Use Evaluation to Learn to Improve

Over the past three decades leaders in the business and social sectors, including education, have focused on reform, transformation and improvement. Improvement science has demonstrated that continuous improvement is essential to success.  Leaders in this effort are Anthony Bryk and Louis Gomez and the work of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Bryk and Gomez ground their work in decades of research in the reform efforts of Chicago schools. They, among others, ask “Why have so many reform efforts yielded so little improvement?” This article describes the juncture between continuous improvement and well-designed comprehensive program evaluation and their power to produce positive impact.  Although written from the perspective of K-12 education, the concepts also apply to other social innovation / social impact initiatives. And while much can be said, this article is intended to be a brief practitioners’ overview.  

FINAL Continuous Improvement Takes Well Designed Program Evaluation ARTICLE