Leading Equity-focused Inquiry for Continuous School Improvement

This book offers a roadmap for conducting continuous school improvement work, illustrating the common stages of the process.

Using improvement science principles and an equity perspective, this book demonstrates how schools and districts can increase their efficacy and how teachers and leaders can improve their practice for the benefit of all students. Through eight case studies representing a variety of K–12 school and community settings, the authors address a range of critical student needs in literacy, math, special education, and social learning. Each case describes how the leaders and their staff engaged in careful exploration of specific problems and their causes, as well as their thoughtful development and testing of solutions. The text analyzes how the leaders, their teachers, and other staff gained collaborative inquiry capacities and reduced inequities to improve student outcomes, particularly for those most challenged. Each case concludes with leaders’ reflections and discussion questions to prompt others engaging in similar work. A summative chapter reflects on the leadership lessons for equity-focused improvement efforts.

Book Features:

• Explains how school leaders used improvement-science–informed processes to address common problems of practice.
• Offers a roadmap for conducting continuous school improvement work, illustrating the common stages of the process.
• Provides cases from a diverse range of school and district settings, including urban and suburban schools; elementary, middle, and high schools; and specialized schools.
• Illustrates each case study with fishbone and driver diagrams and Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles.
• Includes reflection and discussion questions appropriate for individual readers, education courses, and book study groups.

Margaret Terry Orr is professor and chair of the Division of Educational Leadership, Administration and Policy at Fordham University and director of its EdD program in educational leadership.