Case Study
Do and Do Better
A new case study from Redstone Strategy Group unpacks how how Baltimore City Public Schools is succeeding with high-quality curricula through implementation and improvement science.
Over the last five years, City Schools has applied lessons from both implementation and improvement science – both formally and informally – in its use of math and English Language Arts curricula. The district is among the nation’s 50 largest, with one of the highest shares of students who are Black, Latino, or experiencing poverty. Although it is still early, the district is seeing encouraging improvements and “larger jumps in test scores than many school systems in the state” (Bowie 2020).
Weaving the practices together for transformation
Cultural emphases:
- Implementation benefits from a demand for urgent, large change; improvement, a commitment to ongoing, evolutionary change.
Team structures:
- Cross-district coherence is vital whether defining roles for implementation or integrating improvement into existing roles.
Timing:
- Staggering the introduction of implementation and improvement science can maximize the impact of each approach
External partners:
- Communicative and coherent partnerships are key to getting the most out of improvement and implementation science.
