Improvement Science in Education

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This course is a part of Leading Educational Innovation and Improvement, a 5-course MicroMasters series from edX.

With roots in industry and in health care, improvement science is a disciplined approach to educational innovation that supports teachers, leaders, and researchers in collaborating to solve specific problems of practice. Improvement science brings discipline and methods to different logics of innovation by integrating:

Problem analysis

Use of research

Development of solutions

Measurement of processes and outcomes

Rapid refinement through plan-do-study-act cycles.

For teachers, school leaders, and system leaders, improvement science moves educational innovation out of the realm of “fad” and into the realm of research-based, evidence-driven continuous improvement, with the goal of increasing the effectiveness of educational practice.

That, in turn, will support schools and systems in responding to calls to improve opportunities to learn and student performance and calls to reduce achievement gaps by improving the day-to-day work students, teachers, and leaders.

In this introduction to improvement science, developed in collaboration with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, learners will explore:

Problem-specific and user-centered design and analysis

Differences in implementation and outcomes as resources for improvement

Improving systems to improve practice

Driving improvement through measurement, evidence, and disciplined inquiry

This course is part of the Leading Educational Innovation and Improvement MicroMasters Program offered by MichiganX.

What you'll learn

• Principles and methods of improvement science in education and other social sectors
• Means of introducing improvement science in schools and systems
• Approaches to accelerating improvement through networked improvement communities