How do you eat a whole elephant?

Three options for tackling a school improvement plan

School improvement consultants and coaches often play a vital role in guiding leaders and leadership teams through education improvement processes. These processes involve analyzing data to identify and prioritize needs, selecting strategies for improvement, and planning how to implement and monitor the success of those strategies.

It can be overwhelming for leaders when faced with an improvement plan, as the strategies are often multifaceted and complex. Leaders may struggle with where to begin, especially when combined with initiative fatigue and the numerous priorities teachers and leaders already juggle. This overwhelm can lead to overextended staff, thinly stretched resources, and minimal progress.

Thankfully, there are strategic and tactical choices available for school leaders, providing them with a guide on how to approach “eating the elephant”—or in other words, tackling a large and intricate systemic change.

1. The Panorama Approach

Overwhelmed when faced with a large improvement plan, most leadership teams and coaches proceed with what they assume is their only choice: Do a big kickoff professional development (PD) session, tell everyone about the implementation expectations, and commit to the slow, steady work over the course of a school year. We call this the panorama approach.

The panorama approach can be effective if properly executed, with strong lines of communication established, check points built in, and considerations taken to help prevent burnout.

Consequently, this can lead to a scattered focus where individuals prioritize different elements of the improvement plan throughout the year. This also makes it difficult to track which parts of the effort are being implemented successfully and whether they are truly improving student outcomes.

2. The Pilot Approach

A second option for undertaking a large and complex improvement plan is the pilot approach—selecting a small subset of staff who are likely to successfully implement the change. Leaders provide extensive support to this pilot group to learn more about what it takes for individuals to successfully implement the changes and improve outcomes. The pilot group members, in return, offer their insights and reflections so that leaders can deepen their understanding of what it will take to scale implementation to the whole system.

The pilot approach can be effective by providing lessons learned during the pilot phase that help leaders understand what resources they will need to scale implementation and give extra time to access and organize those resources. It can be effective if there are limited resources (i.e., coaching, PD time) to support early implementation efforts. To be effective, the pilot approach must include an intentional effort to capture, document, and incorporate lessons learned into a subsequent systemwide effort.

One drawback of the pilot approach is that it can reinforce the notion that participation in an improvement plan is optional.

3. The Fractal Approach

Leaders can also consider what Parsley and Galvin (2008) called the fractal approach. A fractal is a geometric pattern that is reproducible at any magnification or reduction within the whole. This approach involves selecting an element of a larger improvement plan and implementing it with all staff over a short and defined period. This provides a vehicle for applying the improvement process and practicing it in a complete but focused way.

Since a fractal improvement plan is manageable in scope and completed in a short period of time, it offers an opportunity to:

• build momentum with an early win
• collectively take on an element of a larger improvement plan
• learn what it takes to mobilize the entire staff
• build systems for change that will serve subsequent efforts
• test whether an improvement plan achieves expected results before going ‘all in’
• generate early measurable outcomes across the system
• and build collective efficacy.

This approach works best when an improvement plan can be broken down into bite-size goals that build on each other sequentially.

The fractal approach is less effective for simple technical changes.

A digital tool

To help you select the best change tactic for your improvement plan

To help you determine which of these approaches will yield the best results for your change initiative, we created the digital tool below.

Leaders and implementers benefit from taking the time to assess and select the change tactic that best fits the change initiative. The tool lists examples of common change initiatives and the estimated likelihood of success when using different change tactics.

When selecting your change tactic, don’t forget to also consider:

• whether the change being made focuses more on technical aspects (such as systems and processes) or adaptive aspects (such as people and behaviors)
• if there is a specific timeline in mind or if implementation can be more flexible
• the amount of resources (funding, personnel, etc.) necessary to effectively implement the change
• who the appropriate stakeholders are and if they feel a sense of ownership in the change process
• the level of certainty in how well the change fits with your school’s values, culture, and overall vision