by Rohini McKee, Associate Partner, Strategic Initiatives
Rohini introduces The Learning Lab and the ways in which school improvement teams can use the lab to adopt continuous improvement practices.
It’s with great excitement that we introduce you to Catalyst:Ed’s Learning Lab for School Improvement Teams! We know leaders and educators like you are interested in integrating networked improvement practices into their work. The Learning Lab is a place where you can access equity-centered resources, guidance, and an interactive reflection tool. The Learning Lab builds on Catalyst:Ed’s experience working with numerous school improvement networks to help schools, systems, and collective impact intermediaries launch, deepen, and sustain their work.
There are four primary ways that teams interested in adopting improvement practices can use the lab to reflect, learn, and get help:
1. Framework for Improvement Teams (FIT): The FIT is an equity-centered, practical, action-oriented framework that helps improvement teams like yours understand the capacities necessary to successfully lead an improvement network. This framework has 17 capacities organized into five capacity groups:
- Continuous Improvement
- Network Initiation, Management, and Support
- Measurement and Data for Improvement
- Inclusive Culture
- Leadership Support
2. Custom Blueprint: The FIT is the foundation of an interactive exercise that can help you reflect on your strengths and areas for growth. Based on your responses, we will generate a custom report or “Blueprint” for you that explains how organizations like yours strengthen their improvement work, surfaces equity considerations, identifies resources, and suggests how you can get help from a provider to build your capacity.
3. Resource Library: Our library contains a curated set of resources, contributed by leaders in the field, to support your improvement journey. It’s a mix of videos, templates, tools, and documentation, categorized by capacity areas. Over time, this library will grow.
4. Request Support: Expert support can help you build capacity more easily. We can connect you with our network of rigorously vetted providers who bring the skills, experience and tools you need to build your team’s capacity for improvement work. You can also browse a set of sample projects to get a sense of what the work might look like.
So what are you waiting for?
Create an account and start exploring the Learning Lab for School Improvement Teams today!
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