ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Leadership in Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1566862
This article is part of the Research TopicEducational Leaders’ Perceptions of and Experience with the Improvement Science ApproachView all 3 articles
Preparing improvement teams to manage complex change: A cross comparison of schools in a continuous improvement program
Provisionally accepted
- University of Denver, Denver, United States
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This study is a cross-case comparison of three cohorts of teams of educators implementing a continuous improvement program in partnership between a university and a district. Using interviews, document analysis, and observation, the researchers looked within and across cohorts to determine how the teams applied the continuous improvement process to their work. Using a complex systems change framework, this study explored the relationship between the program structure and content and the implementation of an improvement process at the schools, including the challenges and benefits of applying the process. By providing the components to manage complex change, this program was able to help schools report benefits of (a) deliberate, deep, and intentional change, (b) within school and across school learning and collaboration, (c) shifting mental models and mindsets, and (d) greater collective responsibility for improvement by mitigating the challenges of (a) the tension between the time available and the complexity of the process, (b) the alignment between the process and district priorities resulting in competing priorities, and (c) the capability to spread the learning school-wide.
Keywords: improvement science1, Design Thinking2, liberatory design3, change management4, continuous improvement5, school improvement6
Received: 25 Jan 2025; Accepted: 15 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Anderson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Erin Anderson, University of Denver, Denver, United States
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