Arizona Network for School Improvement
In the fall of 2019, the Arizona Network for School Improvement (Arizona NSI), a Gates Foundation grant partnership between Access ASU and Be A Leader Foundation, reached out to the Design Initiatives team for support on training and facilitation on Continuous Improvement processes.
Backstory
In the fall of 2019, the Arizona Network for School Improvement (Arizona NSI), a Gates Foundation grant partnership between Access ASU and Be A Leader Foundation, reached out to the Design Initiatives team for support on training and facilitation on Continuous Improvement processes. The goal of the Arizona NSI grant is to increase well-matched postsecondary enrollment rates for Black, Latino, and low-income students, and the grant leadership team asked for our help to create a training program on Continuous Improvement for their improvement coaching staff. These improvement coaches would use skills developed through the training to develop a network for school improvement with 23 schools across three local school districts in the Phoenix metro area, serving more than 14,000 students.
What we did
As we were developing our lesson plans for the improvement coaches, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, which meant we had to move our work to a remote setting. Although this created constraints, we considered ways to deliver engaging content and an interactive experience that would allow the coaches to work with tools of continuous improvement in a virtual setting.
Using a combination of slide presentations and Mural collaboration boards, we were able to offer the coaches a virtual space where we could walk through the concepts and tools of Continuous Improvement and then give the coaches the ability to work either individually or in teams with mock scenarios.
Recognizing that this was a new experience for everyone, we had to acknowledge the learning curve in the level of sophistication of the initial exercises, with progressive exercises in the Mural boards adding greater levels of complexity in their interactions.
Partners
Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College staff
Principled Innovation team
Date
February 2020 - presentRelated resources
Blog posts
Designing an engaging online learning experience for continuous improvement practices
In late 2019, the OofSI team was approached by Access ASU and Be A Leader Foundation about an opportunity to provide training to a group of newly hired coaches who would be working with schools in multiple school districts.