What You Pay Attention To Grows in Baltimore, Maryland
Client · Baltimore City Public Schools’ Office of Continuous Improvement
The Office of Continuous Improvement is a growing team within the district’s Office of the Chief of Staff that was formed to support strategic efforts to improve outcomes for students by partnering with content offices to apply continuous improvement methods.
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Situation
The 9th Grade On Track to Graduate Network is engaged in a comprehensive research and development initiative aimed at improving the academic outcomes of 9th-grade students, with the ultimate goal of improving their overall success in high school. This ambitious project involves the collaboration of 13 schools within the district, forming a network that collectively designs and tests various routines, processes, and tools to support educators in their mission to promote student success. The leadership team overseeing this effort recognized the importance of rapidly acquiring knowledge alongside the participating schools, as they anticipated the possibility of quick expansion. They desired for their approach to be centered around leveraging the firsthand experiences of the diverse range of schools within the district, enabling them to capture the wide array of variations and unique challenges present in each educational environment.
SDL was hired to support analytics and learning for the improvement effort while building capability in the leadership team to sustain theory-based learning on their own.
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Approach
Our approach involved providing extensive support to the leadership team in creating and refining their learning strategy, ensuring its alignment with an adaptive process. We worked closely together to co-create and continually improve a robust data collection system, enabling us to gather comprehensive and valuable information throughout the entire project. Actively participating in crucial events and activities at the participating schools, we diligently captured relevant data while the team led the initiatives. This data, which encompassed both quantitative and qualitative insights, underwent meticulous analysis to extract meaningful conclusions and identify significant patterns. We then consolidated these valuable learnings into actionable recommendations and strategies. Furthermore, we facilitated collective sense-making among a diverse team comprising the leadership team, researchers, district leaders, and other support providers. Through collaborative discussions and the sharing of knowledge, we fostered a shared understanding that informed decision-making and propelled the success of the endeavor.
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Impact
The leadership team now has a learning loop process they can continue to manage independently.
“[SDL has] analyzed our network data and put together intentional and reflective learning team meetings. They built an infrastructure of routines for our team, beginning with a process for developing a strategy, straight through to the meeting routines needed to keep the work flowing. As a result, we have developed a strong cadence of meetings and routines between those meetings.
We have become a high-functioning team. Our team has learned how to be thoughtful when designing events and experiences for school-based staff. This has come from SDL’s ability to be human-centered, as well as intentional and empathetic in their approach to working with clients.”
