Educators in Actions: Examining Strategic Improvement Efforts

Inspired by APQC's most popular title Closing the Achievement Gap: No Excuses, this book captures success stories and important lessons from districts and campuses across the nation that are making a concerted effort to initiate real and sustainable change. Like hundreds of campuses across the nation, the ten schools highlighted in this book have adapted principles from the plan-do-check-act instructional cycle and it's popular, derivative eight-step process.

Many of the schools have embraced this approach based on the successes of one district, detailed in Closing the Achievement Gap. The story of Texas' Brazosport ISD is one in which students from impoverished and ethnically diverse backgrounds perform up to par with students from wealthier backgrounds, all due to an adjusted mindset in process improvement.

Whereas Closing the Achievement Gap provides an in-depth explanation of how the steps were applied at Brazosport, Educators in Action provides powerful examples of exactly how the process is adapted and how schools can make the eight-step process their own. This book is also compelling evidence that the process can work for any district or campus.

Each chapter in this book tells a unique story, with in-depth profiles of: Marion County Public Schools in Florida, Arizona's Crane Elementary School District, Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia, Saint Paul Public Schools, Roswell Independent School District in New Mexico, Florida's Highlands County Schools, the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp. in Indiana, Fontana Unified School District in California, Horry County School District in South Carolina, and Muscatine High School in Iowa.

Districts, schools, and individual educators can take away valuable findings to adapt to their own classrooms. Most importantly, the chapters cite tangible results that can help educators gain support to initiate real and sustainable improvements.