Grounded in research and theory about what it means to study and radically transform practice, this is a book for any of us who refuse to maintain an inequitable status quo. An edited volume with a seamless analytic core, authors remind us why the work of improvement research cannot wait. As practitioners build new knowledge, mindsets, attitudes, dispositions and skills during increasingly challenging times, this book should be on the bookshelf of every educator, community organizer, politician and policymaker concerned about what it takes to co-construct opportunity centered practices and policies. Building on the best of what we know from empirical research about studying practice for design, new questions are raised and innovative strategies and tools are advanced and amplified. This book addresses a delicate, complex interplay between the individual and the institutional – it teaches as it traverses.
— H. Richard Milner IV, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair of Education, Vanderbilt University
This volume is foundational in establishing the commitments, principles and methods of a new academic field inextricably bound with educational practice. It is foundational in its community of scholars who share common purpose: how the expertise in our nation’s universities can more productively engage in the practical concerns of advancing human betterment. It is foundational in its democratic rootedness that genuine improvements demand engaging the voices of students, educators, parents, and communities. And it is foundational in joining a moral commitment to reimagine a more just and equitable society to the sustained work needed in progressing toward these aspirations day-by-day in every school and community.
— Anthony S. Bryk, Ninth President, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
A tour de force bringing together some of our nation’s leading education scholars, from different sub-fields, to deliberate on a shared commitment - improvement research. The handbook masterfully maps the terrain as it takes the reader on a journey from the foundational ideas that undergird improvement research through the where, the what, and culminating in the how – the actual practice of improvement research. The volume captures how continuous improvement can be a central function of educational systems, supporting learning, teaching, and leadership practice. Together the chapters cogently shift the frame: from research as an input to educational improvement efforts to research as integral to and inside the work of educational improvement. Essential reading for anyone committed to producing useful and usable knowledge for enabling educational quality and equity for all.
— James P. Spillane, Spencer T. & Ann W. Olin Professor in Learning & Organizational Change, Northwestern University
The Foundational Handbook on Improvement Research in Education is a significant body of work that offers a growing field of scholars more examples of the power of applying improvement research to educational practice.
— Jill A. Perry, PhD, Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate
This handbook advances the field of educational research by examining all the contours of “improvement research,” that is research produced and used to support specific contexts. I look forward to using this handbook to justify and guide the development of research produced and used in our research-practice partnerships in California.
— Laura Wentworth, director of research practice partnerships, California Education Partners
