Improvement Science in Education
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Improvement Science in Education

A Primer

Brandi Nicole Hinnant-Crawford

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eBook - ePub

Improvement Science in Education

A Primer

Brandi Nicole Hinnant-Crawford

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About This Book

"This is an important book for educators who seek to use scientific means for solving all kinds of problems—particularly problems of educational equity. It addresses problems of practice, from instructional problems to organizational problems, and the nature of problems in general. As described by Hinnant-Crawford, improvement science will serve as a useful framework to undergird our continuous improvement efforts to alleviate inequities in education."Gloria Ladson-Billings, PhD, President, National Academy of Education Fellow, American Academy of Arts & Sciences; Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin, Madison

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Year
2020
ISBN
9781975503574
SECTION THREE
What Change Might
I Introduce and Why?
How Will I Know the Change
Is an Improvement?
In 2012, the American Educational Research Association’s theme for their annual meeting was: Non Satis Scire—to know is not enough. After you have defined your problem and you know its root cause, or you know the normal variation in outcomes and processes in your organization, that is not enough to improve. Knowing is essential, but knowledge of the problem alone will not improve it.
The succeeding section of this text deals with the latter two essential questions:
‱How do I know a change is an improvement?
‱What change might I introduce, and why?
As stated in the previous section, the order of the essential questions is inconsequential, but normally, How will I know a change is an improvement? is depicted before What change might I introduce and why? The first question operationalizes what it means to improve. Answering the second question, what change you might introduce and why, means you understand what might work in your context. That is the question we will take up first in chapter 5.
The principles that guide these chapters do not map onto the essential questions in a one-to-one manner. These questions bleed through several principles. Seeing the system is vital for determining what changes could work in your context. However, developing a theory of improvement is both a part of seeing the system and developing practical measurements. Practical measurement operationalizes your theory and helps you uncover if a change is really an improvement. In the next three chapters, we will uncover tools and strategies to help you answer both those questions during the improvement process.
In Part III of the primer, we get to the heart of improvement science, the Plan-Do-Study-Act method. Its iterative nature reminds me of Ella Baker and her declaration that, “We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.” Improvement is not a “one shot and you are finished.” Addressing wicked problems in complex systems requires an iterative approach and relentless persistence toward the goal.
The final chapter deals with accelerating improvement through the use of networks. Networking and sharing ideas prioritize collaboration over competition. This section challenges you to approach problems of practice in unconventional ways, ways that would revolutionize our ability to improve.
CHAPTER FIVE
Using a Wide-Angle Lens
Seeing the System Producing Your Outcomes
Thanks to the advent of the smartphone and DLSR cameras, everyone is a photographer now. You can zoom in and zoom out and move around to capture the perfect photo. Those who used to shoot with Canons and Nikons less than 20 years ago and those who take photos professionally know the importance of selecting the correct lens to capture the shot. A telephoto lens can give the illusion of subjects far away being close, and can let you blur out some unnecessary detail, so only your subject is in focus. On the other hand, a wide-angle lens can give you a wide view of a scene, with lots of details. When it comes to understanding problems of practice, a telephoto lens alone will not allow you to see the necessary information to make decisions about how to improve. A wide-angle lens is a necessity—because you need to see with clarity the entire system that produces the results. Individuals are like telephoto lenses, but collaboration can lead you to a wide-angle view of your system.
Your perspective through your telephoto lens has allowed you to see the symptoms of the problem. By being user-centered and problem specific and by paying attention to variation (principles 1 and 2) you may have identified some root causes and determined if the cause was a common cause or special cause. Your attention to variation has led you to understand your system’s normal outputs. In this chapter, I will advise you to zoom out, so you can see and understand the system that produces your problem of practice. The third principle of improvement science is to see the system producing the results. More specifically, this chapter acknowledges the complexity of educational institutions and the difficulty of determining cause and effect (problem and solution) in complex organizations. As you address problems of practice in your organization, you must continuously ask yourself: How is our organization (policies, procedures, practices, priorities, personnel) contributing to the problem of practice (intentionally or unintentionally)?
In this chapter, I will introduce you to a number of tools to help scaffold your ability to view your organization with a wide-angle lens. We will explore the nature of complexity, systems thinking, and how failure to consider your system’s complexity will lead to great ideas for change that will have unintended consequences. This chapter also explores some of our most vexing educational problems, such as the opportunity gap, as the result of intersecting complex systems.
Educational Systems
Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.
—Central Law of Improvement
I view inequality in educational outcomes as a learning problem of institutional actors—faculty members, administrators, counselors, and others—rather than as a learning problem of students, the more typical interpretation.
—
Estela Maria Bensimon (2005, p. 100)
When Horace Mann took great steps to start the common school movement, he envisioned an organizational structure that would provide all citizens with the basic skills and knowledge to be able to participate in the democracy. Hochschild and Scovronick (2010) talk about the dual functions of public education—to educate a citizen, but also to train in personal functions, such as to be able to sustain oneself, also to help with self-actualization and the realization of one’s own potential. What we have, though, is the system John Dewey prophesied about in the early 20th century, where you have a system that educates some into masters and others into slaves. Despite Horace Mann’s intent when the common schools were created, they were not created for everyone. The history of exclusion of certain groups in education has been well-documented elsewhere (Ladson-Billings, 2006). But as we have tried to integrate others into a system that was not created for them, we have witnessed differential outcomes among these different groups.
The central law of improvement is that every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets (Langley et al., 2009). What is that telling you? It is saying the school system in the United States of America is designed for impoverished children to underachieve, for children of color to be overrepresented in special education and underrepresented in gifted education, for children of color and LGBTQ students to be disproportionately disciplined and excluded. As you ask questions about what works, for whom, and under what circumstances, in the case of education, you may see the system works best for those for whom it was designed.
We often identify students from traditionally minoritized or underserved communities as at-risk. If a student has been retained in elementary grades, they are considered at-risk for dropping out. If a student at the community college is placed into remedial courses, they are described as at-risk for never getting into a curricular (associates degree) program. If a student is a conditional admit at the university, they are designated at-risk during their probationary period. Edmund Gordon (1999) explains that the conception of at-risk is a misnomer, and at-risk is not an adjective of the student, but tells you more about the environment. Gordon articulates, “Being at-risk of failure may be an iatrogenic condition; that is, it may be more appropriately conceptualized as a condition of circumstance brought on by the failure or incapacity of the developmental environment to support the needs of the developing person” (1999, p. 35). Individuals are not at-risk; environments are risk inducing. You take the same at-risk student and put them in some alternative environment, they may excel whereas you may feel at-risk. How are systems that are conducive to the education of some risk inducing to the education of others?
The current educational system is perfectly designed for the results it produces. What does that mean? What does that mean for educators who desire to close gaps in opportunities, and help all students realize their full potential? It means when looking for changes or solutions, one cannot be narrowly focused but should look at the entire system that creates these results. And that requires systems thinking.
Systems Thinking
Part of Deming’s Profound Knowledge was an appreciation for systems. But what exactly is systems thinking? In his well-known book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of Learning Organizations, Peter Senge defines systems thinking as, “a discipline for seeing the ‘structures’ that underlie complex situations, and for discerning high from low leverage change” (2006, p. 69). Senge goes on to say that systems thinking is about training our minds to see the integrated whole instead of disconnected parts.
image
As stated in the previous chapter, a system is made up of interconnected parts bound by some shared aim. Systems theory goes into greater detail than Deming’s simplified definition about what makes a system. A system is more than the sum of its parts. This is often referred to as holism or emergence; the system becomes something greater than the sum of its parts. Eggs, sugar, flour, butter, milk, and heat are all things you can find in a kitchen. Each is useful on its own. But when combined correctly, cake emerges. Cake is something different from just the ingredients in a bowl. Sullivan (2011) explains that in complex systems, “emergence disguises cause and effect” (para. 2).
Systems can be described as complicated or complex. Complicated systems have different moving parts, but those parts “operate in patterned ways” (Sargut & McGrath, 2011, para. 7). Furthermore, in a complicated system, “one can usually predict outcomes by knowing the starting conditions. In a complex system, the same starting conditions can produce different outcomes, depending on the interactions of the elements in the system” (Sargut & McGrath, 2011, para. 8). A system’s complexity is a function of the multiplicity (number) of components, the diversity or heterogeneity of its components, and their interdependence. The more they depend on each other, the greater the necessity for cooperation. The more diverse they are, sometimes the more difficult it becomes for each component to understand the function and needs of the other.
In universities, there are often two major systems operating simultaneously to support students: academic affairs and student affairs. Often, people on one side of the house (academic affairs) know very little about the other side of the house (student affairs). Yet, if a student is underperforming because she is housing-insecure and is concerned about the closing of school during spring break, it would probably take academic interventions to pull up her grades, as well as student affairs (housing, student support services, counseling, etc.) interventions to ensure her well-being. Two separate components that are heterogeneous, being run by different individuals with different priorities, that are both essential for the success of the university—this comprises a complex system.
This principle says we must see the system that produces the results, which requires systems thinking. Senge argues there are two major components of systems thinking—seeing interrelationships and seeing processes—where you are socialized to see cause and effects chains snapshots. This is a shift of mind and must be intentional. Our failure to see systems leads to deficit understandi...

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