A Framework for Cohesive School Improvement

Integrating School Improvement Plans, Evidence Use, and Resources

Many school educators struggle to reconcile the onslaught of mandatory and competing, top-down policies. Educators must merge policies into a singular plan that reflects the local stakeholders’ goals and values.

Given the federal and state accountability movement, schools are forced to build capacity around the use of on-site data and research literature to study if interventions are improving outcomes. For capacity building and to implement reform, schools must have the appropriate resources and understand how to distribute them equitably. Therefore, available resources and their distribution must be tracked alongside the progress of interventions.

The purpose of this evidence-based practice article is to integrate these discrete areas of research literature into a framework that educators can follow for cohesive school improvement.