Chapter 7: Measuring School Capacity for Continuous Improvement

Recent accountability policies have heightened pressure for school leaders to use data to improve student achievement school wide (e.g., NCLB, 2001). Similarly, professional licensure standards call on school leaders to “collect and use data to identify goals, assess organization effectiveness, and promote orga nizational learning” (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2008, p. 14). While accountability policies have led to substantial data about student performance (Colyvas, 2012), little data is collected on the organizational conditions that school leaders would need to change to foster continuous improvement (Anderson, Leithwood, & Strauss, 2010; Halverson, 2010). Continuous improvement requires school leaders to articulate a vision for improved instruction and student learning and to develop systems for collecting, analyzing, and acting upon information that supports them in realizing this vision (Fullan, 2007; Hawley & Sykes, 2007). This information must go beyond data on student achievement and include data on factors that are both related to enhanced student performance and can be influenced by school leaders (Leithwood, Patten, & Jantzi, 2010).