Continuous Improvement

 A continuous improvement process is systematic and aligned.  Engaging in this process encourages assessment of needs, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.  Comprehensive strategic planning informs district systems to support school level implementation. Benefits of a continuous improvement process include:

  • Bringing together pre-populated data in one location to facilitate needs assessment process
  • Providing a continuous improvement process focused on the whole child
  • Providing evidence-based practice guidance
  • Providing alignment across compliance requirements resulting in time savings – allowing greater focus on improved student outcomes
  • A highly functional multi-year cycle of continuous improvement, reducing reporting
The process that works for an individual child, parallels the process that works for the school system.  Note the relationship between the "Collaborative Problem Solving Approach" and the new process rolled out by MDE at the Fall School Improvement Conference.
The process begins with assessing your needs which should inform a continuous improvement plan that articulates the vital behaviors of implementation for staff to support and monitor throughout the year.  Towards the end of the year, strategies should be evaluated for fidelity and the impact on the whole child.  These stages overlap each other and tend to be more complex and less linear in nature.

Supporting pages for requirements 

Needs Assessment (complete throughout the school year) consists of the Comprehensive Needs Assessment (Demographic, Process, Perception, & Achievement data)

Continuous Improvement Plan (complete mid-May) at both the district and school level, articulating the vital behaviors in response to our assessed needs.

Implementation with fidelity using principals from implementation science and tools such as implementation guides.

Monitoring and supporting the vital behaviors found in the continuous improvement plans.

Evaluating state and federal programs using the Program Evaluation Tool (PET) or the compact version.  

Annual Education Report (Due lpikely in Jan or Feb)