Improvement Science in Education: A Primer

Improvement Science in Education: A Primer serves a simple but vital purpose: it provides a comprehensive explanation about the field of improvement science to both novices and current practitioners.

Improvement science is a methodological framework that is undergirded by foundational principles that guide scholar/practitioners to define problems, understand how the system produces the problems, identify changes to rectify those problems, test the efficacy of those changes, and spread the changes (assuming that the change is indeed an improvement). This Primer is specifically designed to introduce improvement science to educational audiences. Originally employed in such fields as engineering and health care, it has proven to be a very effective process for improving schools. The book first explores the philosophical and methodological foundations of improvement science, juxtaposing it with traditional forms of research so that clear distinctions can be drawn. It then guides the reader through the process of improvement. By providing many examples of strategies to achieve educational equity, the Primer illustrates the practicality of the method as a way to deal with today’s most pressing problems in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education. It should be adopted in every classroom devoted to the topic.