Collaborative Continuous Improvement Practices

Research about organizational improvement has come from several disciplines--business management, organizational sociology, communications, and education. Across these fields, much of the research involves case studies of effective organizations (e.g., Collins, 2001; Johnson, 1996). Review of these case studies suggests several commonalities among organizations that have been effective at making systemic improvement through the collaborative continuous improvement practices that engage organizations and other stakeholders. Among these common practices are: (1) cultivating a shared vision; (2) focusing on agreed upon set of goals; (3) using evidence-based theory to practice; (4) developing and maintaining alliances; (5) fostering the on-going use of data; and (6) deploying a strategy for scaling-up the work. Because of the supposed benefits of collaborative improvement, state education agencies and other funders encourage and incentivize these types of initiatives (Blanton & Pugach, 2007; Blanton, Pugach, & Boveda, 2014; Fixsen, et at., (2013)).