Involvement—Evidence of frequent parent communication regarding standards, best practices, and grading.
8. Monitoring Plan—Steps are monitored explicitly to describe what people are doing to assess progress toward goal attainment and how often (1 = less than monthly; 2 = monthly or more; 3 = weekly).
9. Evaluation Process—Measures selected allow planned outcomes to be compared with achieved outcomes; evaluation plan explicitly describes how action will be taken as a result of the evaluation plan.
10. Other Required Elements of a SIP—Does the SIP contain elements as required by the district and state?

If these indicators are present, the team can proceed to the next stage in the process. If not, the team should make the necessary modifications to their plan before implementation.

Step 3: Implement Action Steps from Your School Improvement Plan

The team must implement the action steps to inspire change. Once these steps are identified, implementation means putting the plan for change into action. The plan should involve leaders who will ensure that the steps are completed, and progress is being documented.

Step 4: Inspect Progress to Strengthen Your School Improvement Strategy

The team must inspect the plan because you cannot improve what you cannot measure. If the action steps are leading in the direction of solving the problem identified, the team must stay the course. If it is not promoting positive change, make necessary adjustments or add needed steps. 

The team should also celebrate steps toward improvement. Celebrating supports team morale and adds to the momentum and progress of achieving the change.

Step 5: Institute Systems for Sustainable School Improvement

The team must institute the systems or structures need to ensure sustainability of the improvement. This improvement process aligns to the patterns found in similar frameworks such as the Plan-Do–Study-Act. However, a critical missing element from that framework is to monitor the change continuously. 

Often, schools achieve change, only to stop the actions that led to the change a short time after it is achieved. This step requires the team to create a plan for how they will sustain the change after it is achieved. The plan needs to include an assessment of the goal to see if it is still being met. If not, then the team must determine what modifications need to be made to ensure the goal’s fidelity. 

If the goal is being met, they will continue completing the steps that helped them initially achieve the goal. This monitoring process needs to happen on a scheduled basis once the problem has been solved.

Support Continuous Improvement in Your Schools and Districts

Leaders must go into the change process with their eyes open, understanding the pitfalls that can be present when trying to make sustainable institutional changes. School improvement requires the appropriate identification of the challenges to student achievement, clear goals that will lead to improved student outcomes, and a method of sustainability once the desired outcome has been achieved.

The school improvement planning process has a greater chance of improving student outcomes when implementing a framework that supports the alignment of resources to goals. RTI’s i5 School Improvement Process can help your team work collaboratively to solve problems that are impacting the educational well-being of students. Continuous improvement is a journey for a team; therefore, dedication to learning, growing, and changing together is crucial to promote collective accountability for the outcomes produced. 

Supporting continuous improvement in your schools and districts can be a daunting task. We’re here to help! Download our free School Improvement White Paper to get started.

References: White, S. H., & Smith, R. L. (2010). School Improvement for the next generation. Solution Tree Press.