IMPROVING FOR IMPACT AND EQUITY: VOICES OF THE IMPROVER COMMUNITY - report

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by James

Improving for Impact and Equity: Voices of the Improver Community documents how educators and improvement practitioners use continuous improvement and improvement science to pursue ambitious goals. Drawing on reflections from more than 300 people gathered in spring 2023 through surveys, interviews, video responses, and focus groups, the report highlights shared challenges, decision points, and learning from outcomes. It maps emerging common needs, including the pursuit of more equitable results and deeper integration of improvement practices into education systems.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages53

Reading Time2 h 14 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Purpose of the report

Story collection and methods

What emerged across responses

REPORT IMPROVING FOR IMPACT AND EQUITY: VOICES OF THE IMPROVER COMMUNITY Authors: Barbara Shreve Kelly McMahon Erika Nielsen Andrew ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors are very grateful to the following individuals, whose perspectives and insights informed the development of this paper: Ben Daley, President, High Tech High Graduate School of Education; Alicia Dixon, Executive Director, Marcus Foster Education Institute; Jon Dolle, Director Improvement Science, WestEd; Pat Greco, Senior Director Thought Leadership, Studer Education; Nikki Giunta, Chief of Staff, New Visions for Public Schools; Brandi Hinnant-Crawford, Associate Professor, Clemson University; Aurora Kushner, Director of Impact and Continuous Improvement, NYC Outward Bound Schools; Adelric McCain, Senior Director of Transformation and Impact, Network for College Success at The University of Chicago; David Montes De Oca, Chief of Improvement, CORE Districts; and Claire Silva, Project Support Coach, Fairfax County Public Schools. We also want to thank those who engaged in deep-dive interviews that allowed for greater depth. The contours of expertise and experience these people generously offered helped with framing this report: Jorge Aguilar, Anthony Bryk, Brandi Hinnant-Crawford, Louis Gomez, Alicia Grunow, Uchenna Lewis, Alderic McCain, Emily Pallin, Sandra Park, Sam Purdy, Thomas Rochowicz, Sonja Santelises, Diane Tavenner, Tammy Unck, and Karen Zeribi. Much gratitude, too, goes to Carnegie colleagues who contributed to this effort including Jon Norman, who helped with research design and instrument development. We received invaluable feedback on drafts from Paul LeMahieu and support from Ash Vasudeva. We want to thank staff from Results Lab who were collaborators in this work, including Kymberly Byrd, Cailtin McAteer, Michael Tuffiash, and Natalia Yavich. Credit for the data visualizations in this report goes to Amelia Kohm from Data Viz; we are grateful for her partnership and talent. Thank you also to Kathleen Ryan Jackson, Implementation Specialist with the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for her support in feedback sessions and encouraging Summit participants to share their stories. Without the generosity of time and spirit of all the aforementioned, this work would not have been possible. This report was generously supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. We want to thank Jennifer Husbands, Senior Program Officer, for her infectious enthusiasm, endless problem solving and valued collaboration on the Voices of the Improvers Project and The Carnegie Summit on Improvement in Education. We gratefully acknowledge the investments in improvement work in education. The suggested citation for this report: Shreve, B., McMahon, K., Nielsen Andrew, E. (2023) . Improving for Impact and Equity: Voices of the Improver Community. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: Stanford, CA. This report can be found online. CARNEGIE FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF TEACHING IMPROVING FOR IMPACT AND EQUITY: VOICES OF THE IMPROVER COMMUNITY | 2 INTRODUCTION By telling personal stories of challenges we have faced, choices we have made, and what we learned from the outcomes, we become more mindful of our own moral resources and, at the same time, share our wisdom so as to inspire others. Because stories enable us to communicate our values not as abstract principles, but as lived experience, they have the power to move others. —Marshall Ganz 1 Ten years after the first Summit on Improvement in Education, we at the Carnegie Foundation, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, wanted to understand the experiences, values, and aspirations of the growing group of people using continuous improvement and improvement science to pursue ambitious aims in their work. In the still-young field of i

FAQs

What is the purpose of the report?

The report uses personal stories to help the improvement community make sense of where it is now and what it needs next to keep improving improvement practice.

How were stories collected for this report?

In spring 2023, more than 300 people shared reflections through a survey, interviews, user-generated video reflections, or focus group conversations.

What themes do participants emphasize in their improvement work?

Participants discuss challenges they address, how their work changes through using improvement, and why they continue relying on improvement science to reach their goals.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by James