The field of mathematics education has engaged in perennial debate about whether transmission-oriented or constructivist approaches to teaching will best help students learn. Yet, both fluency, learned through step-by-step procedural instruction, and the mathematical flexibility that comes from constructivist methods play an important role in…

This study aimed to investigate the impact of LETRS professional development on reading proficiency. I used ANOVA tests to analyze third- through fifth-grade EOG assessment scores for changes in proficiency from 2021-2023. The results indicated a statistically significant change in the means for all grades. Third-grade results reflected the most…

The highlighted local and international perspectives of school-based management (SBM) offer logical findings on its efficacy at the grassroots level. Despite some hindering factors, its impact along leadership and governance, curriculum and learning, accountability and continuous improvement, and resource management are commendable. After…

Local implementation of science reform efforts in part relies on science teacher leaders (STLs) to improve science instruction in classrooms and beyond. The lack of science-specific professional learning resources drives STLs to act as boundary spanners to locate resources outside their local context to fill that gap. Museums and other informal…

The CORE Districts, a nonprofit formed by large urban districts in California, received a Networks for School Improvement grant from the Gates Foundation to launch a network focused on improving ninth-grade on-track rates. CORE based its approach on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Breakthrough Collaborative model, where a hub identifies…

Though researchers have documented the consequences and causes of chronic absenteeism, there is limited empirical evidence about what schools and districts are actually doing to improve attendance. This study presents evidence about the types of attendance practices that forty-seven high-absenteeism districts in Michigan are planning and…

This paper presents an examination of identity "in" and "as" practice as it relates to a group of educational practitioners known as middle leaders. Drawing on the theory of practice architectures as a site-ontological approach for conceptualising educational leading, the paper considers an individual's identity as being…

Purpose: Increasingly, school systems are forming improvement networks and using continuous improvement (CI) to realize more ambitious and equitable instruction. Yet networks reside in environments that place formidable demands on school leaders and house multiple, and sometimes contradictory, beliefs about educational goals and practices.…

Networked improvement communities (NICs) aim to build capacity for school-based educators to work collaboratively as active agents of problem solving and change. Yet, the benefits accrued to educators from participating in improvement networks have been sparsely researched. Using survey responses from the members of 34 improvement networks, we…

Students are regularly expected to engage with connected text during the school day. However, for some readers, these demands can be overwhelming, particularly when reading fluency is still developing. In this article, we highlight Synchronous Paired Oral Reading Techniques (SPORT) as one approach that teachers can use to help striving readers…

The leaders of Networks for School Improvement (NSIs) have complex, challenging jobs which require constant learning and adaptation. To support these leaders, the contributors to this volume have developed a survey-based data visualization system--the Improvement Network Health Development (INHD) Information System--designed to generate insight…

Continuous improvement (CI) methods are growing in popularity around the world as approaches to leadership and educational change. There has been particular interest in using CI methods such as collaborative data inquiry to address racial inequities in schools. But these 'wicked' problems are, in many ways, more complex and uncertain than the…

"Improvement Science in Education: A Primer," second edition, is the first and introductory volume in the Myers Education Press series, "Improvement Science in Education and Beyond." It provides a comprehensive overview of improvement science as a framework to guide continuous improvement and reconceptualizes improvement by…

Leadership teams have real power to drive improvement in schools by harnessing multiple experts' valuable perspectives and collaborative capacity. Even seasoned team members may not recognize their potential to address a persistent challenge in education: sustaining improvements over time. Fortunately, such sustainability can be intentionally…

The lack of connectedness experienced by college students during the COVID-19 pandemic was problematic. An innovative approach undertaken in a (virtual) graduate classroom at Clemson University was the concept of team teaching. Team teaching allows a group of instructors to work together to enhance student learning. Upon course completion,…