Educators and institutional leaders are often tasked with solving complex problems—from improving student success and equity outcomes to redesigning advising, instruction, and institutional policies. Yet many change efforts stall2 of 3because they lack a structured, evidence-based approach to identifying root causes, testing solutions, and learning from implementation. This session introduces Improvement Science—a disciplined, practice-based methodology designed to support continuous, measurable improvement in complex systems like education. Originating in healthcare and now widely used in schools, districts, and higher education systems, Improvement Science helps teams move beyond isolated fixes toward sustainable, systemic change. The session will also share real-world examples of how educators have used Improvement Science to address persistent challenges. Most importantly, this session will teach attendees the basic tools and competencies needed to start the journey of improvement.

This pre-conference session provides practical insights into system-wide improvement within typically fragmented district efforts. Join executive and school leaders to explore how to embed improvement as the core engine for achieving significant results. Learn from a decade of insights from the Oxford School District in Mississippi, lessons learned from the improvement efforts of Menomonee Falls School District now spreading to systems across the country.

Presenters Pat Greco, recognized as a Carnegie Foundation Improvement Spotlight School District, Bradley Roberson and team scaling improvement across Oxford, will share their practical strategies. Discover how to cultivate an improvement mindset and skill set, align key properties for impact, enhance processes, and empower those closest to the work to be key decision makers. We'll share evidence of impact on student learning, team culture, and organizational performance, demonstrating how to move beyond compliance to genuinely engage hearts and minds in a sustained journey of continuous improvement.

Education leaders often find themselves trapped in cycles of "fixing" recurring issues - only to watch them return. Real-Time Problem Solving (RTPS) offers a structured, equity-centered approach to breaking that cycle by addressing problems at the incidental level, uncovering root causes, and designing solutions that stick. Rather than generalizing problems or blaming individuals, RTPS emphasizes "systems, not people," "solve, don't fix," and "elevate the voices of those closest to the work." This session is designed for school and system leaders who want to move beyond surface level solutions. Participants will engage in a hands-on RTPS simulation and walk away with concrete tools and mindsets to apply in their own contexts.

This session explores how a higher education authorizer can serve as a research and improvement partner to its K-12charter schools. Drawing from a study we published and three in-depth case studies, we examine how instructional practices—termed “Antecedents to Student Engagement”—correlate with student growth and achievement. The research demonstrates that these antecedents, such as active learning, scaffolding, and student-centered instruction, are positively associated with academic outcomes regardless of socioeconomic status. Through qualitative analysis of high-growth schools in our portfolio, we identify the systems, policies, and practices that foster engagement and success. Participants will gain insight into how university-based authorizers can leverage research to support school improvement, inform accountability, and promote equity. This session is ideal for educators, researchers, and authorizers interested in actionable strategies that bridge research and practice in school-university partnerships.

In today's climate of budget constraints, school closures, and complex political landscape, education leaders are being asked to lead complex improvement work while keeping community trust and engagement at the center. This session explores how to engage community members and other stakeholders authentically in such high-stakes contexts - especially when the path forward is uncertain or contentious.

Facilitators will share lessons learned from a real district partnership navigating budget cuts and potential school closures. They will offer strategies for participatory sense making, narrative engagement, and human-centered design that helped shift the conversation from tension to collaboration.

Attendees will:

- Experience a narrative data meaning-making protocol

- Reflect on a framework and resource bank for community engagement

- Adapt actionable tools for their own contexts

Whether you're facing deep-rooted resistance, political challenges, or urgent system change, this session offers practical tools and mindsets to lead with empathy, clarity, and community.

What gets in the way of building a great math classroom? A statewide network of math teacher-leaders across 29 individual school districts are leading their school-based peers towards collectively defining and improving on common problems of practice. Join us to experience the project through a teacher-leader lens and explore the range of tools & routines we’ve developed over the past six years to structure collaborative improvement with a particular commitment to teachers agency across a state-wide practice-research NIC.

The best EdD programs don’t just graduate leaders—they prepare continual improvers. This pre-conference workshop will explore how embedding improvement science in the dissertation process equips scholarly practitioners (aka EdD graduates) with the tools, mindsets, and habits to tackle persistent problems of practice throughout their careers. Participants will examine why and how moving beyond the standard five-chapter dissertation strengthens both program quality and graduate impact. Through interactive discussion, case examples, and practical strategies, attendees will leave ready to advance dissertation reform and foster a culture of improvement in their own institutions.

All schools should strive for continuous improvement—not to meet external mandates, but ensure every student thrives. This session highlights the journey of Henrico County Public Schools, a large suburban district in central Virginia, as it transformed strategic planning through the lens of Improvement Science. Since 2022, the district’s Department of School Quality has led a comprehensive effort to embed Improvement Science principles across all levels of the system—from the central office to every classroom. Participants will explore how the district established a strong foundation in improvement methodologies, implemented Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles to monitor school improvement plans, and integrated Implementation Science to build sustainable, research-based practices. This session is ideal for district and school leaders seeking practical strategies to align school improvement planning with division-wide priorities, enhance data-informed decision-making, and foster a culture of organizational learning. Join us to discover tools, processes, and insights that can support your own improvement journey.

We are excited to welcome Dr. Anthony S. Bryk as our keynote speaker. As the ninth president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Dr. Bryk led innovative efforts to connect research and practice, building networks that drive meaningful school improvement. He directly engaged in diverse improvement efforts in Chicago’s public schools for over 20 years. A member of the National Academy of Education, he was also appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Board for Education Sciences. Author of influential books such as Catholic Schools and the Common Good, Trust in Schools, and Learning to Improve, Dr. Bryk brings unmatched expertise and inspiring insights on transforming education.

This session presents a cross-institutional project led by three educator preparation programs that used paired survey data from teacher candidates and cooperating teachers to identify critical gaps in instructional readiness. Aligned with key teaching dimensions such as planning, assessment, differentiation, and classroom management, the surveys revealed shared areas for improvement across institutions. In response, faculty teams collaboratively developed a practical, research-informed toolkit designed to strengthen candidate preparation in these domains. The toolkit includes planning protocols, differentiated lesson templates, assessment feedback guides, and classroom environment checklists. During the session, presenters will share survey findings, demonstrate key components of the toolkit, and discuss how the resources are being implemented and refined across university settings. Participants will receive sample materials and guidance for adapting tools to their own programs. This presentation offers practical strategies for using stakeholder feedback to drive continuous improvement and foster more effective, equity-centered teacher preparation.

Improvement networks are theorized to catalyze learning within and among educational organizations by leveraging the tools of improvement science to collectively solve common problems of practice (Bryk et al., 2015; Russell et al., 2025). By design, improvement networks are often temporary organizations, operating with a finite amount of time and/or resources to address the problem they seek to solve. Existing research on the sustainability of improvement suggests it may be difficult to sustain the network structure itself but reveals less about the sustained impact of network practices and strategies (Joshi et al., 2021). In this session we present an expanded view of the potential impact of improvement networks and suggest some key ways that improvement leaders are well positioned to support sustained impact. Leaders of improvement networks will consider ways to optimize the sustained impact of their network.

This session introduces leaders to a practical, user-centered approach to planning and aligning initiatives across educational systems, using an improvement tool that elevates the voices of those closest to the work into strategy design. It introduces a practical method that shifts from a traditional top-down “push” approach, where solutions are imposed without addressing real challenges, to a user-centered “pull” approach that focuses on the requirements of students, teachers, and staff. Attendees will practice using a Strategy Roadmap, a tool designed to clarify end-user needs and demonstrate how different organizational levels can provide support. By the end of the session, participants will have a clearer understanding of how to select key activities and set measurable goals, promoting effective collaboration within their teams. This session is ideal for leaders of educational systems seeking practical strategies to align operations with the needs of their communities.

As growing numbers of diverse populations continue to rise, future teachers and occupational therapists must possess a high degree of cultural competence to work effectively in communities, especially those situated in border regions. Culturally competent teachers and occupational therapists efficaciously navigate relational spaces to practice their craft. An interdisciplinary partnership between a teacher preparation program and an occupational therapy program collaborated on an improvement science project for building knowledge around the development of cultural competence using mixed reality simulation (MRS) Mursion™ learning environments. By using an iterative process of improvement science, the use of the culturally affirming guiding question tool was designed to be modified through each Plan–Study–Do–Act (PDSA) cycle of testing the change idea. The outcomes of this work build and extended local knowledge about coaching students in MRS environments for developing cultural competence with implications on pedagogical use of these innovative safe spaces.

RISE’s Schools on the RISE Domains define six essential, interconnected conditions that drive continuous improvement and meaningful student outcomes. These domains guide RISE School Improvement Coaches in helping schools design systems that support educator collaboration and data-informed decision-making. Central to this model are Improvement Teams—spaces where leadership is shared, goals are refined, and actionable strategies are developed. This structured approach has yielded measurable success: over the past decade, Grade 9 on-track rates have increased from 67% to 82%, and graduation rates from 77% to 89%, surpassing statewide trends. College readiness and access have also improved, with GPA-based readiness up 8points and FAFSA completion increasing from 51% to 65%. These results highlight the impact of environments grounded in continuous improvement, distributed leadership, and collaborative practices. In this session, we’ll explore each of the six domains—and how, together, they drive lasting change in high schools.

The EPI Center will showcase IMPACT, the innovative collaboration between Voorhees University and several K-12 school districts in South Carolina. IMPACT, Improvement Science Propels Achievement and Critical Thinking, is a teacher-centered professional development initiative that builds educator capacity to improve literacy outcomes in rural, high-poverty schools. Through the Improvement Science framework, numerous ELA teachers in targeted school2 of 3districts engaged in action research, coaching, and a virtual learning network to address local literacy challenges. Data will show an increase in student achievement by enabling teachers to identify problems of practice and implement data-driven instructional solutions. IMPACT is designed for statewide scalability and participants will learn how they can implement tenets of IMPACT in their districts and schools while aligning with institutions of higher education to form an impactful networked community that has the potential to solve improvement gaps across all academia.

This session addresses how faculty can create and support embedded professional learning structures—including cross-cohort mentoring, practice-based dissertation design, and faculty-student partnerships—that cultivate sustained habits of inquiry and improvement in scholar-practitioners and program leaders. Using the IPT EdD as a case study, the session showcases how embedded development, collaborative inquiry, and coaching structures align to form a community of practice that extends beyond coursework and graduation. This session is one of two distinct but related proposals submitted by members of the same faculty team. While this session provides a practical, program-specific case study of how an EdD program embeds strategies for sustained practitioner inquiry using HPT and CCIE principles, the companion session, led by a co-presenter, offers a broader conceptual comparison of improvement frameworks (HPT vs. Improvement Science). Each session is independent, with unique learning objectives and content, but they also align thematically.

This interactive workshop explores how collaborative, context-aware feedback can support the growth and development of preservice teachers in clinical settings. Grounded in the principles of Improvement Science, the session highlights how targeted, developmentally appropriate feedback, co-constructed by the presenters, can drive meaningful improvement in teacher preparation. Participants will engage in video analysis of elementary teaching, identify key lesson elements and practice providing feedback using tools developed in partnership with K-12 educators.

Leaders wade through piecemealed initiatives struggling to know how to align limited resources to what really impacts student learning. Learn how an improvers’ mindset and aligned execution improves results. Four district leaders from across the country are improving access for students, removing barriers for families, and solving legacy problems. Focused on clarity first, they engage formal and informal leaders at every level of the system. Leaders learn to scaffold communication, hardwire practical tools, and make their culture safe to transparently share data. Teams in every division lead small tests of change to improve processes and impact student learning. These leaders will speak to how they are getting teams “unstuck” by aligning efforts and realize their personal conviction that improvement is possible. This session will share the leadership lessons learned, evidence of improved impact, and highlight their next actions in their continuing journeys to really improve.

Students with disabilities experiencing poverty—particularly Black and Latino students—remain among the most underserved populations in our education systems. Addressing this persistent equity gap requires more than isolated innovations; it demands collective action across schools and systems. This session shares how a national Networked Improvement Community (NIC) is organizing regional learning collaboratives to accelerate improvement for thesestudents.2 of 5With regional hubs across 5 states in the US —including one in Nashville—our NIC brings together schools committed to implementing a shared practice, generating context-specific learning, and accelerating student impact through structured collaboration and coaching. The session offers practical guidance, early data, and tested tools for others looking to build or expand collaborative structures for equitable improvement.

Since 2017, a coalition of nonprofits, funders, and education consultants has partnered with the School District of Philadelphia to improve 9th Grade On-Track rates through cross-organizational collaboration. As part of this work, in the 2024-2025 school year, Philadelphia Academies, Inc.'s 9th Grade Success Network served as a networked improvement community for 24 high schools in the School District of Philadelphia. This session will share how this network intentionally creates opportunities for cross-school collaboration in three distinct ways: Shared Goals and Core Beliefs, Community of Practice Events, and Demonstration Visits. This network-wide collaboration has driven measurable gains including a 3.7 percentage point increase in overall 9th Grade On-Track rates year-over-year for the 2024-25 school year and particularly notable improvements for Latino and Black male 9th grade students.

The Session will open with an overview of the program we have designed in order to create a Network of Schools in Delaware which will focus on collaborating and collective learning for sustainable change through a School Improvement Model. We will introduce our School Improvement Model which includes four key connectors: Leadership, Teaching and Learning, Climate and Culture and Systems and Structures. We will discuss the results of the program so far including our Readiness Assessment, our Summer Summit and Check in's throughout the Fall. We will speak to each of the 7 schools involved in our program and what they are currently working on. Participants in this session will be able to see our tools and resources, as well as our plan of action for theremainder of this first year. We will speak to the lessons learned, the successes so far and the intentions movingforward as we grow this program.

Most educators haven't been trained how to do continuous improvement as part of their professional degree programs. While that's starting to shift, there's still a notable gap in how we support the development of improvement knowledge such that it is a part of professional practice. This workshop is an invitation to think more deeply about how we teach improvement, not just implement it.

Drawing on our collective experiences building EdBreak and foundational concepts from teacher education and professional learning communities, this session will explore what it means to design professional learning communities that actually help people practice improvement in and through practice.

In this working session, participants will have an opportunity to engage in model activities, collaborate with other attendees and explore the intersections of pedagogy and improvement work as it relates to the designs for building improvement capabilities in education with educators.

When EdD programs connect with external partners—whether schools, community organizations, other universities, or professional association —they create authentic contexts for learning and research that extend far beyond the dissertation. This session will explore how partnerships can be woven throughout an EdD program, shaping coursework, signature pedagogies, and applied research experiences to strengthen graduate preparation and program impact. Drawing from CPED network examples, we will identify partnership principles that can be adapted to improvement science-focused programs. Participants will leave with a practical framework for initiating and sustaining collaborations that benefit students, faculty, and partner organizations across the life of the program.

Educators are regularly presented with data that highlight problematic outcomes without providing clues for how to improve. Seeking a different approach, CORE’s 9th grade on-track network has learned over time to analyze and display familiar data in new ways that support improvers to act. We will share exciting results and emergent insights from our work in urban districts across California. Workshop-style activities will surface collective learning among participants about how to display data such as grades and attendance in novel ways that catalyze action at all levels of the system, from teacher to district leader.

In an era of complex educational demands, sustainable improvement requires more than isolated initiatives—it demands collaborative, adaptive leadership at every level. This interactive workshop explores a partnership model between university faculty and K–12 district leaders to build internal capacity for meaningful change. Grounded in John Kotter’s Change Leadership framework—especially the Big Opportunity—this session shows how  cross-sector collaboration can equip school-based teams to lead and sustain improvement efforts. Participants will learn practical strategies for activating Kotter’s eight-step process, forming guiding coalitions, and aligning district goals with site-based innovation. Through real-world examples, hands-on activities, and planning tools, attendees will leave with actionable ideas and adaptable resources to launch or strengthen partnerships that empower teams to seize their Big Opportunity and drive student success.

A core challenge to spreading improvement work is building a bench of improvers who can carry the work forward past initial workshops or intensive design sessions. In this session, learn how NASH is building a national network of improvers to carry out rigorous improvement projects in higher education institutions by training team leads in the fundamentals of improvement as they guide their campus teams. This co-training and leading model has shown promising results, as each of the original team leads has now led their own improvement work after the conclusion of the improvement community. Learn how our unique structure, design, and execution is building a new field of improvers and how you incorporate these structures into your improvement efforts.

Improving instructional practice is intensive, complex work, and conventional offerings of “pull-out” professional development typically fail to drive lasting change. In this session we invite participants to engage with what we argue isa more effective approach. Based on rigorous organizational learning research and developed through years of facilitating instructionally-focused NICs across Connecticut and Rhode Island, our “Core Practice Test Kitchen” model structures professional learning around small, decentralized, self-organizing instructional improvement teams engaged in “high-velocity” learning and improvement routines. In this session, we will share how we specify equitable, ambitious teaching through high-leverage “core practice recipes” and support improvement teams to test and collaboratively adapt core practice recipes over time. Participants will interact with the practical tools we use to support core practice recipe testing and grapple with the advantages and drawbacks of instructional standard work, non-hierarchical feedback loops, and decentralized management of instructional improvement in schools.

Empathy interviews offer a powerful starting point for improvement work by centering the users voice in the problem-identification process. This session will introduce participants to the use of empathy interviews as a core tool within improvement science—supporting clearer problem definition, equity-centered inquiry, and compassionate, effective action. Participants will learn how open-ended conversations with users can surface root causes of persistent issues like absenteeism, disengagement, and course failure, leading to more targeted and contextually relevant change ideas. Drawing on field-tested examples from Schools That Lead, the session demonstrates how empathy interviews, paired with Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles, help educators design, test, and refine improvement strategies grounded in trust and lived experience. Participants will leave with adaptable protocols, sample questions, and facilitation tips that elevate student voice and deepen collaborative improvement efforts across diverse school communities.

Improvement science is increasingly recognized as a pragmatic, disciplined, and systematic approach for advancing educational equity. However, equity discussions often focus solely on the end goals—such as reducing disparities in outcomes—rather than the processes used to achieve those goals. This session will explore how equity can be intentionally embedded throughout every stage of the improvement journey. Drawing from research in improvement science, organizational behavior, and social psychology, the session will provide participants with evidence-based2 of 4strategies to ensure that equity considerations are not an afterthought, but rather a guiding principle. Attendees will walk away with concrete actions they can take during each phase of continuous improvement: defining the problem, generating potential solutions, implementing and testing changes, and spreading effective practices. Equity will be framed as both a goal and a process.

Understanding variation is a key practice in accelerating learning and achieving meaningful results. This session will focus on the RAISE (Raising Attendance and Improvement Student Engagement) network’s use of Shewhart Charts and bright-spot analysis to identify evidence-based practices that reduce chronic absenteeism rates in schools. Presenters will demonstrate how networks and organizations can apply these methods to strengthen their own improvement efforts and drive sustainable change.

Rural communities face layered challenges: geographic isolation, limited resources, and parental reluctance to send students away for college. Simultaneously, regional universities are often unprepared to support rural learners who arrive with different expectations and needs, requiring shifts toward “student-ready” institutional practices. These challenges were compounded by shifts in the Texas and national political climate, including the implementation of SB17, which restricted explicit diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, even as our federally funded ACES grant required us to advance equity in outcomes for rural students.

How do we build effective school-university partnerships that support students beyond high school? This session will share lessons from the Meta Network for School Improvement, a regional effort led by Arizona State University that brings together educators and higher ed partners to improve postsecondary enrollment for underserved students. After a brief overview of the Network’s approach and outcomes, participants will reflect on their own role in the postsecondary landscape and work together to sketch out local partnership models that can support students more effectively. Attendees will leave with a framework for building or improving school-university collaborations in their own region, plus a few new colleagues who share a commitment to this work.

How do we cultivate the habits of continuous improvement in school leaders working in our most challenged schools? This interactive session will share how PIVOT: School Improvement Leaders develops principal capacity across a statewide, cross-sector (district and charter) leadership cohort using the tools and mindset of improvement science. Participants will explore how embedded coaching, professional learning communities, and applied problem-solving cycles foster the knowledge, skills, and dispositions for continuous improvement.Through real examples from CSI schools, we’ll unpack how principals learn to test change ideas, use data meaningfully, and shift adult practices to drive student success.

Explore what happens when innovation meets system-wide change in this session on piloting TeachFX, an AI-powered classroom talk tool, within a shifting multi-tiered support system (MTSS) framework. Examine tested hypotheses, practical missteps, and lessons from applying improvement science during organizational transformation. Engage with a gallery walk-style case study and participate in roundtable discussions to reflect on implementation challenges, capacity constraints, and adaptive leadership. Leave with a piloting framework for emerging technologies and strategies for navigating improvement work when your system is in motion. 

This session will explore the development and piloting of a practical measure of educator professional learning (PL). Participants will be able to take the survey, delve into the data as a group, and discuss ways to interpret the results and utilize these insights. Participants will walk away with a deeper understanding of how to develop practical measures and use a measure to understand and improve teachers’ professional learning experiences.

Are you tired of improvement plans that look good on paper but go nowhere? In this session, leaders from Oxford School District will share how their district built a roadmap that connects district goals to everyday classroom practice. Deputy Superintendent Marni Herrington and elementary principals Keri Jo Sapp and Patches Calhoun will walk you through how aligning school goals to district priorities has removed ambiguity, fostered collaboration, and led to measurable growth. Discover how the continuous improvement process, when clearly defined and owned by everyone—from district leaders to teachers—transforms improvement into a shared responsibility. Participants will leave with practical strategies for creating systems that move the work forward and keep everyone focused on what matters most.

What happens when more schools are flagged for extra support—and how can a district respond in a way that actually helps teachers and students? In this session, Henrico County Public Schools shares how its School Quality Department worked across multiple departments to support schools with proven strategies in reading and math. With more schools needing help, the district created tools for classroom observations, offered hands-on coaching, and used data in practical ways to guide teaching and learning. Grounded in school improvement plans and supported by federal funding, this work focused on making sure everyone—from district leaders to teachers—was working together toward the same goals. Attendees will leave with real-world strategies to strengthen instruction, support staff placement, and use resources more efficiently—all with a focus on equity and long-term success.

The purpose of this presentation is to share experiences in redesigning and re-envisioning the goals, expectations, and outcomes for our Ed.D. program and its students using the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) framework. By applying the CPED signature pedagogy, we will share our journey in the transformational process as our 2 of 5 faculty develops new program goals, dissertation templates, and course deliverables to align with the CPED framework.This presentation is designed for professors engaging with students utilizing the Dissertation in Practice Model and collaborating with local education agencies/districts. Presenters will share developed dissertation templates exemplifying Action Research, Improvement Science, and Program Evaluation. Presenters will share how Kotter’s 8 step change model aligns to the re-design efforts of the current educational leadership program to be in alignment with CPED principles.

Chronic absenteeism is derailing student success - but what if the solution isn't stricter policy, but stronger connection? This session shares how two public schools used improvement science and strategic communication to reverse negative attendance trends. One school reframed its attendance letter and built relational outreach systems that dropped chronic absences by 16 percentage points. Another implemented an idea, pairing early family contact with staff mentorship and student-centered incentives - reducing chronic absenteeism from over 50% to just 6%. Participants will explore how empathy-based strategies clarified root causes, transformed attendance from a compliance issue into a shared commitment, and built lasting change. Attendees will leave with concrete tools, replicable interventions, and renewed inspiration to put students' voices at the center of the work.

The notion of Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) utilized as continuous improvement measure in Quantitative Literacy courses (Bryk, et al., 2015). The Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycle for continuous improvement was utilized for concept evaluation at our community college. Our mathematics department had two objectives: one was to develop common definition and attributes for concepts and to develop horizontal and vertical leveling of exemplars to build on prior student learning. The continuous improvement process was utilized to ensure internal consistency of concept definitions, attributes, and ideals are measurable. Continuous improvement requires institutional leaders to define, address, and measure progress in ways that are unique to the context rather than simply apply existing interventions. Grunow et al., (2018) contends that continuous Improvement approach places responsibility for solving problem and making decisions on district, institutional leadership demanding new capabilities and skills to address contextually diagnosed problems Mintrop et al., (2019).

This session explores how improvement science drove the design and refinement of professional learning practices in a rural school district. Using the frameworks of the 7 Elements of Effective Professional Learning in combination with student-centered coaching cycles, participants demonstrated measurable improvement in instructional capacity as defined by TPACK and self-efficacy scores, demonstrating a substantial increase in teachers’ knowledge, skills, beliefs, and values surrounding the implementation of instructional technology in the K-12 environment. This session will provide honest reflection on what strategies worked, what didn’t and what adaptations are being made for future implementation of cohort designs after analysis. Attendees will gain practical guidance for designing user-centered, data-driven professional learning systems that provide evidence of importance. Key takeaways will include evidence-based frameworks, insights on leveraging PDSA cycles to support continuous improvement, and a preview of future iterations.

This presentation highlights a statewide Networked Improvement Community (NIC) in Wisconsin focused on addressing educator shortages and turnover by promoting organizational well-being in public schools. The NIC includes 12 district-level teams across the state and brings together practitioners, researchers, and experts at local, state, and national levels. Over 18 months, teams are engaging in rapid Plan–Do–Study–Act cycles to implement research- and evidence-based strategies that strengthen workplace culture and educator resilience. Grounded in the Compassion Resilience Toolkit for Educators, this work recognizes that improving individual well-being requires systemic change. Teams focus on shifting environmental factors—such as climate, policies, and practices—that influence staff engagement, equity, and sustainability. The Organizational Well–Being Inventory for Schools (within the SHAPE system), is used to assess and monitor progress. This session will share the NIC’s improvement methodology, key strategies, and lessons learned from this collective statewide effort to improve educator retention through sustainable organizational transformation.

Two of the most important factors influencing organizations achieving positive outcomes are consistent leadership practices among highly capable leaders and aligned system-wide improvement practices that build the organizational capacity to achieve and sustain success. Two Community College Chancellors from small, coastal towns on the east and west sides of New Orleans chronicle how they create a strategic direction, design measures that matter, align the institutional priorities across and within divisions, and engage in strategic short cycles of improvement. These cycles support scaling the bright spots, identifying performance gaps, and using evidence to drive improvement actions that are continuously assessed by those closest to the work (faculty and staff). The Chancellors will share their system processes and tools, highlight the evidence used to continuously improve, and offer an overview of the lessons learned over time. They will also show how their work at the Community College is closely tied to K12 outcomes.

In SY23-24 Baltimore City Public Schools launched its third Networked Improvement Community (NIC), the Math Improvement Network for Teachers (MINT) Fellowship, focused on growing student's fluency in mathematics. MINT utilized the learnings gained from launching and sustaining previous NICs, which included engaging members in three critical steps: 1) Seeing the system, 2) Crafting an explicit theory about how instruction leads to improvement, and 3) Creating practical measures to provide signals of improvement. Now in its third year, MINT leaders will share how they applied these steps in their NIC launch and the evolution of MINT's improvement efforts to create more fluent mathematicians. 

George Mason University and Fairfax County Public Schools work to enhance the capacity for school leaders to drive systems improvement. The long-standing partnership has been agile in its efforts, having focused on the school improvement process it is now directing efforts to building the capacity of school leaders to achieve sustainable school improvement.

Through the session, participants will learn how a partnership is built to address long-standing problems of practice through sustained efforts. More specifically, participants will understand how a partnership can be responsive to emerging problems of practice by making capacity building visible and shareable through a co-planned conference.

Discover how NYCPS Community School District 10 partnered with the Literacy Design Collaborative to drive systemic improvement in middle school literacy instruction. This session is designed for school and district leaders, coaches, and educators seeking practical strategies to build effective instructional leadership teams and implement student-centered professional learning. Participants will engage with a proven framework that uses student work to inform data-driven decisions, promote equity, and increase instructional rigor across schools. Walk away with actionable tools and insights to lead sustainable change in your own setting.

Learn how a strong partnership between a high school and university can strengthen school improvement efforts and lead to better culture, climate and achievement. With a focused effort on student engagement, Newark High School elicited support from the University of Delaware School Success Center, including facilitating a needs assessment and ongoing coaching for the administration and building leadership team. They are continuing their journey towards realizing a shared vision of a powerful culture and increased student achievement. Participants will learn the story of this partnership, while walking away with examples, protocols and guidance for creating their own path forward. School and district leaders, as well as improvement science specialists will be able to share ideas and learn together in this interactive presentation.

Improvement networks are a promising strategy for creating system change, improving student outcomes, and building the satisfaction and professional capacity of educators in districts, schools, and classrooms. By creating opportunities for educators to learn with colleagues from their own organizations and from colleagues outside of their own organizations, leaders can accelerate the learning and improvement. This session is designed for leaders of schools, districts, county offices, states, and intermediary organizations who are currently supporting an improvement network or are interested in launching an improvement network. We present a framework to support critical aspects of each phase of network development (planning, launch, and development). Attendees will have an opportunity to learn from the Network Health Project’s findings from 40+ improvement networks, learn from each other, and grapple with these design elements in their own contexts as they map out next steps on their improvement journey.

This interactive session introduces empathy interviews as a powerful tool for equity-centered improvement. Participants will learn how to design and conduct interviews to uncover root causes of inequities and inform change ideas. Ideal for educators and partners seeking to deepen their improvement work through inclusive, human-centered inquiry.

Join us for success stories and lessons learned gathered over four years of student-led improvement with Oregon's NWRESD student network. Each year, over 50 high school student interns use continuous improvement to investigate their own systems, design and implement change cycles, collect data, and advocate for connected and inclusive school cultures. Interns develop skills and mindsets to become agents of change in their school setting and beyond!

Despite the aspirations of the majority of community college students, transfer outcomes remain alarmingly low. While approximately 80% of community college students enter with the intention of transferring to a four-year institution only 33% ultimately enroll at a four-year institution—and just 16% complete a bachelor’s degree within six years. To address this long-standing challenge, the National Association of System Heads (NASH) convened a collaborative of 12 public higher education systems in a structured improvement community focused on transfer student success. Through the application of rigorous continuous improvement methodologies, the cultivation of networked learning across systems, and a deliberate strategy to build local improvement capacity, this initiative has produced significant, measurable outcomes. This session will explore the design, implementation, and impact of this multi-system improvement effort, and offer actionable insights for institutions seeking to improve outcomes for transfer students—a historically underserved and often-overlooked student population.

This interactive workshop introduces participants to two powerful methodologies—Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and Warm Data—as innovative tools for improvement science that foster collaborative learning and sustainable change. Rather than focusing on deficits and problems, these approaches harness the collective wisdom of learning communities to identify strengths, understand systemic relationships, and design actionable improvement strategies. Participants will experience both methodologies firsthand, learn how to integrate them into improvement cycles, and develop skills for facilitating these processes within their own educational contexts.

Calling all educators, coaches, leaders, and professional learning designers who want to deepen their use of continuous improvement strategies within curriculum-based professional learning. Come explore how Learning Forward’s Curriculum-Based Professional Learning (CBPL) Network and Metro Nashville Public Schools’ Open Up Resources (OUR) Network are using improvement strategies to ensure that curriculum-based professional learning positively impacts teaching and learning for all students in mathematics. Participants will engage in small-group discussions and have time to explore their own applications. CBPL helps make sure educators know how to take advantage of everything a high-quality, standards-aligned curriculum and instructional materials has to offer so that students’ access and opportunity to learn are maximized. The professional learning is designed, facilitated, and resourced so teachers can effectively implement the instructional model with integrity, while also experiencing the instruction as their students will so they can adjust their instructional practices as needed to ensure better student outcomes

Discover how one K–8 district is using the Plan–Do–Study–Act (PDSA) cycle to drive continuous improvement from classrooms to the district office. This session will showcase one district's journey of learning and applying the PDSA cycle to decrease student learning gaps, implement timely, data-informed interventions, and strengthen collaborative team structures. Participants will explore how leadership teams are using PDSA cycles to align district initiatives, improve instructional planning, and ensure district wide coherence. Through real examples and lessons learned, attendees will gain insight into the adaptive leadership and structures needed to sustain improvement. Whether you're just beginning or refining your improvement journey, this session offers a roadmap for using PDSA cycles to build capacity and accelerate student outcomes at every level.

Too often, school-community-university partnerships begin with good intentions but stall when trust is thin and goals are misaligned. In this interactive session, we explore what it takes to move beyond compliance-based collaboration toward co-owned improvement. Drawing on lessons from GLISI’s work in Georgia and C!E’s work in Kentucky, this session showcases how leaders across K-12 systems, higher education institutions, and community organizations can design and sustain equity-centered partnerships that endure. Participants will explore: (1) Antecedents to trust and strategies for cultivating trustworthiness through co-designed structures that center student and family voices; (2) How to use shared metrics and storytelling to cultivate trust and re-define accountability; and (3) Navigate tensions across institutional and community cultures to stay grounded in collective goals. Through real-world examples and in-session practice with trust-building tools and assets, attendees will leave with concrete strategies for building resilient partnerships rooted in mutual accountability, community wisdom, and long-term improvement.

What counts as “improvement” in practice-based EdD programs, and how do different frameworks shape our understanding of improvement, inquiry, and impact? This interactive session invites participants to explore and compare two improvement models used in doctoral education: Improvement Science (IS) and Human Performance Technology (HPT). While Improvement Science (IS) is a widely adopted model in K–12 partnerships, other approaches, such as Human Performance Technology (HPT), offer equally rigorous, systems-oriented alternatives rooted in performance analysis, stakeholder collaboration, and systematic intervention selection. Drawing from the University of West Florida’s Instructional and Performance Technology (IPT) EdD as an example, this session compares HPT and IS through the broader lens of Collaborative Continuous Improvement in Education (CCIE). Presenters will share how the program uses HPT’s performance-centered systems model to guide practitioner inquiry while leveraging CCIE principles to frame problems of practice, sustain collaboration, and shape the iterative improvement process.

This session shares how a cross-institutional team from Chicago Public Schools and the University of Illinois Chicago designed and implemented a district-wide improvement initiative to increase mathematics proficiency among students in Grades 3–5, with a focus on students with disabilities. Spanning 32 elementary schools, the initiative employed continuous improvement strategies grounded in Improvement Science, including iterative Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles led by professional learning communities (PLCs). Core drivers included internalization of math curriculum, professional learning on equitable instruction using the Launch–Explore–Discuss (LED) framework, and co-teaching strategies to support diverse learners. School leaders developed and monitored math leadership development plans, supported by sustained coaching and data-informed progress checks. A subset of schools received intensive support to accelerate implementation and inform broader scaling. As a result, special education students demonstrated growth on interim assessments. This session will offer tools, leadership strategies, and lessons learned to inform equity-driven math improvement efforts in other districts.

Struggling to find a collaborative model for instructional leaders to drive continuous improvement at their schools? Come listen to the history of our network focused on Algebra I outcomes for 9th graders and what we found worked (and didn't) for developing distributed leadership across schools in the network and use the shared tools and resources to plan for your own context. 

Join Dr. Jennifer Martin and Pat Greco to explore Hemet Unified School District's extensive continuous improvement journey. Facing struggling daily performance, daily student aggression and attendance challenges, Hemet Unified implemented a systems-level approach to align their efforts for stronger impact. This session reveals how leaders worked together to leverage daily huddles and short improvement cycles to proactively address behavior and boost attendance.

Attendees will learn about their disciplined daily huddle process, which has led to significant suspension reductions. These data-driven meetings allow teams to review aggression logs, identify trends, and make immediate system adjustments.

The session will also highlight the critical role of staff rounding as a powerful tool for leaders to uncover systemic barriers and build trust. Discover how this team's data-driven mindset, short cycles of improvement, and an organizational scorecard, guide efforts, align effective interventions and demonstrate measurable student success. Learn practical strategies fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

How might we redesign our processes and systems for greater equity? In this highly interactive session, we will experience how process maps can be used to better understand critical processes, identify possible breakdowns for those we serve, and generate change ideas to support greater equity and inclusion. You will leave with tools and templates for mapping processes in your own contexts – because if we improve our processes, we improve our outcomes!

In a time where systems must urgently adapt to serve all learners equitably, building leader capacity to implement their strategic plan using Improvement Science is essential. This session explores how the School Quality Department in Henrico County Public Schools equips school leaders with Improvement Science knowledge, tools, and mindsets to lead improvement efforts in their buildings and solve persistent problems of practice. Designed for district and school level leaders, the session highlights a system of division-wide professional learning that provides ongoing job-embedded opportunities for central office and school administrators. Leaders in this district are not only learning about Improvement Science – they are living it, using disciplined inquiry to address real-world problems, enhance equity, and improve student outcomes. Participants will examine how these professional learning experiences build leadership capacity, foster networked learning communities, and accelerate meaningful change across schools and the district.

Mississippi captured national attention with its dramatic gains in literacy. Building on this momentum, eight Mississippi school districts have launched a bold regional improvement effort focused on boosting math proficiency. In partnership with the University of Mississippi National Center of School University Partnerships and supported by experienced Student Education leadership coaches, these districts are working to make the complex simple by learning to apply improvement processes, developing powerful peer networks, and cultivating the habits of high-performing teams to solve shared challenges in math achievement.

This session invited educational leaders and practitioners to explore how strategic collaboration across systems can lead to scalable, sustainable change. Participants will hear how these districts are using improvement cycles to uncover what works, spread effective practices, and build a culture of continuous improvement. Join us to discover how Mississippi's story is not just a miracle - but a replicable model.