Teaching Improvement Science in Educational Leadership

“Though other books and publications exist that present and discuss improvement science (many of which are cited throughout the series), the Improvement Science in Education series exhibits the most comprehensive coverage of improvement science currently available. Crow, Hinnant-Crawford, and Spaulding have curated a collection of books that showcases the breadth and depth of improvement science appealing to a variety of audiences, regardless of backgrounds, expertise, and readiness levels. . . Certainly, improvement science is a challenging undertaking, but this series empowers those ready and willing to try.”

Review by Christopher Benedetti for Impacting Education: Journal on Transforming Professional Practice, Vol. 8 No. 3 (2023)

“Teaching Improvement Science in Educational Leadership is an essential pedagogic resource for anyone involved in the preparation and continued professional education of teacher, school, or system leaders. The authors are themselves leaders in the teaching of Improvement Science and in mentoring the application of the improvement principles to redressing racial and class inequities. They share here valuable lessons from their own teaching and improvement efforts.”

Anthony S. Bryk, Immediate past-president, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Author, "Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better"

“Teaching Improvement Science in Educational Leadership: A Pedagogical Guide, edited by Spaulding, Crow and Hinnant-Crawford, explores ways to teach Improvement Science. It is the fourth book in Myers Education Press’s Improvement Science in Education Series, wherein—in useful detail—several experts in Improvement Science offer a plethora of strategies to teach Improvement Science in higher education classrooms, in school districts and in professional organizations. For practitioners and scholars who are interested in transforming U.S. education for the better, this book is a critically important tool.”

Kofi Lomotey, Bardo Distinguished Professor in Educational Leadership, Western Carolina University

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction
The Need for Curating a Repertoire of Improvement Science Pedagogies 
Dean T. Spaulding, Brandi Nicole Hinnant-Crawford, & Robert Crow

Chapter 1
A Pedagogy for Introducing the Improvement Science Method: The Personal Improvement Project
Robert Crow

Chapter 2
Who Is Involved? Who Is Impacted? Teaching Improvement Science for Educational Justice
Brandi Nicole Hinnant-Crawford, Ricardo Nazario y Colón, & Tacquice Wiggan Davis

Chapter 3
Finding Problems, Asking Questions, and Implementing Solutions: Improvement Science and the EdD
Jill Alexa Perry & Debby Zambo

Chapter 4
Teaching the Design of Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycles Using Improvement Cases
Chad R. Lochmiller

Chapter 5
Embedding Improvement Science in One Principal Licensure Course: Principal Leadership for Equity and Inclusion
Susan P. Carlile & Deborah S. Peterson

Chapter 6
Embedding Improvement Science in Principal Leadership Licensure Courses: Program Designs
Deborah S. Peterson, Susan P. Carlile, Maria Eugenia Olivar, & Cassandra Thonstad

Chapter 7
The Essential Role of Context in Learning to Launch an Improvement Network
Emma Parkerson, Kelly McMahon, & Barbara Shreve

Chapter 8
From Learning to Leading: Teaching Leaders to Apply Improvement Science Through a School–University Partnership
Segun C. Eubanks, Margaret McLaughlin, Jean L. Snell, & Charoscar Coleman

Chapter 9
Empowering Incremental Change Within a Complex System: How to Support Educators to Integrate Improvement Science Principles Across Organizational Levels
Jacqueline Hawkins & Monica Martens

Chapter 10
Aligning Values, Goals, and Processes to Achieve Results
Ryan Carpenter & Kathleen Oropallo

Chapter 11
Toward a Scholarship of Teaching Improvement: Five Considerations to Advance Pedagogy
LaRena Heath, Barbara Shreve, Louis M. Gomez, & Paul G. LeMahieu

About the Authors

Index

NOTE: Table of contents subject to change up until publication date.

Dean T. Spaulding

Dean T. Spaulding is the Vice President and Director of Grant Writng and Program Evaluation with Z Score Inc. He is also former chair of the Teaching Evaluation SIG for the American Evaluation Association. Dr. Spaulding has conducted research for New York State Department of Education, New York State Department of Public Health, and the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH). He has had experience serving as external evaluator on technology-related projects such as state and federal technology catalyst grants PT3: Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology and several Title III Technology Literacy Challenge Grants. He currently serves as external evaluator on a National Science Foundation and a Howard Hughes Foundation grant. Dr. Spaulding is one of the authors of Methods in Educational Research: From Theory to Practice (2010, 2nd edition), Jossey-Bass Wiley, and the author of Program Evaluation in Practice: Core Concepts and Examples for Discussion and Analysis (2014, 2nd edition) Jossey-Bass Wiley. He is also the co-author of Action Research for School Leaders (2012) Pearson, Instructional Coaches and the Instructional Leadership Team (2012) Corwin, and What Does Your School Data Team Sound Like? Strategies to Improve the Conversation Around Data (August, 2018) Corwin.

Robert Crow

Robert Crow, PhD, is an associate professor of educational research at Western Carolina University. His expertise in assessment and evaluation has led to collaborations with other 4-year institutions, community colleges, PK-12 schools, and institutional accreditation agencies such as SACS-COC. Dr. Crow's research interests include assessment and evaluation of student learning and of learning environments.

Brandi Nicole Hinnant-Crawford

Brandi Hinnant-Crawford, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Educational Research at Western Carolina University. As a mixed-methods methodologist, she believes in the complementary nature of quantitative and qualitative research, and seeks to use research in transformative ways (such as with improvement science). Dr. Hinnant-Crawford’s work has been published in diverse venues such as Urban Education, the Journal for Multicultural Education, and Black Theology. She holds a PhD from Emory University in Educational Studies, a master’s degree in Urban Education Policy from Brown University, and bachelor’s degrees in English and Communication (media concentration) from North Carolina State University. While she loves research and teaching, her first priority is being the mother of her seven-year-old twins, Elizabeth Freedom and Elijah Justice Crawford.