Measuring to Improve: Practical Measurement to Support Continuous Improvement in Education

A first-in-field compilation of best practices for the design and implementation of practical measurement for improvement in K-12 education

In Measuring to Improve, Paul G. LeMahieu, Paul Cobb, and contributors introduce educational practitioners, administrators, and policymakers to the foundational elements of practical measurement to support continuous improvement efforts in K–12 schools. They begin by defining practical measurement as data collection and analysis that is relevant to practice, useful to practitioners, and designed to guide and even be integrated into practice. LeMahieu and Cobb discuss the importance of practical measurement as it relates to and informs the core principles of improvement science. 

Contributors present five detailed case studies of practical measurement in action across a variety of contexts and improvement efforts in districts throughout the United States. The outcomes of these research-practice partnerships show how solutions to issues—including increasing high school graduation rates, improving college entrance rates, redesigning mathematics instruction, enhancing student literacy and writing skills, and redressing systemic inequities—can be informed by practical measurement. And they describe proven approaches for the design and implementation of measurement systems that align with a validity framework. They provide actionable suggestions for core elements such as tracking, testing, administering exit tickets and surveys, and collaboration.

This useful work provides a blueprint that can guide practitioners in incorporating practical measurement as a central element of educational improvement efforts.

Paul G. LeMahieu is a senior advisor to the president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, on the graduate faculty in education at the University of Hawai‘I at Mānoa, and the former superintendent of education for the State of Hawai‘i. For the past decade, he has researched and written extensively to develop a field of practice that brings networked improvement science into education to rigorously address persistent problems of equity in performance. Paul Cobb is a professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University. His work focuses on improving the quality of mathematics teaching and student learning on a large scale. He is currently involved in a project that is developing practical measures of key aspects of high-quality mathematics and investigating their use as both measures of and supports for instructional improvement.