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?
Learn more about tools and techniques related to these guiding questions in the Improvement Science in Education course.
Identify strategies or change ideas
During this stage, you may need to conduct research to identify strategies or change ideas that can help you solve your CCMR problem of practice. Sources for these strategies might include:
Solutions that emerge as district and campus staff analyze data related to the problem of practice.
Interviews with district or campus staff who have expertise related to the problem of practice.
Interviews with people who are impacted by the problem of practice (e.g., students or teachers).
Conversations with other districts who have tackled similar problems of practice. The Understanding CCMR section of this website will feature some strategies that pilot districts have implemented.
Surveys or focus groups with students or staff to generate innovative ideas.
Strategies that have been tested by researchers, with results reported in the academic literature.
Strategies or change ideas that are featured in reports/resources published by federally-funded organizations or non-profit organizations that focus on the problem of practice. Examples could include:
Education Strategy Group’s report on eight of the most predictive indicators of postsecondary preparation, retention, and success
College & Career Readiness & Success Center’s brief on early warning systems
Network for College Success’s Freshman On-Track Toolkit
Jobs for the Future resources related to early college high schools
What Works Clearinghouse practice guide about dropout prevention in high schools
Logic models
Logic models are one approach that can guide program planning, implementation, and evaluation. Logic models are graphic organizers that can help you to define long-term goal(s) to solve your CCMR problem of practice and then outline strategies you might implement to achieve that goal.
In the same way that educators use backward design to develop curriculum, logic models begin with the long-term outcome that you aim to attain. Then, you will work backwards to define short- or medium-term goals that will help you achieve the long-term result. From there, you will work backwards again to outline the activities or strategies that must be implemented to achieve that goal. For example, the graphic below illustrates a long-term goal of increasing the proportion of CCMR-ready graduates in a sample district. There could be multiple intermediate impacts associated with achieving this long-term goal. Thus, a logic model table could have multiple rows, each of which describes different intermediate impacts that are related to the same long-term goal (e.g., increase proportion of students who earn A-F points through: (1) dual credits; (2) OnRamps; and/or (3) IBCs). In this example, one intermediate impact is highlighted--increasing the proportion of students who earn one or more industry-based certifications (IBCs)--along with the strategies the sample district plans to implement in order to achieve that intermediate impact.
Explore templates and completed logic model examples in a resource page created by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.
View a toolkit for logic model design workshops developed by the Regional Education Laboratory Northeast and Islands.
Action plans
Another approach involves developing action plans. After analyzing data from multiple sources that are related to your CCMR problem of practice and coming to a shared understanding of the findings, the next steps in the Data Wise process are to develop an action plan, decide how to assess progress, and implement the action plan. The Data Wise action plan template (pictured below) lists the tasks that must be completed to effectively implement the selected strategy and defines who will be responsible for each task and when the task will be completed. To evaluate progress, the team identifies short-, medium-, and long-term data sources that they will use (see graphic organizer pictured below). After collecting and analyzing data from those data sources, the team can evaluate whether or not the strategy was effective. Based on the evidence from those data sources, the team might celebrate their success, adjust the action plan to improve implementation of the strategy, or choose to implement a different strategy.
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Driver diagrams
Yet another approach involves developing driver diagrams. Driver diagrams are visual representations that help teams to understand what levers or drivers will lead to attainment of the selected goal.
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.
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).
Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles
The Plan-Do-Study-Act process (PDSA) is an iterative, cyclical process through which educators: (1) plan to implement change ideas or strategies; (2) collect data during the implementation process; (3) analyze the data; and (4) decide what to do next based on the findings. These change ideas may be generated from a driver diagram or might emerge from inquiry cycles in which you examine your CCMR problem of practice.
Use the PDSA template created for the Texas Network for School Improvement to plan your PDSA cycle.
View a completed PDSA example.
More detail about implementing PDSA cycles--including a step-by-step protocol--is available in chapter 3 of the NYC DoE Improvement Science handbook (pp. 73-105).
Related resources
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