NETWORK FOR
SCHOOL EXCELLENCE
Educators working together in productive learning activities with their colleagues are more likely to enhance their teaching practice and student learning. Despite the value of collaborative learning among expert educators, schools in Flint continue to operate in silos. The Network for School Excellence is bridging the gap between schools serving Flint students, creating unprecedented partnerships among teachers to ensure that all students in Flint thrive regardless of where they attend school.
WHAT WE DO
The Network for School Excellence enables rigorous development, identification, and dissemination of practical knowledge to address practical problems. Using ideas from improvement science, it engages leaders in identifying, financing, adapting, evaluating, and scaling promising practices for Flint kids to thrive.
The Network for School Excellence is guided by four primary characteristics:
A Well-Specified Aim
The Network for School Excellence engages PreK-6 schools serving high proportions of Flint kids, low-income students, and students of color to improve school readiness and outcomes in literacy and mathematics.
Disciplined by Improvement Science
The Network embraces the core principles of improvement science. Through the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) process, participants learn about what works, for whom, and under what conditions, thereby accelerating improvement.
Guided by Improvement Theory
The Network combats the “solutionist” approach of assigning solutions to issues impacting Flint kids without first deeply understanding the context in which Flint kids experience such issues. Through the Network, leaders take time to deeply understand the problems that limit success for Flint kids and develop practical solutions that are curated to their specific needs.
Coordinated to Accelerate Development
Participants collaborate to rigorously test and refine solutions to a common problem. Network teachers actively implement evidence-based instructional interventions that support the aim and are proven to work for all students, verified through rigorous methodological research.
CURRENT INITIATIVES
OUR IMPACT
