Once you have developed a deep understanding of your CCMR problem of practice, it is time to begin contemplating solutions. You can use a variety of approaches to identify and implement potential solutions. You might choose to use only one of the approaches described below or you might choose to combine multiple approaches to address the CCMR problem of practice in your district.
Regardless of the approaches that you employ, keep the following six improvement questions in mind during your journey:
Why is your district getting the outcomes it is currently getting?
What specifically are you trying to accomplish?
What changes might you introduce and why?
How will you know if a change is an improvement?
Where can your test your change ideas?
How can you facilitate the spread of an effective change idea?
View a sample Improvement Project Charter Template to guide your work. Learn more about other tools and techniques related to these guiding questions in the Improvement Science in Education course.
Identify strategies or change ideas
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View the Regional Education Laboratory Northeast and Islands video below that describes how to build on the fishbone root cause analysis to develop a driver diagram.
Reference the driver diagram created by the school team in the video and use the template to complete your own driver diagram.
View a driver diagram created by Denver Public Schools. Their aim is that all Black and Latinx students in the district will be prepared for college and careers.
More detail about how to develop driver diagrams--including a step-by-step protocol--is available in chapter 2 of the NYC DoE Improvement Science handbook (pp. 41-71).
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A continuous improvement toolkit, created by the Regional Education Laboratory Northeast and Islands, contains useful tools and information related to fishbone diagrams, driver diagrams, and PDSA cycles.
Improvement Science in Education: a free, online, self-paced course offered by the University of Michigan and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Read Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better.